AIBU to feel limited sympathy over a hard-to-sell inherited retirement bungalow?

[nomas]

AIBU have limited sympathy for these grandchildren about their inheritance? I get it's disappointing but the main takeaway for me is their grandmother had a lovely life in the bungalow and they will still inherit a nice amount.

https://archive.ph/eVPQ2

TL;DR: A woman inherited a £450k retirement bungalow from her grandmother expecting it to help her and her brother onto the property ladder, but strict age restrictions (55+ buyers only), rising service charges, council tax, and slow sales have turned it into a costly burden. Nearly two years later, they've spent over £14,000 keeping the empty property, accepted offers far below its valuation, and are still waiting for a sale to complete, highlighting a wider problem of retirement homes being difficult to sell and draining inheritances.

YANBU: Agree, the grandma had a nice life and the DGC will still inherit
YABU: Disagree, they've lost thousands in potential inheritance

It’s not so much the lost inheritance, it’s a big financial burden that most people would struggle with.

I think it mainly highlights how unreasonable the service charges are for this kind of property

I think it must be hard to come up with an additional 14k for maintenance. I imagine it’s also stressful not knowing when that financial pressure will ease if it won’t sell.

DH was the executor to his late father's estate and that included selling a very run down bungalow. He had to keep it insured, pay gas/electric bills, council tax and keep maintaining the lawns/garden for the 7 months it took to get probate granted and then the 12 months that it took to sell. It was valued at £400k but DH ended up accepting an offer for £320k just to shift it. In hindsight, it would have been better to have renovated it then sell but it was too complicated trying to get sister in law on board with that, she just wanted her money out. It was exhausting, draining and a whole lot of work.

She’s stuck with a house she can’t sell, and has to find £8k in services charges plus council tax. I have quite a lot of sympathy. Those retirement properties are an absolute rip off.

you seem very curiously interested about it and no sympathy whatsoever!

That's generally the point of articles, to get people interested in things.

I do have sympathy for the DGC, but the main thing for me is the grandmother (whose property it was) waited years for such a property and had a lovely life in it.

Agree with you OP. The property is perfectly saleable at the right price. The reason it hasn’t sold is the greed of the sellers holding out for a price that the market won’t bear.

The craziest part is they still stand to make a huge unearned profit, but want to present themselves as victims.

YABU these flats etc are sold at a huge mark up, are incredibly costly to run and don’t sell. Their nan probably thought she was helping but actually it’s a huge Albatross to end up with one of these. Who has £14k sitting around to feed the charges on an empty home with by definition is not using any of the things those charges pay for?

We had this, no restrictions, not a retirement property but it was a bungalow. Over 3 years to sell including a year of probate paperwork. All bills accepted deferred payments

Thanks. Were council tax / service charge payments also deferred until the property sold?

It's to warn people about the potential stress and headache, not about gaining sympathy. Sometimes life isn't just all about money, which is what OP implies. Like saying "oh something bad happened to so and so but they're richer than me so it's ok".

I feel sorry for them that it’s been a big, stressful, headache to sell. It will be worth it in the end though.

They could sell it for a much reduced price!

I'll bet if it was 300k it'd be snapped up

Yes, it has sold for £425k now.

I agree it's been very stressful. But it sounds like it provided a service that the grandmother really needed, so I'm glad it gave her a good quality of life.

Yabu. They don't suddenly have 14k in their pockets to pay the running costs just because the house is priced at 415k.

That's nearly £600 a month.

So is it any wonder noone is buying it? Even priced at half that, they will struggle to sell it because of the maintenance fees.

I would like to move to a retirement flat when the time comes, but the trouble is I don’t want to leave a massive bunch of costs to the people who inherit from me

so I do feel sorry for them

If the money can’t be released from the estate to run the place, then where does it come from?

This. A lot of people don't seem to want to reduce the price if low enough it would sell.

If they dropped the price in the first place they wouldn't have had to pay all that money out for 2 years.

I can't access your link, but in general I don't quite agree with either of your options when it comes to stories like this.

• The most important thing is of course that the grandmother had suitable accommodation and was happy there.
• That doesn't mean that these properties aren't a PITA for beneficiaries.
• It would be good if retirement properties were marketed more clearly with options for a beneficiary to sell back to the developer at a % of initial purchase price.

I don't think the writer is asking for sympathy, she's making a point about selling retirement homes.

She says that it was the right decision for her grandmother but that selling it has come with some difficulty.

Not sure how you can read it any other way.

I agree with OP also. A bird in the hand and all that. Leaving aside the whole retirement home thing which probably is a bit of a rip off. Any house will sell for the right price. It’s a tough market at the moment.
A neighbour died and her family were in London.They just couldn’t accept that this property in the North would not achieve a London price. It was on the market for five years! All the bills and upkeep still being paid. It eventually was sold for the average price for our area.

C’est la vie. You win some, you lose some.