PROBATE VALUATION & FAMILY DIVISION,
INHERITANCE TAX VALUATIONS

MARKET VALUATION

When a valuation for probate is required to be carried out for inheritance tax purposes, items which sell for £500 or more in the open market need to be individually valued. This is the HMRC requirement for all valuations carried out for probate purposes. In some instances, we are asked by executors and beneficiaries to provide inventories listing items worth £200 or more, as this is often of great assistance in assessing equitable family division.

AUCTION

However, where all the art and antiques are to be sold during the period of administration of the estate the hammer price at auction can be taken as the agreed figure for the Inland Revenue, so there is usually no need for a probate valuation.

Specific bequests in the will within the estate are frequently valued for probate as entries preceding the main inventory.

Draft inventories are supplied for executors who have not yet decided what to retain and what to sell, giving bracketed values for probate on items worth less than £500.

Work can be carried out at very short notice, particularly where security is a prime issue. On occasion it has been necessary to get a valuer to a property within hours of an instruction being given.

Additional valuation services:

A mahogany and upholstered Napoleon chair designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens, c.1900
Sir Edwin Lutyens:
a mahogany and upholstered Napoleon chair, c.1900