To not want this inheritance if it lands me in debt?

[Kenclucky]

Bit confused about this -

DM bought a leasehold flat in one of those semi-managed blocks with a warden, communal gardens etc. She's getting on a lot now and told me today that the flat is left to me in her will - but that that means the communal fees and mortgage would need to be paid until the property sells.

I don't think there's any mortgage on it, or if there is its only small. But the communal / service fees are really high - about 1k per month.

Now me and DM sadly don't get on well at all which is a bit by the by, but basically I wasn't expecting to be left anything and really don't want anything from her. Those types of flats in those blocks seem to take forever to sell - her one was on the market over a year before she bought it and there are at least 3 others for sale in there. So I'm pretty worried I could end up saddled with this thing and having to pay 1k+ a month which I really can't afford for an unknown length of time.

She says she's put me as Executor on her will, which makes me liable for all payments. And also if I become the owner of the property I'm liable anyway.

I could refuse the inheritance- but looking at Google it sounds like that would make it pass to the next in line, which is my children and would be in their late teens / early twenties so obviously I would never saddle them with it either. There is nobody else, she has no other family.

Are we basically stuck with her ongoing payments eventually, one way or another? And AIBU that is a rubbish system if so to be forced to pick up the pieces for something you don't even want...

The management might agree to take the fees from the sale.

Or sell it for massively under value.

My dh’s late mum bought a flat with communal fees etc. When she passed away the fees were put on hold and paid out from the sale of the flat when it completed. That meant we didn’t have to pay anything upfront at all and luckily for us it didn’t take too long to sell.

Ask her to put it on the market now and consider moving to a rental if she's serious about leaving it to you. It may not sell in her lifetime but you need to be honest with her about the debt risk.

Interesting- was that at the discretion of the place? Perhaps I need to enquire what the policy is at hers.

Yes it may have to come to that- I genuinely can't afford 1k a month. But the trouble is even if she doesn't leave it to me, I think without naming anyone it would auto fall to me as there is no other next of kin

If you drop the price enough it will sell quickly.

As an executor, I don't think you are personally liable for anything - the estate that is left is liable, you adminster the estate.

Most utilities, council tax etc can be frozen until the estate is settled/property sold, it may well be that management fees etc can also be put on hold until the property is sold.

Fees would be paid from the estate, not from your personal funds. There might be an option for the management to purchase the property (probably at a cheaper price but at least it's done) there may also be a clause for a percentage of the selling price to be repaid once it's sold.

They would have to wait for the flat to be sold before you would need to pay the fees unless there is more in savings? It's not something you as executor would pay.

Sell it very cheaply and it will sell quickly.

A lot really won't - there's ones here that are for sale for a third of the price of a new one and they still don't sell because of the high management fees.

Any property will sell at the right price. Put it on the market for two-thirds of the valuation, and you will get a buyer.

This is the normal procedure. My mother has just bought one of these flats. The vendor paid the backdated management fees out of the sale as it took 9 months to sell. Don’t worry.

Well if you don't pay it they can't do a lot at least in the short term. I'd be telling them that the fees will be paid from the sale and not negotiating about it TBH. They should be reasonable, I'm sure it's not the first time this has happened.

Yeah I think this. The executor is responsible for managing the bills etc but they come from the estate, not you. If there isn’t enough money in the estate then they will need to negotiate with the supplier.

What kind of service are they providing for 1k a month? I would expect lawns manicured with nail scissors and monthly redecorating for that price.

Is it MacArthy and Stone?

That’s actually not strictly correct. It depends on whether the executor is named on the accounts so that they can access the funds. If they are not then any debts of the estate that have to be paid before probate is granted have to be paid by the executor personally. If they can’t pay they have to take out an executors loan.

But if I'm both the executor and the inheritor, presumably all that faff is mine to arrange?

Yes I think it might be

Yes but you don’t have to pay it from your own money.

Do check with the management company. My DPs' one gave us 12 months and after that the wanted monthly payments again. It took us 16 months to sell and was very stressful.

Council tax was the same - they gave us 12 months and after that we had to pay.

The "we buy any house" people wouldn't touch it. We just dropped the price and dropped the price (almost below the small outstanding mortgage in the end).

I have just gone through this with a friend of mine. The property was sold at a stupidly low price, the problem was the fees had mounted up and they refused to release the management pack till the debt was settled.

So, its not just as simple as they will be paid from the sale fees. You cant sell till you get the management pack, so they had him over a barrel. Especially as they were willing to delay for as long as possible to keep the fees mounting up. In the end he came away with nothing from the sale of a mortgage free property.

He was just happy to get rid of the problem by the end.

Ignore this. I might be wrong and this might only apply to inheritance tax

How much is the property worth? 1k a month in maintenance is a lot for a 250k flat but little for a 1mm pound property?
what would renting it out fetch? Again it’s all relative to the property value

You are not personally liable for the fees op, they will try to convince you that you are but they are just trying to get money out of you. You should refuse to pay the fees until the flat has sold, there's nothing they can do about it.