Property costs 1989-90! Weird questions

[Pluvia]

I have POA for an elderly relative who has recently gone into a care home. I'm trying to sort out her finances.

To fund her immediate care I'm just about to sell her holiday/ second home, which she and her late husband purchased in 1989. We complete next week. CGT needs to be paid on the sale proceeds and I need to provide details of how much was paid for the property in 1989 and how much it would have cost in conveyancing and EA fees etc. There's absolutely no paperwork that I can find. My aunt is adamant that they paid £85,000, but there are no existing Land Registry records before 1995. What does one do in these circumstances?

Apparently we're allowed to claim for the Estate Agent's fees, too –but again, no paperwork. Has anyone else been through this?

Commiserations to everyone else who was in negative equity in the 90s. I was hoping at that point to retrain for a completely different line of work — one that would, in retrospect, have been very lucrative and would have made a big difference to my life. But with interest rates at 15% and unemployment and negative equity I couldn't afford to do it. All the youngsters moaning about how us oldies have had it so easy have no idea how financially turbulent the 80s and 90s were, do they?

If the estate is going to charity there is no IHT

OP, do you have the title number of the property? It's possible that the transfer/conveyance is listed on the Land Registry system but you need the better part of it than the general system. Even if it isn't, you can use apply to the Land Reg and give a rough idea of details (eg Transfer dated approx July 1985 to Mrs J Smith). If you want to pm me, I'll talk to you about it in case that's any use.

The buyer doesn’t pay estate agent fees, so you only need to deduct the current estate agent fees.

You should contact the Land registry to see if you can obtain the historic record for your relative's purchase. It wouldn't be available online but you might be able to obtain it. It's unlikely your relative incurred estate agency fees on the purchase, they are normally incurred on a sale.

@CavernousScream

The buyer doesn’t pay estate agent fees, so you only need to deduct the current estate agent fees.

I’ve already pointed this out. She needs to factor in stamp duty though as per my previous post.

Does this help ?

www.nationwide.co.uk/house-price-index/

I looked up the title deeds the other day of a property that last sold in 1982 on HM Land Registry. It gave details of the purchase price, though apparently not all deeds do. It cost me £6 to look up both the title and the property plan. If you go this route, be sure to use the official Land Registry (.gov.uk) website as the first couple of hits that come up in a google search are for intermediary companies who charge a large fee to give you no more information than the actual Land Registry does.

www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry