Selling an Inherited Home in Ontario

Selling a house you inherited is not really a real estate problem. It is an estate problem that happens to involve a house, and most of what goes wrong happens before the sign goes up.

I work with estate trustees, executors and beneficiaries across Etobicoke and the GTA. Usually the family is dealing with a loss, a house full of forty years of belongings, and a lawyer’s letter that uses words nobody has had to think about before. The work is to make the property part straightforward so you can get on with the rest.

• What has to happen firstWhether you can sell now or need the certificate in hand, and what can be done in the meantime.
• What the house is worth todayA real number, and an honest answer on whether cleaning it up is worth the money.
• One price everyone acceptsWhere there are several beneficiaries, a documented opinion of value is what stops the argument.

What usually has to happen before you can sell

An estate trustee generally needs the Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee – what most people still call probate – before title can be transferred to a buyer. There are exceptions, most commonly where the property was held in joint tenancy with a right of survivorship and passes outside the estate. Your estate lawyer is the one who settles that question, and it is worth asking it early, because the answer sets the whole timeline.

What you can do while you wait: get a value, decide what to clear out, deal with insurance on a vacant house, and have the listing ready to go the day it can go.

The tax nobody explains until the invoice arrives

Ontario charges Estate Administration Tax on the value of the estate. There is no tax on the first $50,000, and above that it is $15 for every $1,000 of estate value, with the value rounded up to the nearest thousand. An Estate Information Return has to be filed with the Ministry of Finance within 180 days of the certificate being issued, even where no tax is payable.

That is the estate tax. It is separate from what the estate may owe on the growth in the property’s value between the date of death and the date it sells – a question for the estate’s accountant, not for me, but one worth asking before you decide how long to hold.

Should you fix it up first?

Usually less than the family expects. A house that has not been updated since the eighties sells to a buyer who intends to renovate anyway, and money spent on a kitchen the buyer will tear out is money gone. What does pay: clearing it out, a deep clean, fixing anything that reads as a problem to an inspector, and photography that shows the space rather than the furniture.

I will tell you which of those are worth doing on your specific house, and which to skip, before you spend anything.

When there are several beneficiaries

This is where estates get difficult, and it is almost never about the house. One person wants it sold yesterday, one thinks it is worth far more, one wants to buy the others out. A written, documented opinion of value based on actual closed comparables gives everyone the same starting number, and takes the argument out of the realm of opinion. Where the estate needs it, a formal appraisal is the stronger document and I will tell you when that is the right call.

• The full probate and selling guide
• What the building or street has actually sold for
• What the estate would net on a sale
• Get an instant estimate
• Book a call

Questions I get first