Inherited house - what happens if one of the beneficiaries doesn’t want to sell and the other does?

[SirChenjins]

Can the one who does force the sale? If so, how?

(We’re in Scotland if that’s relevant)

You need to consult a solicitor, as it depends on the wording in the will, whether there are any bills to be paid out of the estate, and so on.

In Scotland the rules are probably different but in England, a long drawn out absolute nightmare.

As above what exactly does the will say?

The one who wants to sell raises an action for division and Sale. The other either then buys them out or it's sold.

No defence.

Assuming wording of will leaves title to them equally.

Will leaves everything to them both - equal share of the complete estate.

It’s already been a complete nightmare, this may be the next thing for the other party to pull out of their box of evil tricks.

Can the one who doesn't want to sell get a mortgage and buy the other person out?

If so probably the simplest way.

Exactly - why not just do this?

If there's a complete estate, of which the house is part, to be divided equally then either it will need to be sold or they'll need to agree how, were it kept, they's both get equal value.

The reason for asking was whether the will said something more specific about the house.

I agree - but this is more about them holding up the process.

Thanks - have just been reading up on this and that seems to be the way forward

Does the one who doesn't want to sell want to live there or want to rent it?

I'm guessing the one who doesn't wants to sell wants to live there rent free for the rest of their days and for the other party to wait another 40 years for their share 😂

I know absolutely nothing about Scots Law, but if there are other assets in the estate, especially liquid assets, could not one beneficiary take a larger share of those to compensate for his/her interest in the house, and the house go to the party who wants to keep it?

It doesn’t seem to be anything like that - they live at the other end of the country. They have a very acrimonious relationship and the other party is holding things up at every turn. Concerned this will be the next thing.

It's up to what the will says and the executors have a legal duty to execute the express wishes of the will maker - not the beneficiaries. If they have to share the estate out between the beneficiaries then I suppose the property has to be sold. The mistake many executors make when they are also beneficiaries is to start thinking that the estate, the money in accounts and the money tied up in the estate, is theirs - it's not - it's the will makers until the executors actually finish their job of dividing out the estate as defined in the will.

Will states an equal split. An independent executor has had to be appointed to try and move things forward so 🤞

I'm no expert on Scottish law, but the power to sell generally overrides the power not to sell. The beneficiary who does not want to sell needs to come up with the money to buy the other beneficiaries out, or else accept that they won't be getting the house but will be getting money instead. Which is no hardship. A half-share in the proceeds of even a modestly priced house is nothing to complain about.

I'm in this situation too - but fortunately I don't think I'll be obstructed in buying out my sibling, even though they have concerns (for understandable reasons) about me taking over the property. We'll need to get another valuation though and agree a market value price. I've done my sums and we can just about afford it ( and the second home stamp duty I'll have to pay )

Dh & my view is that even if the sibling were to object, then there's nothing stopping us putting in an offer to ensure we got it if it were to go on the open market. The executor also has a duty to get the best return for the estate.

Sibling doesn't want to live there as lives elsewhere - but it's somewhere dh and I would want to retire to in a few years time. If we didn't take it on, in 5-10 years time we would be looking for a similar place and cursing that there was nowhere as nice

Confirmation has finally come through so we do need to make a decision soon.

It's not quite 50:50 - it's 40:40 plus the remainder split equally amongst the dgc.

It’s a minefield, isn’t it @prettybird? Our situation isn’t helped by the fact the 2 beneficiaries don’t speak to each other and one is actively blocking everything out of spite, so goodness knows how long it’s going to take to wind up the estate.

At least we do talk

The executor is the lawyer who drew up the will, who had a good idea of our father's wishes as he'd been with them for many years and updated his will every few years. There was another executor who unfortunately died a few months before my father died suddenly and unexpectedly. My dad was due one his periodic updates and would have added a new executor.

Dh had an absolute nightmare dealing with his mother's estate: one sibling written out (which you can't do in Scots Law ), another sibling (who'd influenced the exclusion) who had been abusing her power of attorney, the lawyer who was the executor had retired and sold the business but then obstructed the lawyer he'd sold his business to (but we couldn't complain as he was no longer registered with the Law Society).... eventually the 4 siblings (there are 5 in total, including the one who was written out) managed to get the executor to step down in favour of 2 of the siblings ( not the one who'd stolen from her mother ). Took him nearly 3 years to wind up a small and relatively simple estate That's only a flavour of the issues dh had to deal with. The good news is that the 4 siblings (minus the thief) have all reconnected and get on well. Thief paid back some money to the estate - so estranged sibling got more

A year for my dad (including two courts arguing over whose jurisdiction it was) is quick in comparison

But as I say, at least my sibling and I do talk And my dad was extremely organised, with all his accounts listed out.

Oh my goodness - your poor DH 😲 That sounds awful.

It’s similar here - DSis and I have a good relationship and sorted out our parents’s estate with no trouble at all. DH is having a complete nightmare with his sister who is behaving (and has behaved) appallingly. We think we’ve made a minuscule step forward and then she pulls something else out of her bag of crazy. This is the latest thing she’s come up with - we don’t know if she’s serious or not, but it’s good to know we have a legal route to force the sale if needed.

DH and his brother inherited a property 50:50. His brother wanted nothing to do with it, due to their upbringing there.
We didn't want to sell, he respected that, but made it clear he didn't want to incur any costs with it. It was run as a holiday let for about 5 years and then his brother decided to just sign his half over to us, with no monies exchanged. It was inherited with no debt on it.

It's now a long term let. If we sold we could never buy something like that again. It's it the countryside, but almost 2hrs from us.

If we do decide to sell, we would still give his brother half of proceeds.

We are on good terms though.

Is the independent executor that's been appointed a solicitor? Even if they're not, they should be aware of their legal obligation to the beneficiaries

My dad's lawyer nearly had conniptions when I said we wanted to keep the place, as once Confirmation is awarded, they'd normally see their job as simply distributing the assets. She was much happier when I said it was our intention to buy out my sibling's share (and impressed that I knew about the 2nd home stamp duty issue that I'd need to pay on the part that I'm buying )

Also, once confirmation is awarded, Council Tax will become due (I think it's 6 months later, which ices you 6 months to sell the place). Is SIL prepared to start paying her share of the Council Tax or for that to come out of the estate? Or is SIL so vindictive that she would be happy to see that happen?

Is your dh wanting to sell to realise the asset or does he want to buy sibling out? Whatever, he needs to look at it as a business transaction.

Good luck

Thanks @prettybird 😊

Yes, the independent executor is a solicitor - both DH and his SiL were named as executors and beneficiaries but that didn’t go well. SIL put so many obstacles in the way that 8 months later we’re now only just at the point where she has agreed to an independent executor as an alternative (with strict conditions on that). Now hopefully we can move forward- but with her starting to make noises about not selling the house, who knows. Hopefully it’s just her making a lot of noise - she lives a long distance away so has no need for house, but who knows.

Families 🙄

How close are you to confirmation?

And has she actually signed the document agreeing to the new executor? In dh's case, the retired and bitter for whatever reason executor agreed to give up the executors at one stage but didn't follow through. It was another (iirc) 6 months maybe more before a formal letter from the 4 named siblings (including thief sister who had some sort of link with the executor via her best friend) finally got him to sign off in favour of the two brothers.

Families