Inheritance advice pse?

Bungarm2001

My first instinct would be, in that case, if your sister wants to buy you out and you are too strapped for cash and/or time to do the place up, even sharing the costs etc, I would come to a deal with her.

If you are a bit put out at the fact she may make a profit on it later by selling it fixed up, then to be honest, fair play to her as it will be she who is getting the works done and paying.

I know how you feel though, it does leave a feeling of jealousy perhaps and it could spiral out of control and cause all sorts of bad feelings and friction in the family. Believe me, I know this from experience sadly.

You could do one of three things in my humble opinion; let her buy you out for half the agreed valuation, take the money and run; or put a condition into the sale something along the lines of you will be paid a certain percentage of what she ultimately sells for over the original selling price (mine field...solicitor would be very happy to do this for you as it will increase his fee no end..will also probably cause even more friction between you and your sister :eek: ) OR, and this is what I would try for (cos I'm cheeky that way !) if she will be using it in the future as a holiday retreat, why not ask if you could too? That way you would at least get more benefit from it... Worth considering maybe??

stevwarn

tanith wrote: »

If you want my honest opinion I'd say half the estimated value as it stands.. but she will probably want to haggle...

But its your sister you are dealing with here, a family member , so what if she is richer than you , take the money and enjoy it with your wonderful family.... and that way everybody is happy. You have the added pleasure of knowing you handled a potentially divisive situation with tact and generosity and your family is intact and happy... let it go at that... you will feel better about yourself in the long run TRUST ME!!!

Fair point. My wife say's I am too giving/trusting/soft and my sister is a ruthless business woman. I just want a fair price without any regrets that I sold it to her at below current market price.

Have you any experience of Professional Valuations/ors? Are they worth the money? I did some personal research using Nethouse prices and the cottage next door sold for £103k in 2003 and is a smaller cottage, using Nationwides calculator it reakons for the area (South West) the property should be worth £155k. Therefore, the EA valuation of £120-130k seems low. Any tips is my sister haggles (which she will). I love her dearly and don't want to fall out.

stevwarn

My sister has strongly indicated that she wants US to keep the cottage to do up for the odd weekend break and does not want to buy me out!!!!! I have told her that the only options are for the cottage to be sold or let, but she is not keen on either and stated that she will not be "bullied into selling" and will just refuse to do anything. This is not an option for me as an empty house will incur costs i.e. insurance, maintance, heating, elec, counsil tax etc and I also don't want to go there for holidays (wrong location and sad memories). We are both executors and equal beneficiaries of the will.

Does anyone know where I stand legally to force a sale?

notisis

See a solicitor as this could turn ugly! Neither of you can be forced to do something you don't want to unless it gets to the court stage.

Is the cottage the only asset that your relative has or is there additional money in bank/building societies? I'm just think if it's the only asset then it may have to be sold anyway to pay for funeral costs, balances of any bills owing etc any other bequests that were left to other family members/friends/charity. In this instance unless you and your sister had the money to pay for this then the cottage will have to be sold and the balance of proceeds split between you both.

Even if there is additional money by way of investments does that bring the entire estate over the Inheritance Tax threshold? Are you and your sister the only beneficiaries of the estate? If so and there is extra money in investments that would be split between you two as well to give you extra cash to do up the cottage and pay for running costs.

Just my tuppence as I don't think you mentioned anything other than unexpectedly being left 1/2 the house!

stevwarn

notisis wrote: »

See a solicitor as this could turn ugly! Neither of you can be forced to do something you don't want to unless it gets to the court stage.

Is the cottage the only asset that your relative has or is there additional money in bank/building societies? I'm just think if it's the only asset then it may have to be sold anyway to pay for funeral costs, balances of any bills owing etc any other bequests that were left to other family members/friends/charity. In this instance unless you and your sister had the money to pay for this then the cottage will have to be sold and the balance of proceeds split between you both.

Even if there is additional money by way of investments does that bring the entire estate over the Inheritance Tax threshold? Are you and your sister the only beneficiaries of the estate? If so and there is extra money in investments that would be split between you two as well to give you extra cash to do up the cottage and pay for running costs.

Just my tuppence as I don't think you mentioned anything other than unexpectedly being left 1/2 the house!

There are monies from the inheritance, which I plan to use to pay off some of my mortgage. I don't want to go down the court route as I would rather lose money than my sister (who I love) but I need to know where i stand as it feels she has more power/control as she does not need the money. The funeral costs are covered by the estates money and there is no inheritance tax to pay. I don't really want to use the money to do up the property unless it was get it ready for rent. As my sister is in no hurry I foresee the house price reducing and therefore unless we let it out I could potentially be losing money/time and effort in the long run. I know that I am fortunate but at this moment I feel upset how things are turning out and feel our late relative would also be upset.

RAS

Hiya

See a solicitor anyway, so that you know your rights.

The may not be any need to let DS ever know, but it puts you in a different position psychologically. One thing I found was that knowing the right words helped.

And it may just be about explaining to her that you are not in a position to mantain two houses, so you would rather sell up before it deteriorates any further.