Q re House inheritance after Probate

HI,

I have recently along with my 3 siblings inherited a quarter share in my parents house located in Dublin. The house was is on the probate documents at approx 700,000 Euros. As the probate was processed in the spring and given that the market has now slumped we cannot sell for anything near this value and would now like to rent the house out as we are in no hurry for the proceeds of the any sale.

My questions are:-

- If we rent out the house for say, 1 year or more, do we have to transfer the house into our four names and pay the stamp duty - which I believe would be 50% of the applicable rates - as we are inheriting from our parents ?

- Would we have to pay legal fees to effect the transfer to our 4 names ?

- Or, can we rent the house out in the entity of the "estate" and then sell in a years time and then divide up the proceeds.

- If we can rent out in terms of the "estate" who would the rental agreement be between with the new tenants ? and

- What would be the tax situation of the estate which would then be receiving income ?

- Is there a time limit on how long we have o dispose of the proprty to continue availing of our inheritance tax allowances.


any help is much appreciated.

CD

Been thru this....not an expert but answers based on various advice I was given at the time, will stand to be corrected by one of the several experts out there!. We kept the house and have it rented (probably should have sold....hindsight & 20/20 vision.) How ever :

1) we did transfer it to each of our names and it didn't cost too much. Didn;t have any stamp duty bill. The solicitor charged something like €1000 or so. However if one of the siblings wants to be bought out then the stamp duty will apply.
2) Time limit...as far as I know there is no time limit once you all agree. My understanding is that the price used for probate (€700k which should have been a true reflection of market value) will be used as the starting point for CGT (though you might be looking at a capital loss!).
3) not sure, but I don;t think the "estate" can enter into a contract with the tenant, but the executor might be able to if everyone agrees, still think it's better to have it in everyones name as you never know what could happen down the road (family arguements, someone dies, etc)
4) on that last point, make sure you all agree with exactly what you are doing and agree who's going to be doing all the work. I wanted to pay someone (even one of us) to look after everything, but shot down :"sure we'll all do our bit". Now most do nothing and some do everything.
5) I don't think the estate can be liable for tax once probate is granted as all the tax affairs should be in order at that point.

If probate has granted, then you and your siblings are now beneficially entitled to the property and any income earned on it is yours, not the estate's.

You will each have to declare your share of the rental income.

Sam H and Nige,

Thank you very much for your advice, much appreciated.