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

We are selling my fils properties just now. Not retirement homes but ordinary bungalow and flats. It's a pain having to look after them, do the garden, pay the utilities, deal with unrealistic neighbours. All you want to do after losing your parents is wrap up all the loose ends.

This.

They have to pay IT if it's due, likely maintenance fee's, possibly monthly fee's all still payable while no one is living in. Possibly exit fee's. Tiny resale market.

It can be devestating for families if they don't have the cash to buffer that.

Great for Grandma, but understandably a bit of fucking headache for those inheriting.

I agree it must be a pain for them.

But nothing is really “hard to sell”, it’s just hard to sell at the price people want to charge.

Not huge sympathy, but it sounds like a burden on them.

This, ops thread seems like a good example of Schadenfreude

Im not even sure that it's correct that it would have sold much quicker if they'd have reduced it ....mostly because buyers are (not unreasonably) put off by massive service charges....?

I certainly wouldn't have been able to find 8 grand a year in service charges for a property I wasn't living in when I was 26. I have a huge amount of sympathy for the people in the article.

These properties are a rip off for sure .We had similar with Mums ,Taking ages to sell and had to take a hit.Too much secrecy over bills and services .Should be made much clearer

I think YABU, I don't think anyone would be happy with that situation and they couldn't have seen this coming. It's fair enough they might have hoped to get a deposit from selling it as for many people that's the only chance they have of buying properties. And they're not necessarily being greedy about the asking price - as people have said, the fees cause a lot of difficulties and as people become more aware of them these homes get less appealing.

They can always decline the inheritance if it's too much trouble.

That's exactly how I feel about these places. If they meet the needs of the person who bought them, and enable a comfortable life, then I don't think it really matters what they sell for after their death.

They should've rented it out. It's true it's not a nice thing to leave your bereaved family with. It's a burden rather than a blessing. But as you say even if they can only get twenty grand for selling it back to the company who runs the scheme, it's better than nothing! I can see why they're not delighted about it though.

You just price it to sell, burden gone, it is still money you didn"t have before.

I'm amazed at that, bungalows areike gold dust where I am and get snapped up immediately!

For me the issue is the problems selling these retirement properties are putting people off buying them who need this type of housing.
They maybe are not entirely safe in their old family home with stairs etc., but not infirm enough for a nursing home.
Retirement homes should not be unsellable, people should want to buy them and be able to sell them again when they no longer meet their needs.
Something is very wrong in the sector if people are put off buying them because they are unsaleable. And people should not be burdened with inherited properties that cost tens of thousands in fees and bills on a property that they can't sell. A lot of people can't afford that.

Well yes, it was a place to live in not an investment and not really something you pass to someone as an inheritance.

There are a lot of threads on MN - why isnt my (non retirement) house selling......and it seems that there is not a lot of activity in the housing market at all, currently in a lot of areas. A retirement property automatically limits your potential buyers. service charges and various fees mean that its not as attractive (even at a cheap price) to a proportion of people who are the right age. "Just sell" isnt necessarily an instant solution!

This. It's not that their inheritance is 14k less It's having to fork that much out before they get any inheritance. Some friends of mine (not young people) were in that position with his mother's luxurious retirement apartment (spa facilities etc which she had never used).

Surely once probate is granted pay for any bills associated with the property out of the estate, not your own money.

I am a director of the freeholder for our block of (ordinary not retirement) flats and we usually add the service charge to the account to be settled once the flat is sold. But if is drags on for more than a year we tend to ask for proof that the estate are making best efforts to sell.

I inherited my parents bungalow that they had built for them when they got married in 1961.It's in good nick. It's been on the market since May 2025. I have recently accepted a much reduced offer which I hope will go through but you never know. I'm a LO, live over 200 miles away and work full time. So I have to go there regularly (because of the insurance and because you never know), keep the garden tidy and the bills cost me over £500 per month. It's not easy.

There are also issue with bog standard freehold properties as well. Generally the insurance company will want decent window and door locks for an empty property, which not all older houses will have. Then there's the requirement for someone to visit every 28 days or whatever. Someone to do the gardening. The council tax, electricity, water and tax will also need paying until the house is sold. Quite frankly the sheer hassle of sorting that out for a property I didn't live in and that might be 100/200 or more miles away is quite time consuming. My parents are still alive, but I can easily see that the monthly costs of running their house if it was empty could easily exceed £500 a month, and also need some co-ordination of trades/visits. It would make the one-stop solution of a service charge seem quite appealing :)

edited to add that I cross posted with @luckylavender , and seem to be not far off...!

You have to find a buyer who wants not only the bungalow but the associated services and costs. Not everyone does.

The trouble is that an inheritance, whilst nice to have some extra money, only comes because a loved one has died. The recipients in most cases will be grieving the loss of someone close to them and not in the right headspace to be dealing with all the stress and hassle, but having to deal with it anyway. There is no closure if the estate is not settled, it just prolongs the agony. It isn't just about the money.

It’s more pragmatism than schadenfreude.

The grandmother had a lovely life in the bungalow, surrounded by friends but it also gave her independence, reassurance of on-site support, a communal lounge and gardens for socialising backing on to her patio.

If she had opted for a care home, all the money from her previous house would have been swallowed up by care home fees anyway.

I don't take delight in other people's bad fortune.

Security guard I chat to is in the same boat, but he literally doesn't have the money to keep paying for his late dads retirement flat and it's a cause of real stress. Nobody is buying or showing any interest in it and it's up for below market rate. Price too high, doesn't sell, price too low and people are suspicious.