Inheriting a home: how to avoid a family feud

Family fallouts are on the rise as an ageing generation leave their million dollar assets to their children and grandchildren.

Most Australians’ homes are their most valuable asset and that has become even more apparent through the generations.

An exclusive PropTrack study showed that when adjusted for inflation, current prices were four times higher than in 1980, with a typical house back then costing $65,000, the same as around $338,000 in today’s money.

With an ageing population, many Aussies are set to inherit a family home within the next few years and for a typical Sydney house, that means inheriting an asset worth over $1.5m. For others that may be millions of dollars more.

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Bob and Jude Morton, Property Clearence Directors, say its possible to avoid the family turmoil when clearing out a home.

With that comes the loss of a loved one and the task of sifting through a lifetime’s worth of belongings before getting the benefit of the asset. This emotional and difficult task often leads to many family feuds and fallouts.

Bob Morton, co-founder and director of The Property Clearance Company has seen many of these different high tension scenarios play out.

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“The actual disagreements can manifest in different ways, what we often see is sadly tension about how to move forward, potentially on who has rights to certain items among the home and who’s taking responsibility for what,” he said.

The Property Clearance team.

“Quite often there are financial values of different items that are often clouded by sentiment. A family history rarely translates to being financially valuable, that emotional undercurrents can sort of distort people’s values.

“You can spend a lot of time trying to extract extra value out of possessions, but that time may be better spent on the key asset which is the home,” Mr Morton said.

Getting legal and financial advice to distribute any items written within a will, then choosing to gift other items of sentimental value on behalf of the deceased was a good place to start, Mr Morton said.

“It may be extra items or art work or could even be white goods to the grandchild who’s just establishing their first flat,” he said.

The fallout from clearing out a family members home can be avoided.

Putting extra time and money into styling could be better spent then trying to derive extra money from items in the house, he added.

“It’s natural to look at the problem areas and try to work out strategies, but there are ways to successfully and fairly manage this process which don’t affect family relationships,” he said.

Engaging a third party for the next step could ensure transparency, fairness and the removal of emotional bias to go through the remaining belongings.

This could include using professional clearance experts to create an inventory, value items and even donate, recycle or prepare for sale.