Over estimated personal belongings/chattels for probate

[monologue]

The Estate (Intestate) is well below the Inheritance Tax Threshold but when applying for probate, all the deceased personal belongings and household items was just randomly estimated valued at £4,000.
One of beneficiary has thrown away all household item/furniture and white goods and the remainder, mainly ornaments, trinkets, photographs, a Tv, radio and VCR are of very little monetary value but effectively, the final value of the estate is £4,000 short…. Will this be an issue when distributing the estate under the rules of intestate ?

[Pezza54]

The estate administrator appointed by Letter of Administration will want to know what has happened to the deceased's property as it is his or her duty to dispose of it.
Hopefully the white goods and furniture were very old and the realistic selling price was worth very little (nothing like £4k) The beneficiary that threw these items away will have to explain to the administrator the reason why they disposed of the goods
The beneficiaries may be troubled that items have been thrown away and not sold. Probate will not be concerned

[echat11]

The best thing to do is, be upfront, that they've been disposed of, write a list of items with description, make, etc. the value. That's the best you can do.

[monologue]

The beneficiary who threw away the furniture etc, has been kicking up a fuss about other aspects of the administrator of the estate, involved a solicitor & will only respond through the solicitor and since, the administrator is getting solicitors letters, with all kind of demands and accusations.

At the time of entering the estimated value for personal belongings, there was never any intention of selling anything, just to share out belongings as mementos or whatever and maybe give whatever remains to a charity and in the administrator own time, now the administrator is worried they will have to make up the shortfall ?

[echat11]

Posted for information only - https://www.kiddrapinet.co.uk/wills-...beneficiaries/

[monologue]

Thanks for your link echat11

However, I’m attempting to gather as much information as possible and without the cost of a solicitor, hence my question on a website such as this.

Therefore, if anyone has been in a similar quandary and are good enough to share their experience or legal expertise and knowledge with me on here, I would be grateful.

[des8]

Well if I was the administrator I would be tempted to write to the awkward beneficiaries solicitor and warn him that his client could find himself in difficulties for having intermeddled in the estate (by disposing of the estate assets) without any authority.
Would suggest he allows the administrator to complete settlement of the estate without further interference.

[echat11]

Thanks for your link echat11

However, I’m attempting to gather as much information as possible and without the cost of a solicitor, hence my question on a website such as this.

Therefore, if anyone has been in a similar quandary and are good enough to share their experience or legal expertise and knowledge with me on here, I would be grateful.

The link was posted for information.

The Administrator could post all the beneficiaries a letter setting out all the information they would ever need.

Instead of seeing the beneficiary as a 'trouble maker', use their solicitors letters as an opportunity to clarify for all the estate.

Neat post from Des.

[monologue]

Thanks again for the replies and opinions.

However, the concern is the discrepancy between the estimated value of the household items etc and the true value of the estate, which technically and on paper, is £4,000 short.
Despite, the items which have been thrown away, the Administrator never intended to sell any of the belongings to raise money to add to the estate and is now worried that the “trouble making” beneficiary will make a claim and expect the administration to make up the shortfall

[des8]

I don't see there should be a problem over the difference in valuations
There are many different basis for valuing property, and they are not mutually exclusive.
For example there are valuations for insurance purposes; for probate and open market valuations.

Probate valuations are used to calculate the value of a deceased estate for tax purposes and are determined by HMRC guidelines.
Market valuations are determined by the sale price of similar assets within the marketplace.

And if the troublemaker has disposed of the items he can hardly expect a share of their estimated value.
If he tries to stir up trouble over that, just tell him as he disposed of the goods he must make up the shortfall for the other beneficiaries

[PallasAthena]

First time I was an Executor I used a solicitor who said "Just stick a couple of thousand £££ for furniture etc in because HMRC will query it if you put Nil, don't bother to try and value every item. Most people's furniture is worth almost nothing on probate valuation". (Advice would be different if you have lots of jewellery, gold, silver, works of art, antiques...)

Household goods and personal effects are valued for probate at what you could sell them for as secondhand items. For the furniture and white goods you describe that is effectively Nil. Almost nobody wants to buy a secondhand fridge, even most charities won't accept them for electrical safety reasons. Likewise soft furniture can't be sold, even by charities, unless it complies with latest fire safety rules and has the original manufacturers fire compliance tag still attached. In fact they have negative value, you'll have to pay dispose of them.

You are worrying too much about this. The Estate isn't short by £4,000, it never had £4,000 in cash terms to start with. As you are well below IHT the probate value is irrelevant. Beneficiaries aren't entitled to a % of the probate value, only to a % of what the actual cash is in the Estate when all assets have been turned into cash if they have any value. Actual cash is all that matters as far as the residuary estate is concerned.

[monologue]

Thanks for the two most recent and very thorough replies, it was our thinking too but since the beneficiary has got involved and instructed a solicitor, we’re questioning everything and the the administrator doesn’t want to be liable for a random figure she entered when estimating the value of household items and belongings when applying for probate.

As it’s an intestate estate, there’s no direction as what to do with the personal belongings, which are mainly ornaments and, the administrator planned to go through all the belongings in her own time once the estate had been distributed, there was never any intention to sell anything to add to the estate.