Selling mums house

It was about £12 to £15K for ours.

Katie it's not just the legal costs you need to bear in mind but getting rid of a household of stuff. If you need a skip that's over £200 . Plus time it takes to clear a house out. Takes longer than you think . Plus all the endless paperwork you need to deal with. So it's not just the financial cost but all the time and effort you have to put into dealing with the sale.

Katie, I really cannot recall. how much it cost us to sell Dads house, sorry. The solicitor handled everything and Mum and Dad were very clued up with their wills so the. whole process was seamless.

When the time came to clear the home we donated loads of stuff to a local project who set up the homeless - sheets, blankets, pots & pans, crockery, cutlery, ovenware, tools, furniture - you name it, they accepted it. Upholstered items had to have the labels on warning of fire risks though.

Apart from a few sentimental items the ornamental stuff was donated to the local Air Ambulance too.

Basically, unless the house is full of damaged, unusable stuff there is really no need to go to the expense of hiring skips.

I wish you well as I know it can be a very difficult task but knowing that the contents are going to be of some use does make things easier somehow.

An Estate agent will be between 1- 1.5% of the sold price, depending where in the country you are and there may be extras for photos. But you can usually negotiate this, especially in an area of high demand.
Unless you are in Scotland, it is the buyer who pays for any surveys. The conveyancing solicitor could cost between £1000 to £2000 for a house of this value, but it depends on the complexity of the sale.
It is quite acceptable to ask a couple of solicitors for their fees.
You will, of course have to pay any inheritance tax due on the profit you make from the sale. But this will also depend on the circumstances of the will.
Sorry for your loss and hope it all goes smoothly.

Katie I think that Big Bertha has given you a good ballpark figure. It really is a 'how long is a piece of string' question. Agents Fees and Solicitors Fees are your main costs. Many solicitors will give you a fixed price - rather more than that stated by J52.

However, there may be other expenses, according to the condition of that property. If there are any outstanding repairs it may be a good idea to get these carried out before putting on the market. Then, you will have to make arrangements for clearing all furniture out ( best to do most of this AFTER it is sold - rooms look better when 'dressed'). Might want to get in professional cleaners for oven and for carpets, etc.

There is no sellers survey anymore. That idea only lasted a very short time. However, you will need to find all paperwork relating to Central Heating and Boiler, window replacements, electrical work, chimney cleaning, etc. etc. As has been said you will be asked so very many questions by the purchasers solicitors (once a sale has been agreed). At the final stage you will have to ensure that the property is left totally empty.

Hope all goes well for you

When I cleared my daughters house I didn’t hire a skip, nearly everything went to charity. A few things I put on our free to collect website and anything broken went to the tip. We did have to sell as the house was social housing but we did have to get rid of all the flooring, pot in the garden etc and leave it clean. I handled all the paperwork and everything was done within a month.

We tried to sell earlier this year. £500k house, and after working everything out, it came between £18,000 and £20,000 depending on how we did things/who we went with. So Big Bertha's estimate for a £300k house sounds right.

If your Mum was widowed, she would have inherited your Dad's IHT allowance of £325K, ie £650K. Have a look at the government website for more info if this applies.

You have to allow for expenses for:_

Estate agent's commission, varies
The photos for the listing if the EA use a separate photographer, I paid £200 for mine
Floor plan £50
EPC was £50 in 2021

Solicitor fees. I paid £1200 on a £275K sale.

Clearance costs if you aren't doing it yourself. I was quoted £50 per item by a local company, ridiculous.
BHF will come for furniture but are very particular.

You might want to pay someone to freshen up some areas with paint, a gardener to tidy up the garden.

Good luck, I hope you find an agent you like and everything goes smoothly.

Just a thought
We are fortunate to have a good auction house nearby. I took a lot of my MiL's china and ornaments there and raised a bit of cash to offset the selling costs. I would have taken some of the furniture too had the house been closer.

BHF, Sue Ryder and our local hospice all collect furniture, Emmaus is grateful for tools and cutlery. A commercial whole house clearance cost £700 - it was a very big house with a lot of 'stuff' - we thought it was worth every penny given the effort it takes to re-home things sometimes.

I hope it goes smoothly for you.

I sold just over three years ago

Estate agents 1%
Solicitors£1200
Removal £1000
+VAT on all that
I can’t think of anything else I had to pay for.

So about £6000 on a £300000 house.

Are people thinking about the cost of a move rather than just a sale?

Razz has explained what I was going to say about 2x the IH tax limit and there’s also the main dwelling allowance too.
We don’t know why Katie is selling? It may be her Mum’s going into res care, so no taxes would apply, just ‘costs’.

Assuming it’s after a death, then there’s applying for probate to take into account time wise and the paperwork once sold is taking many months, due to Covid backlog. (4-5 up here)
When my Dad died, I hired 3 skips as no Agency wanted anything, which was very frustrating and quite upsetting too. Also, the monthly household bills had to be met and insuring the property, when empty was ridiculously expensive. I had it completely modernized as Dad hadn’t been bothered, so luckily, once it was ready for market, it was sold to the first viewer.

