Inherited Ltd company with a property - close down or retain?

[cojak]

The lady could last another 15 years, and you could do nothing but pay for a new roof (for example).

With no expertise but thinking what I’d do in your position, as you don’t have any other property interests (as I don’t), I would seriously look at those long term investment companies and auction the house, and get shot of this millstone ASAP.

[Lance]

The golddigga is a lady about 65yrs old. The contract isn't actually in place yet, it is in final stages of being written by the lawyers. It arises as a result of the probate. So the lawyers are currently writing it between the Ltd co and the lady, mainly be side that is the current legal ownership. I still have the option of getting them to write it to be a personal contract if the property is transferred out of the Ltd co asap. The contract currently being written such that I have responsibility for structural issues/repairs, but she is responsible for everything else.

There is no mortgage. Don't own any other rental properties.

It sounds like the lady has a claim on the inheritance, but not enough to take the house entirely. Nor does she have enough money to pay the difference to own the house entirely. I might have that wrong though. Could an equity release provide enough cash for her to settle in full?

Would it be possible for you to pay her off the amount she's owed? And you take the house entirely and she leaves?

Cojak is right though. This could become a real millstone. And 15 years might become 25 years. I'd go for a clean break as well whichever way round is possible.

[simes]

Could an equity release provide enough cash for her to settle in full?

Would it be possible for you to pay her off the amount she's owed? And you take the house entirely and she leaves?

Sounds more like she can't afford to live anywhere else, whatever she is paid. I could be wrong so of course, please correct me.

The other thing I was going to suggest, on a similar vein, if Kryten is a young chap, perhaps an equity release could afford him to buy one or two other properties as part of this same LtdCo, and to form a portfolio. Once you have three properties on the go, perhaps some sense can thus made of this predicament...

[WordIsBond]

Of course, there's always the question of emotional attachments to the house, both for the lady and for OP. If that's not really an issue, you could negotiate an agreement with her to sell the house and pay her X amount. You could do it as a lump sum (that's cleanest). Or you could put the proceeds in some kind of a trust where the money is invested, she's paid a monthly amount sufficient to rent an equivalent house, and then when she dies the trust reverts to you. That's going to eat away at the principal over time (investment returns won't match the level of rent needed), but it won't burden you with extra expenses/hassles.

Unless you really want the house once it is unencumbered for emotional reasons, I'd get free of this, either by negotiating with the lady or selling the thing on. If you do really want it, I'd still try to get free of this by paying for the lady's rent somewhere else, or just paying her a lump sum -- take out a mortgage on the house to pay the lump sum if necessary.

[kryten22uk]

Thanks all. As you can imagine theres quite a back story to this and I don't really want to go into the detail here. But on the specific point of property in company Vs transferring privately, I've taken from this that, all else equal, I'd be better keeping the property within company, on grounds of higher CGT and stamp duty. May decide to do all accounts myself to avoid accounting costs, as it should be as simple a set of accounts to do.