Inheritance, house not selling and charity. What to do?

[FruitFoool]

I am a benefactor of my Great Aunt’s will. The estate is split several ways with 25% going to charity.

The solicitor is the executor of the will. The problem is that her house is just not selling, and because there are charities as benefactors the solicitors are reluctant to reduce the price. In six months there hasn’t even been one viewing! Is there anything we can do? I understand charities need to protect their legacies but this situation is a bit ridiculous. None us live near the house and it just doesn’t seem wise to have it sitting there empty.

I do not stand to inherit a huge amount but obviously I would like the situation to be resolved.

Surely it’s better to have less money rather than none?
legacies cannot be relied on so any money to charities is beneficial
I would reduce the price and get it sold

No idea.

But my DH insisted a clause was put in his will saying that any charities who moaned/complained/took action (not sure of details) got zilch.

If it isn't getting any viewings it is obviously priced too high!

That’s what I, and all the family, want to do but the solicitors are saying that because of the charity element they have to try and get the highest possible price.

But very clearly what they are asking for is not a possible price. I have no idea what you do about it - sorry - but what on Earth are they thinking, six months without a viewing in this market! They’ve probably lost everyone money by taking this line.

Agree. We are no doubt racking up a huge bill with them.

This is why it's much wiser to leave a specific amount to charity rather than a percentage. Charities obviously want to maximise their gift so they aren't interested in reducing the price of a property for a quick sale.

I would argue that given one viewing in 6 months it means it's overpriced.

It is absolutely over priced. We can’t get the solicitors to agree to reduce the price. It’s not some huge mansion. It’s probably worth £270k ish

Unfortunately charities are notorious for this, they always push for the most amount possible even when it's counterproductive. I have heard some horror stories.

The solicitor has no motivation to move things along as they are racking up legal fees.
Can you contact the charity directly? The larger ones usually have legal teams specifically to deal with legacies.

I've told my dc that if they wish to give anything to charity when i die that's up to them.

I know several people who've had charities breathing down their necks for a legacy!
I'll give to charity whilst I'm alive.

How frustrating for you. I think the longer the house is left the less money the charity will get , especially as it is empty.

Basically at this point you are chasing the market down, if it is priced correctly then it will get viewings and be sold. In 6 months time the market will have truly starting falling.

She has left the money to several small local charities such as the parish church and things like that. So there isn’t one organisation to deal with.

We brought a house that was like this.

It was a set process of 4 Saturdays of open days and then sealed bids. Plus chain free buyers only.

However we live in an area with high demand, so maybe it wouldn't work in a lower demand area.

Was three valuations obtained? Which one is being used? If not the lower one, the solicitor after a period, would be in their rights to now use the lower one.

It might be worth asking them to have the house revalued. It is in a nice village location and I assumed it would see easily but it’s obviously not what people want in that area.

People think leaving money to charity is easy, but it’s not, they want as much money as they can get (understandably). It’s way better for people to leave an amount. Surely it’s down to the Executor to get the best price, but within a decent time frame.

The problem with leaving an amount is
a) if assets are less than expected eg because of care home fees, then the charity gets a disproportionately high amount
b) There are IHT advantages to gifting to charity, but only is a certain % is met.

No viewings after 6 months sounds like serious mismanagement.

Good choice. As soon as some charities get a sniff of money from a will they can be awful.

My dad was executor of a will recently and made a mistake in calculating the amounts to be paid to 2 charities. Each charity was getting around £50,000 and my dad mistakenly calculated, for example, £49,750 to one and £50,250 to the other.

The charity that received £250 short insisted that it was corrected, so my Dad had to get the other charity to refund £250 so the other charity could be reimbursed.

The solicitors involved are obviously a bit scared of being accused by a charity beneficiary of not achieving the best price possible.

In reality though, it's not had a single viewer. No-one is buying it. They've got to reduce the price.

As a PP has said - better to have reduced money, than no money at all!

Have you considered selling via auction ?

I think the solicitors are the problem here. I've never done this so not sure of the route, but I would make a short written complaint to the practice and follow-up with lots of polite but very persistent calls. If you get no effective response, contact the Law Society perhaps.

The key thing will be to be clear what you want - in this case very simple. Show any evidence you have of local sale prices and lower valuation and ask for pricing to be allowed to follow the market working with an estate agent to be mutually agreed, and propose an agent you get on with.

Solicitors' Regulation Authority, rather than the Law Society.

Thank you for this advice

I was going to suggest this too. Then it goes for what it's worth on the day, and they'd have little room to say it was undersold, as if it was someone would have bid higher.

If you are sticking with traditional sale, I'd get a proper valuation from a RICS surveyor rather than an estate agent to defend your price reduction with.