Managing the period between tenant leaving and house being sold ASAP

sclare

I 'inherited' a rental property (not quite inherited, but it's a long story and not really relevant) which has to be sold to meet the deceased's debts. The tenants have moved out, and I've arranged unoccupied property insurance.

I'm now concerned about the other things that need doing. I want to sell the place asap and am not worried about not getting the full market value. How promptly do I have to register and pay council tax/water etc? If I sold within a couple of months or less, how does this all work? Sorting out the utilities etc is my next job. 

I'm new to this whole thing, so am keen to hear how others have managed it. Unfortunately I also don't  live near the property.

molerat

You are The estate is responsible for council tax and utilities from the date the tenants moved out, in what legal capacity are you doing this ?. As it was not the home of the deceased then there is unlikely to be a full council tax exemption and there will be at least standing charges on the utilities. Doing it as soon as possible could save some problems down the line.  I do hope you obtained accurate meter reads from the date the tenants moved out.

sclare

To clarify without going into the long story, the deceased and I were joint tenants and the property reverted to me by survivorship. But at least half the value needs to go to her debt.

I will check with the lettings agent that the meters were read.

Tallulah_Chicken

If you were joint tenants and not tenants in common, then the property is now yours absolutely. It doesn't form part of the estate and you cannot be made to sell it to pay their debts. 

ReadySteadyPop

Tallulah_Chicken said:

If you were joint tenants and not tenants in common, then the property is now yours absolutely. It doesn't form part of the estate and you cannot be made to sell it to pay their debts. 

Good point, but I thought there were other tenants who have just moved out?

sgthammer

ReadySteadyPop said:

Tallulah_Chicken said:

If you were joint tenants and not tenants in common, then the property is now yours absolutely. It doesn't form part of the estate and you cannot be made to sell it to pay their debts. 

Good point, but I thought there were other tenants who have just moved out?

This is confusing two meanings of the word tenant. The people who moved out were renting and didn't have an ownership stake in the property.

ReadySteadyPop

sgthammer said:

ReadySteadyPop said:

Tallulah_Chicken said:

If you were joint tenants and not tenants in common, then the property is now yours absolutely. It doesn't form part of the estate and you cannot be made to sell it to pay their debts. 

Good point, but I thought there were other tenants who have just moved out?

This is confusing two meanings of the word tenant. The people who moved out were renting and didn't have an ownership stake in the property.

Ok, I thought the more correct term would have been "joint-owners"?

Emmia

ReadySteadyPop said:

sgthammer said:

ReadySteadyPop said:

Tallulah_Chicken said:

If you were joint tenants and not tenants in common, then the property is now yours absolutely. It doesn't form part of the estate and you cannot be made to sell it to pay their debts. 

Good point, but I thought there were other tenants who have just moved out?

This is confusing two meanings of the word tenant. The people who moved out were renting and didn't have an ownership stake in the property.

Ok, I thought the more correct term would have been "joint-owners"?

But that would then provoke the joint tenants / tenants in common question which has a bearing on whether or not the property needs to be sold to pay the debts of the deceased.

sclare

Tallulah_Chicken said:

If you were joint tenants and not tenants in common, then the property is now yours absolutely. It doesn't form part of the estate and you cannot be made to sell it to pay their debts. 

It doesn't form part of the estate, but the creditor can still apply to the court for half the value of the property, and in this particular situation is very likely to. This situation is in the hands of specialist solicitors, so I'm confident in the accuracy of the legal situation.

sclare

Anyway, we've taken a bit of a detour which I was trying to avoid!

I'd really like to hear from people regarding how to manage the (hopefully brief) period between the ex-rental property becoming vacant, and getting it sold.

RAS

Let's go back to the beginning. Did you taken the meter readings on the day that the tenant moved out? And inform the utility suppliers of those, and Council tax as well, that the property is for sale to pay the joint owner's debts?