I sadly lost my mum on new year’s day after a short illness. We’re a family of 9 who mostly get on together and we’re trying to work through all her affairs to tidy things up.

We’ve got a large family home that has a couple of other houses and building on, which are used by some of the family to live and work on. The rest of the family are either abroad or living separately from this family plot.

I can see an issue arising where everyone wants their 1/9th share, but what about those running businesses outer those living on the land? How do you quantity or work out a fair split/share?

Cheers!

PS: more questions may follow.

You have presumably already started by reading the will. What does it say? Or if none, how do the intestacy laws apply to your family?

Commiserations for your loss BTW

I have no idea on the specifics but my immediate thought is to start off assuming everyone gets 1/9th. If some want to buy out the share of others then that’s fine but I’d have thought you have to start at 1/9th.

Or of course, just read the will, that’s surely where you begin.

Is there a will? What does that say?

If there’s no explicit instructions in the will then as lunge says, divide into ninths and everyone gets an even share. Those that want to stay will need to buy out those that want the cash.

Working out the value may be tricky. Might need to get a third party in. It will also require everybody involved to act reasonably (and some possibly generously) and not start arguing. Seen this sort of thing split families up before, although I think it’s generally the final straw rather than what started it.

No. There are laws about intestacy, you can’t just divvy up a dead person’s estate as takes your fancy. If there are 9 children and no other close relative) then equal ninths may well be correct of course, but that’s only one possibility.

Hi

Sorry for your loss. Presuming that your mum owned the houses/land you are going to need to get the whole lot valued for Inheritance Tax reasons, which will at least give you a starting point to divide between yourselves.

This has a lot of useful links in the top sticky;

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=217

Sorry for your loss

Sorry to hear your news. The other posters above have covered it

Sorry to hear about your mum 🙁

Given the probable size of the estate, and the complexity of inheritance laws, you really need an accountant’s advice.
I hate to say it but with so many in the family there’s a decent chance that a few will want the money so you may possibly have to end up selling up and then splitting.*

* if there’s a chunk of cash as well then this may well help avoid the sale.

Given the probable size of the estate, and the complexity of inheritance laws, you really need an accountant’s advice.

Probably a lawyer as your first port of call…

If there is no will dont forget about PROBATE, and getting access to your mothers funds.That can be a nightmare especially with one spanish owned bank group, been there.

So sorry to hear of your mums death, horrible time of year for it to happen.

Hi,

Firstly, sorry for your loss.

I have only just seen this. I am a probate practitioner and deal with these types of things daily. So I think I can offer some advice.

Given the limited details in the original post your Mother’s estate is going to need to go through a probate process. The exact process depends on whether she left a Will or not.

You also need to consider who is able to administer the estate. If there is a Will then the executors that are named are responsible. If there is no will then it would be a surviving spouse, if there is one or if not a child of the deceased.

If there is no will, the rules of intestacy apply – http://www.will-probate.co.uk/intestacy/ gives you the details.

Your post highlights that there is a potential for an inheritance tax liability on the estate, but this might be mitigated by the fact that businesses are being operated from the site. You might be able to claim business property relief on parts of the estate.

Your situation might end up with everyone getting a 1/9th share, but there will be twists and turns along the way. How the estate is ultimately distributed and who buys what off whom can all be resolved amicably but I really think you need to take some professional advice.

If you need anything more you can e-mail me, address is in profile.

HTH
Nick.

Really sorry to hear about your mum, hope you and your family are okay.

We’ve been through this recently although much simpler than your case – one house, some cash and split between two.

We did probate ourselves which was quite daunting but once you start it’s okay.

One thing to remember is that is that if your mums partner has also passed away and didn’t use any of the inheritance tax allowance you can use ‘doubling up’, where you can double the allowance when clearing up this estate.

Simple put assuming its just nine of you involved then everyone gets a ninth and if the wanted to stay where they are they would need to pay the value of the property back into the pot – so they buy the property but still get a ninth of the estate.

Sorry to hear about your mother. I have been through a couple of probate processes including an estate with businesses. The one with businesses I did most of the work in the probate and estate administration process.

I can’t comment on the question you ask as there is so little detail about who owns the business, whether the business owns the property (or your mother) etc

But this is my experiences:

1. with multiple siblings my experience is that most of the work will fall on one sibling and be prepared that will consume huge amounts of their time for the next 2-3 years. The other siblings will have little idea of how much effort and stress is really required
2. choose your professionals very carefully (both accountant and probate lawyer). Hopefully there will be no professional mentioned as an executor or trustee in a will. This would be a bad thing in my experience.
3. most donkey work you can do yourself even for BPR. These are just tax forms. Don’t pay professional for stuff you can do as they will generally do a worse job.
4. You do need to work out your IHT return strategy and this will require professional advice. 6 months will go very quickly. Financially this can make a life changing impact if down well depending on the details of the businesses.
5. Never think that a professional must be kept even if they are mentioned in the will as a trustee. If they do a bad job just change them. Keeping a bad professional can cost a lot of money in the long wrong. There are some very good ones out there who provide very practical and cost effective advice

Good luck

Sorry to hear that; it’s not easy is it mate

NJA is obviously the expert here, I’d just add that this is going to take quite a while to sort out (apologies if you had already sussed that one). Unless you mother had cash & investments it could be a couple of years before anyone receives a legacy.

Nothing to add other than sorry for your loss

Hi all, thanks for your comments so far. I should have stated at the outset that this was all happening in Kenya although half the family including me life in the UK. So I’m currently enjoying 26C days.

Anyway, we haven’t found a will yet and are still figuring out how to plan and get things done in an efficient manner. 9 people trying to make one decision is taking forever and there have been a few arguments already

That changes everything. Property is subject to the Lex Situs doctrine so any succession will be subject to Kenyan Law.

Beyond that, I can’t offer anything further. Sorry.

Sorry about your mum.

9 people trying to make one decision is taking forever and there have been a few arguments already

Above all try and stay civil. They are your family after all. Much easier said than done though.