Do You Ever Get That Sinking Feeling?

Do you ever get the feeling that you think you know it all, but then you find out that you know diddly squat? Yes? good, it's not just me then. Let me explain, Recently my brother inherited my late aunts house, which he has been living in with her for the past fifteen years. When she passed away, we, in all innocence thought that he would be able to stay there, no problems, no interference, nothing, peaceful. Yeah right.

The vultures descended, the crows started circling and that deep mysterious thing called the government suddenly raised its rather scary head. Obviously we knew that he would have to deal with the deeds and probate, of course that was by the by, but then those two horrible words suddenly emerged. Inheritance Tax. Now the trouble was, I had heard about it of course, but it never dawned on me that it would in any way be relevant to me and my brother. Stupid I know, but as I said at the beginning, i thought i knew it all. After nearly two years of hiding under the proverbial blanket, we realised that however nice they were being, the government that is, they wouldn't let us off indefinitely. So, in July this year we started the only thing we could do. Sell the house.

Neither of us had the money to pay the inheritance tax, which is worked out at 40% of anything over 300,000 pounds, whether that be the house or other holdings. The trouble is we both live in one of the most expensive places in England, Buckinghamshire.

That's the good news, the bad news is we are from original Buckinghamshire stock! which roughly translates as being nearly broke. Whilst we were getting on with our lives over the past twenty years, minding our own business, in our sweet little town by the river, rich people suddenly spotted it and said " ooh darling look how quaint, lets move in and take over from those country yokels, and buy up all the houses by the river, as its so wonderful", and at the same time tripple the cost of the houses, oh, and also make the shops the most expensive ones in the world, well nearly. Sorry where was I, oh yes, Inheritance tax. in 2007 it was 40% of over 300,000 now in 2009 it is based on £325,000. are'nt they generous? So, as there was no other way of paying it, apart from robbing a bank, and believe me the thought had crossed my mind, we had to sell the house.

So after a few weeks of peering into estate agents window, and tentatively popping our heads around the doors to find out if there were any suitable houses or flats that my brother would like to buy, i realised that what i was actually doing was getting myself accustomized to the strangeness of it all, finding the people i liked, trying to set up a rapport with the estate agents, and try to see which one i thought was the best and most trustworthy.

This was a huge amount of money to us, and if it all went wrong my brother would end up living in a tent on the by-pass!

The one thing i did notice was the way they all knew each others business! They were all in competition with each other, and i noticed a few disparaging remarks about the opposition, but it was all done in a light hearted jokey way! The one thing i was very glad to see was how professional and helpful they were, i found it was a good idea to get to know them first. When things become familiar they are not so daunting.

Eventually we found the right one we felt comfortable with, and so with a great deal of trepidation and a few sweaty palms, we took the first step.

We made the phone call.

The estate agent came round the same afternoon, and took a few details about the house, how many bedrooms, looked around the front room, mumbled and took notes, then made a suggestion about how much the selling price would be, He also told us about how much percentage he would be taking for his fee, in this case it was 1% of the sold price.

If there were any questions, he answered then to the best of his ability. And that was it! Off he went with a smile on his face, very glad to beat the opposition, i suppose! We were aware that a photographer would come around at some stage to take photo's of the property, but at that point we were not sure when.

This was at three o clock. At five o clock my brother phoned me and hissed down the phone, "There's somebody peering in the window" i said what? He said, There's somebody peering in... I said, i heard you, what i meant was, Why? I think it may be someone come to look at the house. I said, no i can't be, its too early, but it was!

Not only had we not seen the photographer outside, but by five o clock it was already on the internet. It was unbelievable. Like a giant wave, we were swept into the current, and we felt like we had lost control.

So be prepared for it to take off very, very quickly. Over the next two weeks we had at approximately six couples coming to see the house. You can either stay in and see them yourself, or you can leave a key with the estate agent and he or she can show them around. It's entirely up to you.

We chose to let the estate agent do it.

Coming to terms with it.

The one thing that nobody ever talks about is the emotional side to selling your house. Especially if it is one that has been inherited. Losing someone is a hard thing to do. The feelings that you have at the time of their passing is bad enough, but when you come to terms with it you don't realise just how much comfort you get from the fact that you are still living or visiting the house where they lived, worked, and joked with you. Also, remembering them taking you out when you children. The smells of the house, from the cooking to the smell of their perfume that has permeated the house and still does even now, two years on, is part of the fabric of your life. The walls envelope you like giant arms and when you feel low, the familiarity is comforting. I feel as I walk around the house, that she is just in the other room. it comforts me. I don't think that the government take this into consideration when then drop a whacking great bill on you for inheritance tax. But enough of that.

