Fairly dividing up a deceased persons possessions?

britboy4321

britboy4321

britboy4321

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Someone dies in your family. No will. They leave their house as you'd expect - sofas, tv, stereo, carpets, beds etc.

You are appointed executor of the estate. This question is not concerning the sale of the house - it is concerning the STUFF in the house.

For this theoretical question there are say 5 family members who were all directly related to the deceased (all sons and daughters) - and all live locally.

Which system should you as executor impose to determine who gets which items out of that house?



1) Just tell every family member to go and help themselves to anything they fancy from the house

Advantages: Easy to organise
Disadvantages: Someone may zoom up to the house as fast as possible, take EVERYTHING, then 'car-boot' it all the weekend later for the wonga - and everyone who intended to be reasonable with the 'choose what you really want' instruction gets nothing :( (and yes I've known this to happen)


2) Tell every family member to write a list of what they want from the house then discuss where there are any overlaps (as in, ok - you have the toaster, I'll have the hall table - deal?)

Advantages: Relatively easy
Disadvantages: Could lead to negotiation lasting hours - people's hurt feelings as they feel other family member is not being reasonable, someone writing 'I want EVERYTHING' again just to give them the greatest negotiating power etc etc.

3) 'Its all goes to charity. Deal with it.'

Advantages: Easy quick simple and some Greek beaten-up donkeys get fed for a while.
Disadvantages: Everyone hates you as no-one got anything.

4) Any item you want, you write in an envelope your bid for that item (silent auction). If you win, er, the stereo - you pay that bid amount to the other family members

Advantages: It's formulaic who wins - so no room for objection
Disadvantages: Beurocratic. A rich family member could snap up loads and loads of things - when a lot of the things have a purely emotional connection. eg. Why should the person who earns most effectively have sole-ownership of all the private correspondance? Should someone who is poor have NO physical link whatsoever back to the deceased because they've been 100% out-bid?

5) Whoever is declared 'the executor' just doles out the stuff as he thinks is fair, stating 'Look, you get the wine glasses, he gets the fridge - she gets the piano as she's the only one that can play it thats just the way it's gonna be I frankly don't care if you're not happy ..'.

Advantages: No negotiation, haggling etc. Your decision is FINAL. You can also reward more the daughter that looked after mother for the last 2 years -- and reward LESS the son that didn't even bother calling for the last 3 years etc.

Disadvantages: Someone or multiple people will probably hate you as you gave someone else the .. er .. grandfather clock. You may make mistakes (give person 1 yet another microwave, when person 2 doesn't have a microwave at all). Some may see you as exercising massive favouritism.

6) Some other system?




It seems like nothing is going to work :( How would you proceed? What is fairest?
 
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Make a list of everything.

Publish the list to those interested parties. Have them put their names against the stuff they want. Whilst doing so have them sign to say they'll abide by the executor's decision.

Dish out as fairly as possible. You might find a lot of people want weird stuff because they have a connection with it, and no-one else would want it.
 
Gilly said:
Make a list of everything.

Publish the list to those interested parties. Have them put their names against the stuff they want. Whilst doing so have them sign to say they'll abide by the executor's decision.

Dish out as fairly as possible. You might find a lot of people want weird stuff because they have a connection with it, and no-one else would want it.
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This.

Once done get a clearance firm to shift the rest and split any money given (there may not be much).
 
Again, I would have thought that certain individuals were entitled to the chattels under the intestacy rules... no?

EDIT - now I'm really not sure, I'm just going to leave it at that before I confuse myself further :D
 
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Give everything a value - that everyone agrees on. Work out what that value is total.

Everyone gets an equal share of that total as virtual money or tokens. Auction the items off - using the virtual money/tokens.

That way if someone really want one item they can lump a load of their money on it.

Anything that doesn't get taken gets sold and then split.
 
You'll find that asking people what they want rarely works. Especially if there are two women who want their mother's wedding ring etc.

I'd hate to be in this position, which is why I'll leave a will ;)
 
Gilly said:
Make a list of everything.

Publish the list to those interested parties. Have them put their names against the stuff they want. Whilst doing so have them sign to say they'll abide by the executor's decision.

Dish out as fairly as possible. You might find a lot of people want weird stuff because they have a connection with it, and no-one else would want it.
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this ^^- as the executor of the will you need to try and maintain impartiality where possible - this can be difficult when you might also be a beneficiary.

a full inventory of the contents for probate purposes. A valuation of this type is done on an open market basis, i.e., what pieces would make if sold in an auction. this should be done as part of the estate process.
 
Ekim said:
Give everything a value - that everyone agrees on. Work out what that value is total.

Everyone gets an equal share of that total as virtual money or tokens. Auction the items off - using the virtual money/tokens.

That way if someone really want one item they can lump a load of their money on it.

Anything that doesn't get taken gets sold and then split.
Click to expand...

I like this a lot -- my favourite idea so far ...
 
Nitefly said:
EDIT - now I'm really not sure, I'm just going to leave it at that before I confuse myself further :D
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Nope I'm not going to drop it, I'm annoyed because my googling and textbooking can't specifically answer my question.

Surely all of the items are entitled to be passed to one person or a group of persons? If there is no will, why does the executor have a choice :confused:
 
simulatorman said:
I would ask them for a list of cherished items they might want and propose that the rest gets cleared and the proceeds split between them.
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thats what we did when my mum died, we had a good family pow wow, & if it had any appreciable monetary value then it was sold off & the money split equally to save any arguments.
 
EVH said:
You'll find that asking people what they want rarely works. Especially if there are two women who want their mother's wedding ring etc.

I'd hate to be in this position, which is why I'll leave a will ;)
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It's quite simple really. You ask people to bargain with other items. If they can't come to an agreement, you toss a coin.
 
Nitefly said:
Nope I'm not going to drop it, I'm annoyed because my googling and textbooking can't specifically answer my question.

Surely all of the items are entitled to be passed to one person or a group of persons? If there is no will, why does the executor have a choice :confused:
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I think the executor has what our US friends call 'The power of attorney'. The system is 'One person gets appointed to basically choose what goes down in groove town' - although if anyone really hates what the executor does he can theoretically be taken to court over his decisions.

Not 100% sure of the above though ..
 
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