Executors are often told they need "a valuation for probate" without being told what that means, why the date is critical, or what happens if the figure is wrong. Here is the plain-English version.
If you have been appointed executor of an estate, one of the first practical tasks that lands on you is establishing what the deceased's property was worth. It sounds simple. It is where a surprising number of estates run into difficulty months later.
A probate valuation states the open market value of the property as at the date of death. Not today. Not when the house eventually sells. On that specific date.
Where death occurred recently and the market has been stable, the distinction may make little practical difference. Where probate has been delayed, and delays of a year or more are common when a will is contested, assets are complicated or family members live abroad, it matters a great deal. A valuation carried out today, in today's market, is simply answering a different question from the one Revenue is asking.
The probate value does more work than most executors realise. It goes into the Statement of Affairs (Probate) Form SA.2 submitted to Revenue. It determines each beneficiary's inheritance and their Capital Acquisitions Tax position. And if the property is subsequently sold, the difference between the probate value and the sale price is the gain, with capital gains tax consequences for the estate.
This creates a trap that catches people out. An executor, wanting to be helpful, accepts a conservative figure. The house then sells eighteen months later for considerably more. The estate now faces a capital gains liability that could have been reduced, and Revenue may reasonably ask whether the original valuation was realistic.
The reverse trap is just as real. An optimistic valuation means beneficiaries pay inheritance tax on value that was never actually there.
The distinction that matters is not between a high figure and a low one. It is between a figure that is asserted and a figure that is evidenced.
An asserted valuation says the property was worth €X. If Revenue queries it, there is nothing behind it but the valuer's say-so.
An evidenced valuation says the property was worth €X, and here are the sales of similar properties nearby from around that date that support it. That is a document that can be tested, and that is why it tends to survive being tested.
Executors often worry about the state of the house: that it is cluttered, that it has not been decorated in decades, that the garden has gone wild. None of that needs attention before a valuation. Condition is one of the things we are assessing, and it is reflected in the figure. There is nothing to prepare and nothing to apologise for.
The valuation is one of the more straightforward parts of administering an estate, provided it is done properly and once.
JWL provides probate valuations across Dublin and Leinster, working directly with executors or with their solicitors. Email hello@jwl.ie.
Tell us about the property and what the valuation is for, and we will come back to you with a fee before anything starts.
Or email hello@jwl.ie