Due to inherit Buy to let portfolio in ruins run by hoarding Father

[Emily24601]

Where to start

my Father has built/earn everything he’s got, he was not privileged nor gifted/inherited money, with a small portfolio he was a genius but you can’t run a sizeable portfolio the same way I start with this as I want to give him credit where credit is due and show some respect as the rest is fairly negative.

im also going to be vague with details as this take is recognisable to anyone involved, but I’m desperate for some advice so hear we go.

im the sole heir to a portfolio of about 6-7 million - probably closer to 5.7 less liabilities spread across one limited and two non limited companies.

My Father has worked like a dog for what he has and is obsessed with saving money to the point it often becomes blatant false economy. He has no friends or life or hobbies, does nothing he enjoys and admits he’s never been more miserable, he doesn’t even have his own home, he stays with a girlfriend he rents to. His is firmly into his seventies.

he Also had a severe hoarding problem as in like the tv shows where you walk in tunnels to small clearings, his main obsession is scrap metal but hordes food, paperwork, has 6 cars that should of been scrapped strewn across off road parking in peoples gardens/outdoor areas some for over 17 years and we’re not taking in a garage or classics we’re taking polo’s or cavaliers with a tree growing through the bonnet. We have over 1.4 million in houses sat empty as we’ve for example plastered redecorated new bathroom kitchen and then he mothballs it over £1.50 an hour on the chippies rates or carpet layer, he gets in a mood mothballs it then gradually fills it head to foot with his illness he even hordes cable to get the wire inside, some have been like it for more than ten years so paying triple council tax. Over what ? Normally over the job anything to £100 - £500 disputes against 11k a year rent. It’s madness but unfortunately the tip of the iceberg. I believe home is possibly spectrum something also as he is socially inept as in wired differently to typical humans.

Admin shocking and I’m a dyslexic sales person. Can’t open a text or email, refuses to pay for voicemail and literally won’t notice someone stopped paying rent for a year, and then can’t find their tenancy agreement, has kept no records of their payments so literally can spend a week doing a 15 year statement just to find the evictions invalid as he can’t produce tenancy agreement- paperwork is in bin bags everywhere but no one is allowed to touch them.

over 10 properties £1000’s in arrears

he had been avoiding expenditures for 30 years so bar the old kitchen and bathroom everything is bodged, wall comes of onto paint roller bodged.

multiple environmental health problems due to hoarding and the above.

he puts no value on his own time, will spend 3 days fixing a toilet on the skanky floor of someone who 6 years in arrears and considers this to time well spent when a plumber would of been £60. if he needs 30 bricks he will drive around all day collecting free ones. He needs to retire.

i became his company Director this January, i have no interest in this but thought i had more chance of minimising how much poop im in when he goes now rather than when trying to find the 2-3 million inheritance tax bill when he goes.

he won’t let us get anywhere, he puts a block in every job and treats me like a labourer, he pays me very badly and treats me worse a quotes is “ if I had a son he would make tools with stuff onsite”
he wants me to be him but that’s clearly not working ! He refuses to hire competent trades people but can’t see the bigger picture.

i suggested as doing two identical flats in a row doing a cost/profit analysis on his way v my way but not allowed

he won’t clear his crap out of the business
he won’t auction off some off our problems to allow us to get on top of the maintenance issues across 20-30 properties.
there’s no plan for inheritance tax bill
he won’t let me do what needs to be done or make any impact
I’m doing 15 hour days and more miserable than I can remember being professionally and to quote bono “ running to stand still”

now let’s complicate this
im his heir and executor with his sister who has no clue about the business.
Beside money to my other half snd my step child the rest I want in trust to my toddler
income trustees and executors
he won’t let me get legal advice I’m on 30k, my nursery fees are 1.5 k a month

So many questions

if I walk out when he goes it’s still my problem anyway ?


If I walk he will cut me out fine by me but if he leaves to toddler and makes me executor do I have to deal with the “business “?

Whats the difference between a trustee and a financial guardian?

I own 17% of Ltd company if I died before my dad would my executors or trustees have to deal with him of the business ? And on his death his estate which is in a mess ?

I don’t want to burden anyone with what I’m trying to deal with.
It’s mental and I don’t have the autonomy to make it better, it’s a millstone not a legacy.

[Neet Lurker]

Sounds like you're thinking about the future too much and not living in the present (also not everybody works for the money, some do it to keep themselves sane)

[Pezza54]

Why would you want to walk away?
When the time comes, you and your sister can renounce your executor duties and appoint a solicitor to take over.
Agents to sell the properties (builders are interested in buying delapidated properties to renovate and sell) and business
Then you can walk away with your inheritance turned into cash without upsetting your dad

[Tremarl]

I'm really confused what the problem is. If he dies, you can just employ a solicitor to do the probate and assist with your duties.

This sounds more like a complaint, than a genuine query.

I have no idea what a financial guardian is (maybe a scottish notion?), but a trustee is merely a person who runs a trust. A trust is merely a corpus for the control of property, that is held for the benefit of another. A trustee can renounce their role. The corpus for the control of the property a "trust" sits in the realms of the rule of equity. Which is very similar to common law, but came from the ecclesiastical courts to try and fill in the gaps left by common law. However, nowadays its just used for complex financial vehicles and tax avoidance (ahem legal reduction of tax liabilities through a diversified and well structured tax plan), but for most normal people Wills.


Anyway, if you get all the beneficiaries in the trust to agree (when he's popped his clogs), you can actually agree to settle the Will in anyway you like under the Saunders rule.

[gowelboy]

You can't change the past, only the future. As others have said you'll ultimately have an opportunity to delegate to a solicitor and other out-sourcing avenues in order to pull it all together.