Next Step

When you have found a buyer, the estate agent will ring you and tell you about them and say what the are willing to offer. Be prepared to expect quite a large drop from what you have asked for. This is just standard. But don't let it drop too much. You have got to find another house for yourself, and you shouldn't have to lower your standards just to please them. Stick to your guns, there will always be another offer, if you have a good estate agent, they will always keep you informed about what is happening, from the big things to the little. We are lucky we got a good one!

If you are happy with the price that is offered, the first thing you must do is get yourself a solicitor, and inform your estate agent of their name and address. He or she will then instruct you solicitor about the sale.

How not to get confused

Your solicitor will send you a client care letter which you then sign and send back, then come the forms. Oh my! Forms about fixtures and fittings, forms about property, Building work, guarantees, building consents, etc so on and so forth! All to be filled out and signed, then sent back to your solicitor.

Hidden cost alert

Imagine my surprise when i realised that we had to pay 150 pounds for this bit! We were exhausted from the mental strain of filling in all these forms and we had to pay for the privilege! So be careful and make sure you keep some extra money for a rainy day. Because it had just poured! This price can be negotiated if you are on low income.As I said before, it's not just well off people who sell their house, sometimes you have no choice.

Also, around this time, a surveyor will come out to assess your property. In our case, it was also being done because the buyer wants to extend the building. We are also having a structural engineer round for the same reason.

Lions and tigers and bears,oh my!

And this is where i have to come to and end for the time being. This is the stage we are still at, right in the middle of the quagmire! I could have waited until we had finished the sale, but i feel that if I had waited that long, not only would I probably forget most of it, but by that time i might be in a care home for the dysfunctional! And then I would have told you it had all been plain sailing, whilst dribbling down my chin! but I'm afraid we are still right in the middle of the puddle, so to keep some sort of sanity so to speak, I will carry on updating you as we go. As you can see we are very lucky to live in such a beautiful spot in Buckinghamshire. All I hope for is that my brother can carry on living here, as he loves it as much as I do. We will start to look at flats and houses next week, so fingers crossed we find, something suitable.

Thank you for reading it so far, and wish me luck!

Hi, well it's been a couple of weeks and to be quite honest, not a lot has happened yet. My brother and I have been frequent visitors to the solicitor, and to her credit, she hasn't got fed up with us quite yet! After taking back all the forms that we had to fill in, we found that there was always little niggles that seem to seep into our minds. Usually at three in the morning.

The main one being, how do we pay the inheritance tax? We were not sure whether the solicitor dealt with it or should we send it to the Tax office, after the sale has gone through.

What we were'nt aware of was that everytime you need to see a solicitor, you may have to make an appointment to see a different one concerning a separate problem. For example, if you are selling your house, you would see one who deals with the house and property and things to do with the home. Another in the same firm of solicitors will deal with inheritance tax. and so on.

So we made an appointment to see the relevant solicitor, and then I received a phone call from them stating that actually we did'nt need one at all! Evidently, as long as the probate has been dealt with and the Government inheritance tax office is aware that you are selling your house, you should be able to pay them after the sale. But you must have a solicitor involved in the house sale, so that they can just give the tax office a ring to confirm this. Obviously this is to make sure that you don't sell the house, grab the money and scarper to a tax free haven abroad!

Ah, I wish.

Now we can concentrate on looking for a new home for my brother. Oh, there is one more very important thing that you must do to make sure that there is no misunderstanding between buyer and seller.

Read the small print and check the contracts.

If you are planning to sell your house and move quickly, then the normal contracts apply, but if, like my brother, you wish to take your time for any reason, especially if it is out of your control, make sure the solicitor puts everything you say down in the contracts. Just one sentence could ruin your plans.

I am lucky, I know the buyer very well, and she has told us that my brother can stay there until February, as she is in no hurry to move in, as there is quite extensive work to be done on the house. But in the great wide world of gobbledegook laws and regulations, even though we know her, it is in her rights to ask my brother for rent, once the contracts have been signed.

But there is another way that is still legal and binding. And that is to stop any misunderstanding, my brother can hold the deeds, until he decides to move out within that time span. The house will in all effectiveness be hers, but he will still pay house insurance, electric and gas. Also any other bill. If the deeds are signed over to her, in effect from that moment on it will be her house, and her bills. And he would be her lodger. So please be very careful about how you word everything, and think, think think again. Watch every letter, word and phrase, because just one word can make a difference to the contracts. Be careful.

We are at this stage, still waiting to see which way it is going to go. The scary thing is, we still have to buy another house, and go through all this from the other side of the fence, so to speak!

See you soon.