My neighbours house was sold by his daughter and her dh. They told me they did all the legal work on line so didn’t engage a solicitor. It only took a few weeks to complete and their only expense was a fee when they had to go somewhere to sign the completion documents. I think at the time it was a few hundred pounds. Seemed to remember £250. I looked the procedures up when my parents died and thought it appeared quite straight forward and help was available. My parents wills had named my brother executor (my df always thought women shouldn’t be bothered with those sort of things). So I offered to do it for him but he wasn’t at all confident and insisted he gave it to a solicitor. However, I have heard of other sales being undertaken by using the internet and in all cases it was a much quicker procedure than giving it to a hard pressed solicitor. Of course it depends on the straight forwardness of each case. If a lot of beneficiaries are involved it may be more complex.

Sold earlier this year. £425k.

1% estate agent fee — seller's market, the flat was sold in 48 hours without photos or marketing: they just mentioned to people looking that it was coming onto the market and the first person to see it bought it.

£2000 solicitor's fee: it was a leasehold flat and there was extra work involved. I'd expect £1200 - 1500 for an average £300k freehold property.

We were asked by the buyers' solicitors to have a Gas Safe inspection and report on the boiler, with certificate: somewhere in the £200 region.

Clearing the place: we had a garage sale one weekend, charging minimal prices, and a lot of stuff went. Some people will take practically anything: I presume they resell on EBay. Some of the old brown furniture was taken to be repainted and up-cycled. BHF was offered the best stuff and refused most of it. Remaining china and crockery and small items went to the local charity shops. Duvets (we washed them first) went to an animal shelter. We left several large items in the front garden with a 'Please take me' sign after the garage sale and about half disappeared in a couple of days. Tools and gardening equipment went to a charity that services, cleans and sharpens them and donates them to Africa and locally. The waste metals man took the old washing machine. The final few boxes and big items and the fridge were collected by a registered 'man with a van' service and taken to a recycling centre. It was hard work and I wouldn't blame anyone for paying someone else to do it.

I would say if the house is empty, to invest in the timer lighting system.

I was in a rented cottage a few doors down when I was selling my house at auction, and wish I'd done this. Garden ornaments were stolen, as well as my - full - green waste bin, which I had to replace at a cost of £49 I think, as I had put it on the PIF.

Razzamatazz

If your Mum was widowed, she would have inherited your Dad's IHT allowance of £325K, ie £650K. Have a look at the government website for more info if this applies.

You have to allow for expenses for:_

Estate agent's commission, varies
The photos for the listing if the EA use a separate photographer, I paid £200 for mine
Floor plan £50
EPC was £50 in 2021

Solicitor fees. I paid £1200 on a £275K sale.

Clearance costs if you aren't doing it yourself. I was quoted £50 per item by a local company, ridiculous.
BHF will come for furniture but are very particular.

You might want to pay someone to freshen up some areas with paint, a gardener to tidy up the garden.

Good luck, I hope you find an agent you like and everything goes smoothly.

In addition to the personal allowance for IHT, there is also £175,000 allowed for a house if it is left direct to the children.

Capital gains tax might also be due if you inherited the house a while ago - on any increase in value. As my mum dies in June but we cannot sell it until the tenants lease ends next April, we might pay Capital gains tax if house prices increase from the probate price.

I forgot to add that having the boiler serviced is a good idea before selling, I think I paid about £150 for my mine. I was oil at my previous house, the buyer also wanted to know the make and age of my oil tank.

The buyer is responsible for paying for any electrical checks and be prepared, the regulations seem to change every year. I didn't have a survey here and had to pay £400 to have the heat/smoke alarm replaced, as well as the transformers for the 17 spotlights to accept LED lighting.

It might be helpful to you to join the forum 'House Buying, Selling and Renting' on MSE.

Good luck, we too are in the process of Selling Mums flat.

We have left it empty for over 2 years mainly as my sister and I have had other issues on the go.
It's one of these Mccarthy Stone flats so we have been paying those fee. Quite a lot for a empty one bed flat.

We did have a stroke of luck, my friends MiL saw it, and asked could she buy it?.. Brilliant.
We had just put it with an Agent so luckily we don't have to pay them. They were only 0.75 %. Not bad.

As we have to just sell we have just got a Conveyancer to deal with that side.
Cost's. Their fee, plus transfers is around £2.500.

Mum seriously down sized when she moved there, so not a full house full of stuff . Also she had the balance of that money so enjoyed giving lovely gifts to family and replacing furniture, curtains etc
Consequently her furniture wasn't dated, she was very fond of M&S!
Those bits have mostly found homes.
Even the guy who arrived to take the Photos for the Agent asked if he could buy her Recliner Chair from us still had Warrenty left on it.

Tomorrow we have, 'Stella's Voice "coming in to take the rest away they take everything cups, knives and forks etc if they don't want or think they won't find a home for it, we will get it up to the tip.

We won't have to deal with Inheritance tax as the final amount doesn't hit that zone.
She also had money from her previous house sell which contributed to her Care Package, and the Care home she went into to end her days, which was eye watering but it was her money.

End of an Era when we finally close that door for a last time which I'm sure you will all feel too.

Thanks ladies I’ll work on 5% and hope it’s less