So my dad was on his own since mum died a decade ago, now he has died I have to sort out the house. They always had a lot of stuff but without mum around he’d been buying even more. They lived in an old farmhouse with outbuildings. The property is worth around a million. I honestly didn’t realise he had so much squirrelled away. It’s loads of random antiques and general old stuff Some might be worth a bit of money, maybe occasionally up to £500, some probably not worth anything at all. A lot are charity shop purchases. I’ve checked his ebay and he was paying say £50 for a table that I might have otherwise have thought was worth a lot more. Most things he had for years or there is no record of what was paid. But, I suppose even things of little value can add up if there is enough of them and there is a lot.
My question is, how do I put an accurate value on this all for inheritance tax purposes. It seems to me that it would take months to research what each item was worth because there are hundreds and hundreds of individual things. A professional valuer couldn’t even get to all the things to value them without a lot of trouble rummaging everything out and like I say, it would take forever. I don’t know where to begin. It seems insurmountable at this stage and I just want it to be sorted as simply as possible.