Simply don't know what to do.

[Cantgiveitaway]

4 years ago we inherited a house. It has been on the market for the entirety of that time. It is on sale for approx 25% of market value. Reasons below:

The property is non-standard construction and therefore unmortgagable (we have explored this extensively).

It has a sitting lifetime tenancy on a peppercorn rent. Tenant is in their 70s and in good health.

We cannot sell it due to the above.

For those unaware, lifetime tenants cannot be evicted and the rent is very tightly controlled. We have increased it to the maximum allowed every year for the 4 years we've owned it. It still doesn't constitute £1000 a year.

We do not have any more money to put in to the property. We've done the legal required stuff. We've explored legal avenues for eviction ABD offered to give (gift) the property to the sitting tenant.

We basically need someone to come along with enough money to keep the property legally for 20+ years before they can do anything with it.

The most recent gas and electricity safety checks and the EPC have shown significant work needed in the next 12 months to keep it legal. We can't do it. Our only option is to sell our home that we, move in to a much smaller property in a different area (moving children's schools and away from family) and renting ourselves.

We have 0 savings because of the house and cannot afford basic things for our own home.

I just don't know what to do.

WWYD? We literally cannot give it away - we offered it to the LA and to a social landlord and a landlord with an extensive portfolio in the area and all said no.

In 20years, when the tenant dies or moves in to care the land might be worth something (and therefore sellable) but we can't wait that long. We had absolutely no idea the property existed until we inherited it and I've no idea why we did.

Any out of the box thinking here from the hive mind?

Not if it's starting to cost the OP money and in danger of having to sell their own home! That in itself is insanity. It's a weight around their neck and once explored all other options I'd just give it away.

Apologies, it wasn't meant to be, honestly. I will go re-read the OP's posts in case I missed something. It just hit me that the OP is in danger of having to sell their own home to keep paying bills on this property, which is awful.

Some of these responses have cracked me up though, which I've needed.

Honestly, rat infestations, arson, "cancel the cheque" re gifting, moving people in, turning it in to an hmo, splitting it in two. Brilliant.

You forgot "becoming unalive".

Ah yes, unsure whether we should actually kill.ourselves or just fake our death, can't be that hard surely 😂

I know it’s not helpful now, but I find it very hard to understand why you wouldn’t google it or ask AI to see if you could refuse the inheritance when you have inherited a liability. That’s what I did when I was about to inherit a liability of a property.

I'm surprised no one mentioned building a couple of additional floors to the place and/or extending it so that you could then move in there yourselves! Simples. 😊

Except she said IN THE OP that they had “offered to give (gift) the property to the sitting tenant” - and repeated that several times since then for all the other posters who also failed to read the OP that the tenant has refused to take the house. 🙄

Why would it? Unless it's enough to buy a house outright which it won't be - it would be a millstone and a hindrance.

We didn't know it was a liability at the time.

I know it sounds ridiculous, but the property is hours away from us, FIL was unwell (terminally) and MiL was already really unwell so trying to get all that sorted along with figure out if an inherited property was a liability or not or even ask if we had to take it weren't top of the priority list. Plus AI wasn't like it is now. We had other stuff going on top of it (an extension to our own house by a building company that went bust part way through), it was a shit show of a time to be honest.

If we could go back in time we'd do things very differently.

OP has offered this, they want to be a tenant.

What for? To pay rent for a few years and then what when the money runs out? When they are paying a few £100 a YEAR to live in the house they want to live in and can stay until they die? A cash sum would be a liability to a person in this position

It nearly happened to us once though this was long before AI: my DH’s cousin died intestate and without children. Luckily my MiL warned us that if the solicitor contacted us as next of kin we were to refuse immediately because he only had debts which more than outweighed anything he owned. He did work off and on, but had serious mental health problems so was pretty much institutionalised for most of his life. I wouldn’t have known to refuse the inheritance because I didn’t even know such a thing existed.

These tenancies are not things that most people have any experience of. It is no surprise ut didnt occur to anyone.

Unfortunately when the alternative is being made homeless and being chucked into the unforgiving and unaffordable private rental system there is no 'better nature' and it's eveey person for themselves.

A couple of ideas that may be borderline unethical, but you sound desperate: Can you set up a company, sell it to the company for a pound, and then let the company go bankrupt when it faces the bills, so it's not your problem? If it's limited liability, you may only be responsible for £1 each.

Next, London Centric has reported that the American Candy shops on Oxford Street get foreign students returning home to sign the paperwork; nobody chases them. You could investigate the model.

This is also my quandary. Even go feather and say a porn receiving that specialist SOLICITORS advice, I just don’t understand why any sensible person would immediately jump at forcing the financial situation, taking on the liability, it’s supposed to pacing and say and and ask why should I have to do that? What if I can’t afford this liability? And it is at that point the OP should have seen that she could reject the inheritance. I’m just wondering why any natural person jumps to accept accepting their liability it’s supposed to say no why must I accept this liability? Just because it’s an inheritance.

Please see previous post explaining this.

She has explained what happened. There was an expensive court option.

What does ‘go feather and say a porn’ mean!?

Indeed. This 70 year old has just come through two years of complex legal stuff regarding my mum's estate, her huge care debt, and managing and selling her buy to let property with the tenants from hell in it.

If I could do all that, then the 70 year old in your property can protect her tenancy, which is very simple.

The poster you quoted is a prime example of the ageism on Mumsnet.

Let's say you can't sell it but also can't afford the work. Could the tenant pay and then take it off their future rent? Or if you tell the council you can't pay apparently they could do the work themselves and then put a charge on the house which might mean you don't need to pay and the house could be made safe even if there are future ramifications for its value.

Exactly, 20-25 years is not a long time really in terms of investments.

sorry have not see it. Please copy me in. I am very interested in what you have to say about this. Thank you.

Wow what a tricky situation. It’s an eye opener as I’ve never thought of any inheritance in a negative way.
i think the option of buying it with long term prospects sounds the most hopeful.