Inheriting a property in joint ownership

[cyber69]

My wife and her brother have fallen out about selling a property they have both inherited well over a year ago now.

My wife worked hard to get it ready for sale and now my brother in law's girlfriend has changed her mind and they are saying they would like to move in.

They have a property which they would need to sell and they came round to us today to discuss how much they are willing to pay us.

Her brother had arranged for two estate agent valuations and took a value just above the base amount but instead of just dividing this sum into 50/50, he has taken off 1.5% estate agent fees plus vat off our half.

Agreed we would have had to pay this if we had sold the property but they are selling their own house and moving in so in reality no fee's are due - only the one's on selling their own property.

We verbally agreed at the time but reflecting on it, my wife is now thinking if it worth arguing about the false fee's he has taken off her half of the property.

It's not a great deal of money, probably enough for a week's holiday away somewhere nice.

 

[cyber69]

Technically they already own the house though, so unless their half of the house is over £125k there wouldn't be any stamp duty.

Definitely don't pay for their estate agent listing fees though, especially if you've spent money to get the house ready for sale. Or at the very least deduct these costs from their pot of money.

Both of the estate agents valued the house at 190k tops but a realistic sale price of 185k so her brother gave us a figure of 186k which I suppose is not the average.

My wife's decided to accept their offer of 91.6k but is going to tell him she is not prepared to pay any solicitor costs etc.

Do you think this is a good compromise? She just wants to get it all sorted out now due to the way she's been treated by her brother.

 

[cyber69]

Where has this estate agent fee come from? You shouldn't be paying an estate agent anything for this transaction.

My feelings exactly. We all sat down together last weekend to sort this out and her brother showed us the estate agent valuations which looked fair and we accepted that the house would sell for £186k. I said to her brother then that my wife is due to expect £93k then as her share and then he piped up about these estate agent fee's of 1.25% plus the VAT which brought her share down to £91.6k.

As he is buying her share of the house, there is NO estate agent even involved in the transfer! He has to sell his own house to help buy my wife's share but he should then have to pay his own estate agent fee's.

I said at the time that to save arguments we would accept this lower figure and since then my wife has managed to speak to him again to say that she is prepared to accept this as long as he pays all the solicitor costs. We are waiting to hear back if he has accepted this.

We are not 'well off' and £1400 would pay for a family holiday this year so my wife is not happy about it now to say the least having had time to think about his actions.

Before their parents died they seemed to get on well as brother and sister but since their mum died he has spent no time at all helping my wife to decorate the house for sale and spent more time going out with his friends and going away for the weekends with his girlfriend whilst my wife has spent our weekends apart with me looking after our daughter and her over at the house.

It's created a great deal of animosity between them which is totally un-warranted.

My wife just said that if he does'nt accept the solicitor fees then she won't let him buy her half at that lower cost.

The £186 figure is not even the average between £185k and £190k. Sound like penny pinching I know, but considering it would take us a year to both save even £2k maybe she is entitled to every penny she is due?

 

[cyber69]

My brother in law used to be a mortgage advisor! If he had'nt made up these estate agent fee's then I suppose we would have been prepared to contribute towards the solicitor costs.

He has not even sorted out the land registry fully in his and my wife's name since their parents died over a year ago. It's always been something he said he would do but never got around to it. Now he says that there is no need as the house will be transferred soley in his name once he buys my wife's share.