AIBU to feel upset my parents are selling their holiday home?

If it's Spain, your Mum would not "obviously" inherit. Their laws are very different to ours. Properties are generally held as tenants in common, not joint tenants.

Where are you going for 2 weeks that costs 15k???

I mean, you could defo get 2 weeks somewhere in Spain for under 15k ( unless you’re The Waltons!)

Where the bloody hell is this??? 15k??
we went on a 3 weeks road trip round Italy all round all the main places and spent much less than that all in and definitely didn’t scrimp at all we had the best time!

You seem reluctant to say where it is which makes you think it’s not true

As they aren't renting it out to paying guests, your parents are having to pay all the running costs out of their own money (rather than out of rental income).
It's a waste of money if they aren't going to use it any more.
Are you going to pay for its upkeep and running costs or was the plan to manage it with your brother, go on holiday there and your parents continue to pay all the bills?

To avoid the CGT, your dad’s share would pass automatically to your mum on his death, and at that point the value of the property resets to today’s value (the value that day) and then she can pass it to you with no CGT payable. Then she just has to survive 7 years and you’re home free.

If you need more info about this let me know as we just went through a similar situation.

Can’t you talk to them and explain how you feel and ask if they could hold on to it and just handover the management to you?
I find British people underuse a heart to heart conversation

It's not unreasonable to be upset. We are all entitled to our feelings.

Of course, your parents are entitled to do what they want to with their asset - it would be unreasonable to have expectations of them. But that doesn't mean you can't be sad about it.

How close are you? Have you spoken to them about how you feel / the impact it will have?

I actually don’t agree. I have been in this exactly situation. My parents had a very expensive large holiday home where we spent a lot of years ourselves and then with family including extended maternity leaves for our family.

We weren’t sobbing when our parents told us they were going to sell. We were disappointed but also understood that they didn’t want to anymore. We volunteered to take it over and they wanted rid. They also didn’t need the money but just didn’t want the burden.

We had amazing wonderful memories but I find OPs reaction very big comparatively.

The time spent with them was amazing. Otherwise it was just a house. Not everyone has huge oversentimentality. So I didn’t feel the same and certainly not to the same degree.

They know how she feels. And pestering them when they've just had an emotional last visit due to her father's apparently terminal illness, would be incredibly insensitive.

OP 'parents are clearly living something that puts the property into perspective. The place has to mean every bit as much to them as it does to OP, yet they've realised that it's the best decision for them. And it's their house, it's their legal and financial responsibility, and they've recognised that as they approach this difficult period of the dad's illness, life will be simpler for them both without it.

As someone who, like OP 's mum, had had to nurse a terminally ill DH for two years, I'm absolutely horrified at the posters who are advocating OP begging and pleading and making them feel guilty enough to ignore what's best for them, and to prioritise a spoiled daughter.

It seems like they are just swapping one tax for another. Why don’t they keep it and as someone said above your dads share goes to your mum one day. You and your brother take over the management now.

Not to be morbid or anything, but it might be quite sensible of them to sell the house before they pass away. Someone in our family died owning property abroad and dealing with solicitors, valuers, tax people etc in two jurisdictions and getting the double-taxation sorted has been a huge strain for those family members nominated as executors when they were also grieving.

Goodness she needs some financial advice. Don’t put house proceeds in a normal bank account.

"We also won't really be able to afford holidays now. We both work full time in demanding jobs with long hours and have always had the next trip there booked so always had that to look forward to.

Not really sure what I am saying, but I find it upsetting that something so important to me, my husband and kids will be gone for no benefit to anybody."

You've said it quite clearly. 🤨

Why don't you and your brother offer to pay the CGT?

Yep. That's been my point throughout this thread. people seem to have no idea if the complications ahead if the property is retained. And to be fair, I didn't either, until I had to deal with my late mum's property and care fee debt and endure all kinds of hell for two years. It nearly broke me.

If your mum leaves a large amount of money in a bank account for 20 years it will just gradually erode with inflation. If she has plenty, doesn’t need it at all, and will be leaving it to you one day she is probably planning to give it to you and your brother as soon as the sale goes through? And then could you use your share to buy somewhere smaller in the same place?

It is, of course, totally understandable to be disappointed when a good thing comes to an end. However, it might help your frame of mind to think about the benefits you/your family have enjoyed over 30 years. By your sums of equivalent accommodation, you’ve had approx £60,000 of free holidays each year for 30 years. That’s an amazing gift from your parents - I’d want to focus on that, not what else I’d like to have. Easy to say from a distance, I realise, but great holidays can be had for a fraction of that of course.

Lol, do you genuinely think the only thing standing between someone and owning a second home is taking a few fewer vacations? 😭 That is such a spectacularly unserious understanding of money that I’m almost impressed you typed it confidently. My parents have a condo in Chicago they use as a vacation home, and even if they gave it to me outright, completely mortgage-free, we still wouldn’t be able to take it because the HOA alone is around $3k every single month. Then add property taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, repairs and special assessment but sure, skip a couple vacations and suddenly you’ve cracked the secret to real-estate ownership. Why doesn't everyone think of that?

A holiday home overseas is a burden once you get older and want to get your affairs in order.

Maybe they have taken advice and now realise it will be a massive inheritance tax problem for you and your brother to have to sort out as it stands, and it will be more advantageous for you both to have all their assets together in one place to make it easier for you to handle their estate when the time comes.

Why not talk to them about their reasons for doing it this way.

Hopefully a local family can buy it, (that’s if regeneration in that area hasn’t priced locals out) and occupy it all year round.

It benefits your parents to sell it, or they wouldn't be doing it.

Stop moaning.

You AND your brother should buy it, if you can. If not, deep sadness is a perfectly appropriate response to losing something that’s been such a big part of your life.

The op wants her parents to fund their holidays not pay for it themselves so I doubt thry want to buy it

If it was that sentimental they would pay i presume