Probate question

[Horsemad]

Does anybody know please, does a property need to be valued by an estate agent for Probate?

I think yes.

I think if there is inheritance tax to pay you maybe have to get a surveyor to value but if well below then just average of 3 estate agents, I just got estate agents for DMs house as it was well below

Yes it does really, especially if your wn valuation is way off and HMRC /valuation office investigate (which they often do). At least your valuer can justify the value used. As much as it makes sense to you and me that "the identical house next door sold for same amount the same week" it doesn't cut it with the valuation office.

(But not three valuations as some will tell you). Also shop around as some charge a lot more than others.

A RICS valuation is best

Do they charge for valuing? It's years since I had any dealings with estate agents but from memory they just came round & gave us a value and didn't charge.

Do we have to say it's being valued for probate purposes, or can we say just want a valuation for possibly selling?

Just going through this and yes and 3 local estate agents value and solicitor dealing with the estate will take the mean value for the figures!

I haven’t been charged just sent the usual letter as if I was looking to sell normally!

We got an estate agent round (no possibility of inheritance tax in our case, though) and they didn’t charge. We just said we wanted a realistic value for probate, weren’t selling at the moment but are considering selling once probate is through. They were happy with that.

Thank you, I'll get on to that tomorrow. 👍

Can I ask - with the probate, did you have jewellery to include in the probate?
It seems quite an onerous task to gauge the value of the jewellery.

You want to avoid HMRC challenging. If it is a valuable property you might be better off using a RICS surveyor specialising in valuation. They will phone estate agents to confirm prices, and will look at structural condition etc. Their aim will be to have evidence to back their valuation.

If using estate agents, it is worth telling them it is for probate not sale. (The sale may come later so they will be motivated to be helpful.) You don’t want them overvaluing a property, which agents can do. If they are hoping for a sale instruction.

We took the expensive looking bits to a jewellers and they gave us a written quote for the purpose of probate.

Yes, you need to tell them it's for probate as they need to do the open market value on the day of death. Estate agents didn't charge me and one of them did the sale

Yes. We had 2 estate agents provide estimates in writing. We were actually contacted by the probate office around 6 months later to say that they believed we had underestimated the worth of the house, so it was really useful for us to be able to send both quotes.

I took the good jewellery to a jeweler, one of the big name chains sent it away but I found a family business who bought and sold jewellery and they did valuations on site. I photographed what I took in, in 2022 it was six items for £30 (Midlands).

I paid for a RICS surveyor because I didn't want to be hassled by estate agents, that was around £300. You need to tell them it's for probate and then they value it as at the date of the death.

Horsemad, are you anywhere near Dorset. Our probate valuer was very thorough. She had previously worked on the other side for the Probate Office.

But only needed for more expensive properties. Another approach is to ask local estate agents who is good. They will know local valuers and who is inclined to mad valuations which cause later problems with mortgages. The first valuer came up with a valuation 30% higher that I had expected, but it turned out most of the town knew he was unreliable. The good one came pretty much bang on what I thought we could sell it for. (If lockdown had not got in the way.)

My brother and I are executors for our late sister's estate. We put her flat on the market and it went under offer quite quickly. We applied for probate ourselves rather than use a solicitor. In the probate application we used the offer price - there is an option to do this on the form. We have just been granted probate, so that was evidently acceptable.

My parents had named the solicitor in their Will. They were expensive and useless (we had five different people working on it in a year, not all qualified - we finally had to threaten a complaint to the law society) and determined they represented my mother rather than us, as if we were somehow an inconvenience.

My understanding is that if you sell within three years at a very different price to the probate valuation there is scope to either recoup IHT or have to pay more. (Though in fact the "more" is effectively taken in the form of CGT.) It would therefore make sense for the probate office to accept the sales price.

My mother and I did the probate for my father ourselves a couple of years ago. As far as I remember unless the estate is worth over a million you can include estimates if actual values are not available. With the house she got an agent round and said she was thinking of selling( she has no intention of selling) and got a verbal value there and then which we included. Remember the values used are what could be got on the open market, rather than insurance or replacement values, so in many cases things like furniture , ornaments etc would be generally included at quite a low value unless they were particularly unusual or valuable antiques.