James76

Hi,

Has anyone had any experience of selling their house in the UK whilst they are abroad?
I am starting to think this might have to be a serious option for me. I'd hoped to get to Aus for end of October but have only had 6 viewings and no second viewings.
If anyone could give me any advice on selling whilst abroad, such as how to set up a power of attorney, I'd be grateful. also slightly worried the estate agent might put it to the bottom of their pile if i'm out of sight!

thanks

chr1sarter

In the same mess as you, and we go in 3 weeks. Setting up power of Attony this week, so that wont be an issue. We trust our estate agent, as they want the commission, they wont put it at the bottom of the pile. Have relatives, that will monitor how many times they advetise the proerty, and if nothing, will move agents. Only need someone you can trust to have a set of keys, to show new agents around. Stressful times, as we really wanted to sell before we go, but cant change the market place. good luck.

James76

Cheers, thanks for that. If possible could you give me some information on setting up power of attorney - where to get the forms, cost etc?? I would like my Dad to be power of attorney and think this is possible.

Good luck with your move and hope all goes well for you.

ali south

my sister is doing this and I have power of attorney

the only problem she has found is that she bought in Oz and is now liable for capital gains, which is ironic because she is broke as she has a huge mortgage because she cannot sell her English home

good luck
Tara

kirsty&al

She shouldn't be liable for CGT (in Oz) on her UK home unless she has sold it.
Or are you saying that she has sold it and still has a UK mortgage?

I may have mis-interpreted what you have posted; if so then feel free to correct me - nicely.

Cheers
A

MrsDagboy

Once you have bought a second property you only have 6 months to get rid of the first one before CGT kicks in (once you sell it of course). This is because you can only have one principle place of residence (which is CGT free) & only have that 6 months grace. I think thats what Ali means - once her sister sells her Uk property.

ali south

Hi
she has a house in the UK with a UK mortgage - been on the market a while
she has a house in Oz with a huge OZ mortgage
needs her equity (money left once she repays her UK mortgage) to pay part of the huge oz mortgage off
she was renting in Oz but lost the house because the owners needed it back, she decided to buy rather than let another, thought she would sell the UK one quickly

Does that make sense? Please tell me she is not liable for CGT.
Tara

ali south

exactly
she bought over 6 months ago, now she is a little worried, I am not surehow they work out the CGT that she owes
Tara

kirsty&al

Hiya,

I'll start by saying that I have no experience in this area so I'm going off hear-say (no... not the crap band off pop stars).

Obviously she, by actually buying a property in Oz, she has lost the 6 years grace (and the 6 months grace MrsDB mentioned). However, doesn't Oz tax law allow you to apportion CGT based on when you moved out and when you sold?

For example (and I got this from somewhere else - i.e. the hearsay) that they moved out of their home, bought another and rented the original. When it came to selling the original they only for charged CGT on the value it changed while it was a rental.


I don't know if this helps, but this is definitely a difference from the way the UK tax law tries to get around this problem (and I'm not saying either country is right).

Regards
A.

ali south

thanks, my sister was told this too, now we just have to prove that it has actually gone down in value, how we do this I have no idea
Tara

kirsty&al

Hiya,

If she was using an agent to rent the house when she left then I would get the agent to give a value (in writing) for when she left. Personally I would not try to claim a tax loss against the ATO (and any loss would only be attributable against gains in the same area - i.e. foreign gains - so probably not worth tking the piss). Also given the current exchange rate (assuming it is less than or similar to the rate when she came over) the ATO is not going to be interested.

A.

ali south

thanks

Zan

Have no real advice but we bought our house in the UK off people in Australia (rather ironic as looks like we'll be doing the same thing when selling it, lol) and it seemed pretty straight forward. A lot of it was done over the internet (I know he found his solicitors on the web, called them to assess, and then dealt with them via email/phone.) Obviously there were a couple of time delays due to time zones and postage where signatures were required.
The only thing I'd say is get someone to keep on the agents backs, our house was on with an agency who had promised that it was advertised, board up etc but we are pretty sure that wasn't the case (and believe they were holding it for a woman who was yet to get an offer on her place and wanted to buy). We actually bought privately off them after seeing them advertise it on a website.

Thanks to everyone re the CGT advice something def to keep in mind!

Zan

sid_s

We sold our house while living in the US. It wasn't really a problem. I was emailing the agents every few days and we did even change agents in the middle but all correspondence needing a signature was just done by fax or scan and email.

Same thing for the solicitor. I found a good one on the internet and just made sure that they were used to corresponding electronically (I wanted to make sure I didn't get stuck with one that insisted on sending letters and forms by post) and everything went fine. We had no need for power of attorney.

I think the most frustrating part was that because i wasn't there I felt that our place was probably not looking its best for viewings. There was only sparse furniture, no pictures, windows never being opened to freshen the place - things like that. I got my sister to go in one day and she thought the place looked a bit "sorry for itself".

Bella Donna

I think we're going to be in this situation too. We are off on 17th August and haven't had any luck selling yet. We're concerned about leaving it deteriorating, but having just decorated should help. We have someone that can come in and open windows, etc. so maybe it won't be too bad. There is something sad about an unlived-in house though.

It's the garden that concerns me - when we got back from our reccy trip it looked a bit like a jungle - and that was just over two weeks' worth of growth. Prospective buyers will need machetes to get to the front door!

Good luck to all selling houses.