Probate Values- Household Goods

particularly

I got an antiques/house clearance bloke in and asked him to put everything in his quote, including the car, and zero value stuff like 3 piece suite with illegal foam etc. At least it saves you itemising the stuff yourself. Otherwise I think you can just group them under their prescribed headings. The value they're after is what you would get if you sold it responsibly today which, in most cases, amounts to bugger all (or less). I don't imagine The Revenue waste too much time on anything that doesn't have a paper trail. Anything decent probably won't have belonged to the deceased anyway, will it?

Are you having to clear a house? If so, what the house clearance people give you for what they take away. Valuable stuff can always be given to a charity, in which case it is exempt from IHT.

Valuable stuff is only exempt if the deceased gave those items to charity, ie before she died. It's too late now.

CC

Yes, you should include everything. When the total runs into hundreds of thousands, IR are not going to get involved with the small things, as long as you're sensible. If in doubt you should get a third party to value the items. For effects like you mention, you could get a "house contents" auctioneer (or someone who deals with this sort of stuff) to estimate the value, or you could just put in 500. If in doubt, contact IR and ask for help.

If there are any items that beneficiaries particularly like, pass these on to them, agreeing and recording values. As for selling, you would probably get the best price for major items (TV, video, etc) by putting an advert in your local paper. Other items can be sold via an auctioneer with clothing going perhaps to a favourite charity shop. In practice many people want to avoid the distress of dragging out the selling process and get just one person to take everything away.

If some items remain unsold, a charity shop should help out. For anything left, your local council will help to dispose of "bulky items" (like a broken fridge).

It is a good idea to clear most items out of the house before putting it onto the market, although it is worth leaving carpets, curtains, a bed and table or two if it adds to the appearance of the property.

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In message , ClippertyClop writes

Not if a Deed of Variation can be arranged.

Just been quoted 425+VAT to do that by a local solicitor, and that's "providing it's simple". Parasites!

In message , stuart noble

Oh, its a simple job then is it?

IME Those house clearance people are largely fiction. There are pages of them in the yellow pages, but when you phone them up they don't come, or they come and say they'll take one or two items out of a houseful, in our case a drop leaf hall table with turned wooden legs. They refuse even modern bedroom furniture on;y 3-4 years old, so

1950's utility stuff stands no chance. Soft furniture may have the wrong kind of foam, and gas appliances are another No-No.

So the OP should remember there'll be a cost associated with disposing of all the tat.

DG

If you've decided that the items are of zero value then your local authoriuty should be able to put you in touch with a charity that will take most stuff away for re-use.

We got rid of all my dad's rubbish furniture this way.

tim

There are pages

There you go, then. If half the stuff is worth something, in the sense that someone is prepared to come for it, cart it away themselves, and give you money for it, but the other half isn't, and you'd have to pay them (or someone else) to take it away, and the cost of the 2nd half matches (or exceeds) the payout of the first, then for probate purposes the value of the contents as a whole will be zero (or negative).

Thanks for all replies/suggestions.

CC