Hi, back again. This is a strange time, because it seems to have slowed right down now. It's quite easy to feel that we can just sit back and relax, knowing that the solicitor is doing all the work. But of course we can't. This is the time that I realise me and my brother are totally opposite in character! He is taking his time, looking at the houses and flats that are suitable for him, where as, I seem to be rushing around in a blind panic thinking he's not going to find anything suitable before he has to get out. I seem to be constantly in the estate agents gathering pamphlets and thrusting them in his hands! But there are quite a few options, thank God, and we will be looking at them this week. I know it seems to be taking ages to get all of this sorted, but it's a bit like all of those real time TV series when everything seems to go on for months, then at the end, you edit it in your mind, until you only remember the good bits!

Back to the Roller coaster!

Hi, it's been another hectic week and we have looked at a few houses. My brother has suddenly decided that he wanted to buy a house instead of a flat, so we checked the estate agents again, and found a little gem quite near to where we used to live. So off we went, all excited, thinking that this might be the one.

We checked out the rooms, and the garden. And it was lovely. It was slightly more than he wanted to pay, but it was in his budget, with a small amount of money left over.

There was one thing that was puzzling us, and that was the fact that the estate agents started to talk about Stamp Duty.

We in all our innocence, had never heard about this. So you can imagine our horror when we realised that, not only would he have to pay Inheritance tax on his house that he was selling, but he would also have to find another eight thousand pounds for the privilege of buying another house! Evidently anything up to two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, you have to find one percent Stamp duty, over that it went straight up to three percent.

So bang went that house.

We were so angry. How much more would the Government want us to cough up? There really is a North and South divide. If you are unlucky enough to live in the south of England, however beautiful it is, you seem to be punished a thousand times over. If you live up north, the houses are cheaper, and most of the people living there, apart from the wealthy, probably never have to even think of this sort of thing. Please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong. But wherever you live, you will always find people who are not rich, and are not lucky enough to earn a great amount of money. Yes, there are rich people living down south, but the majority of the population are just normal citizens just trying to make a living, and don't want to be pushed into doing things that make their lives even harder.

As you can see, I am pretty angry. This week has taught me so much. Greed comes in all forms. My brother has spent his whole life looking after other people, now it is his time, and he is being kicked every which way.

So I'll sign of now, and hopefully I will be a bit calmer next time, when I have more news.

Wish us luck.

Luck or fate?

Hi, back again. Yeah, my brother has found a place, and it is brilliant. It is a small flat not far from where he lives now! So all we are doing now is waiting for the paper work. And hopefully there won't be any more hidden costs this time.

I'll keep you informed when I know some more.

Bye for now

Hi, I'm back, that was quick! Anyway what was I saying? oh yeah, luck or fate? What happened was, after the disappointment of losing the house that he wanted, my brother had seen a Flat near his own place, but was too expensive. Also, by the time he got round to looking at it, it had a sold sign up. Oh well, he thought, never mind. So we made an appointment to see another one, but at the last minute the owner pulled out and said it was not convenient.

As we were walking back home, we walked past the other sale sign, and to our amazement, it had gone, and the for sale one was back! So we thought, well we may as well call into the estate agents, and see what was going on.

We were told that the buyer had decided to move nearer to her family. Tentatively we asked how much it was being sold for now, and he said, with a big grin, 250,000. My brother grinned from ear to ear, and said we will look at it. And the rest, as you say, is history.

If we hadn't walked back that way because of the other one being cancelled, we wouldn't have known about it. I get the feeling that it was more than luck, it was very strange.

So now we just wait for all the who ha again! Paperwork, getting rid of rubbish, and deciding what to take with him, and what to buy. Hopefully this will be sorted out soon.

Anyway, I will tell you if any more hidden costs occur!

Bye for now.

Hiya, back again. Guess what? yes, another hidden cost alert.

Now my brother is buying another place to live, we now have to find another one hundred and fifty pounds to start the process off again! Even though it is the same solicitor, and estate agent, and even though they still are asking for a ginormous amount at the end of the sale, we still have to cough up this money. The trouble is, if you cannot find it straight away, it means you will hold up the whole process. It seems to me that it costs more to sell your house than to keep it and live on the money that you seem to be throwing away! As my brother put it, He feels like he is in the middle of a great ocean, floating away on a small piece of driftwood, and he can see the shore but it is still a long way away.

Still, next week we sign the agreement contract so at least that is one more bit out of the way.

Ho Hum! this sure ain't fun!

Back soon.

Lease Alert.

Hi back again, thanks if you are still reading! We have a new problem. That makes a change. The lease on the property that my brother is buying, has to be renewed in December, the solicitor is saying, Don't Buy It! evidently it is to much trouble. For one thing, if he wants to sell it later on, he will find it very difficult, secondly the lease holder may put the price of the lease up by thousands! Please, please, please check how long your lease is on your new property before you buy.

We now have to phone around lease company's to see what our options are and what we can do. Be back soon. If I have'nt gone mad by then!