Acting as Independent Administrators and negotiating with HMRC to lower probate valuations

Our Trust Corporation was appointed by the Court to be the Independent Administrator of an estate which was subject to a long running dispute between its executors and beneficiaries and which was preventing any progress from being made.  A grant of letters was issued to us under section 117 Senior Courts Act 1981, which grants all the powers of a general administrator save for the power to distribute the estate, which is subject to further order of the Court.  We started collecting in the estate’s assets and bringing its tax compliance up to date in order to ensure that the estate’s administration would be complete and the estate ready to be distributed as soon as possible after the Court made its final order.

Upon obtaining updated valuations of the deceased’s properties it appeared that they had been significantly overvalued at the time of the deceased’s death, perhaps by as much as 50%.  Further enquiries revealed that the original valuations had been ‘drive-by’ valuations only, which meant that the condition and interior arrangement of the properties had not been properly taken into account.  This was a concern because Inheritance Tax was payable and the four year deadline for claiming loss relief had passed.  To avoid the estate being disadvantaged we commissioned retrospective valuations of the properties and used them to successfully negotiate with HMRC that the original probate valuations should be replaced with the retrospectively obtained valuations.

If you have any questions about Independent Administration, please get in touch with Helen Stewart.