Solicitor wants me to buy my late mums house of ourselves.

[Sillymoo168]

My late mum left me 80% of her estate and 20% spilt between her 4 grandchildren, she had equity release on the house( we didn’t know until she died) but we have paid it off ourselves(we are not well off) and now we have been told to get a conveyancer to act for us buying the house, we have asked the solicitor why we need to buy it off ourselves and she hasn’t given us an answer.

Have asked her to give more information about why I have to buy it from myself but get no answers, she is a fairly new solicitor so not sure if she has got it right!

IANAL but this seems to be being done the wrong way round.

I assume the will splits the residual estate 80% and 20% to the 4 grandchildren.

If the house is the only asset, with equity release plus there are other debts I would expect the house to be sold by the executors. The money then used by the executors to repay the equity release and all debts. Then the residual estate (money) split 80%/20% as per the will.

There is no reason the house cannot be sold to a beneficiary and that is why you would typically get three valuations. As the op wants to “buy” the house they need to do this as a standard purchase. That is why @Sillymoo168 you need a conveyancing solicitor to “buy” the house from the estate.

If we assume the house is worth £250k, the equity release is £50k and the other debts are £20k. The residual estate would be £170k. 20% £34k is due to the Grandchildren and the remaining 80% £146k is the OPs 80%.

@Sillymoo168 you would therefore buy the house for £104k which is £250k less your £146k inheritance. The £104k would then be distributed as £50k to equity release, £20k to clear debts and £34k to the other beneficiaries.

From what @Sillymoo168 you have said you have paid the £50k equity release and the £34k 20% share to other beneficiaries. This means you still have to pay the estate the £20k to clear the debts. As part of this you then “buy” the house from the estate and this is why you need a conveyancing solicitor.

As I say IANAL but that is how I understand the situation.

The fact that the house needs work is irrelevant. It’s the current market value of the house that has to be used. You can’t knock 10K off because it needs a new roof / boiler / windows.

You’re not buying it from yourself - you’re buying it from the estate.

She is not buying it from the estate.

She has the beneficial ownership of 80% of the net value of the house and the grandchildren have the beneficial ownership of 20% of the net value of the house.

The house was subject to a lifetime mortgage (what the OP refers to as "equity release"). The OP paid that off and whoever paid that off is the beneficial owner of that share of the house.

It is as simple as that.

"The fact that the house needs work is irrelevant. It’s the current market value of the house that has to be used. You can’t knock 10K off because it needs a new roof / boiler / windows."

The fact that the house needs work is relevant. That affects the value of the house, if it needs a new roof etc. This will have been reflected in the valuations obtained for probate.

If work needs to be done on the house to maintain it then any prudent homeowner would do that and it is not unreasonable to expect maintenance work to be carried out.

It is not unreasonable to apportion the cost of undertaking the maintenance between the beneficial owners of the property..

@Another2Cats so the op can “buy” the 20% beneficial interest from the other beneficiaries so she owns it 100% and they get their inheritance.