Buying Out Aunt
7 answers /
Last post: 08/06/2022 at 3:59 pm
My uncle left his house to myself and my elderly aunt. We are joint owners but both want to sell. The house has fallen into quite a state of disrepair and needs a lot of work.
we have worked out two options which we have presented to my aunt:
#1 - We have the house valued and sell, splitting the proceeds 50/50
#2 - We buy my aunt out giving her 50% of top value of house. We then invest our savings in renovating the house and sell to hopefully make a profit.
I have put this to her and she prefers option #2 but wants us to split the profit with her. We feel this is unfair as we are investing our money as she does not have funds to invest.
I’d welcome your thoughts on this. She’s 83 and can be very difficult.
If you feel the 2nd option is unfair im not sure why you offered that if i had been given both options i would also have went for the 2nd and i think most would do the same if you are using your savings deduct what you invested from her half that way you get your money back and the profit for the sale cause more than likely will add a fair bit of value to it to renovate
Sell the house and split the profits would be my view 100%. Business transactions between family members can go sour quite quickly. Would you be up for a renovation project because that can also be really stressful.
I'd want to do option 2 as well, your aunt is definitely being unreasonable expecting you to give her half the profits when you are funding the renovation, taking on all of the risk, and putting in 100% of the work.
After you've bought her out and shes got her money out of it, what you do then has got nothing to do with her. Surely you could put it to her that she will be getting half of the current value whether she puts it on the market or sells to you?
Unless you are expecting her to wait for the money until after youve renovated, i cant understand why she would feel entitled to profits from works done when shes not the owner anymore.
If you feel the 2nd option is unfair im not sure why you offered that if i had been given both options i would also have went for the 2nd and i think most would do the same if you are using your savings deduct what you invested from her half that way you get your money back and the profit for the sale cause more than likely will add a fair bit of value to it to renovate
Hi, thanks for replying. We don’t feel that the second option is unfair if we buy her out then invest our money to renovate. We feel that she is being unfair asking us to split profit after we have renovated.
Sell the house and split the profits would be my view 100%. Business transactions between family members can go sour quite quickly. Would you be up for a renovation project because that can also be really stressful.
Hi, thanks for replying. I’m leaning towards selling and splitting 50/50. As you say, it can lead to sour grapes otherwise. I really can’t be bothered with a renovation, but my husband is up for it.
I'd want to do option 2 as well, your aunt is definitely being unreasonable expecting you to give her half the profits when you are funding the renovation, taking on all of the risk, and putting in 100% of the work.
After you've bought her out and shes got her money out of it, what you do then has got nothing to do with her. Surely you could put it to her that she will be getting half of the current value whether she puts it on the market or sells to you?
Unless you are expecting her to wait for the money until after youve renovated, i cant understand why she would feel entitled to profits from works done when shes not the owner anymore.
Hi L.C.
Yes, I quite agree. She has now said she can contribute a small amount towards renovations but in my opinion, that just makes it messy. I’d rather it was a clean split either way. She can’t seem to grasp that it will be us doing all the work and dealing with all the stress associated with it!