The Reality of “Negative Personal Property” and the National Treasury Ownership System for Inherited Vacant Houses: Costly and Complicated Disposal.

“We have received more inquiries from customers. It seems that there are many people who feel that they will be forced on the government, but that is not the case. Many people are very surprised when I explain,” says Seio Kikuchi of Ohana Home Co., Ltd., which mainly deals with vacant house consultations.

On April 27, the system of inherited land belonging to the national treasury (hereafter, belonging to the national treasury) started. The rough outline is that the country will take over inherited land that meets certain conditions…

[Related article: Finally, how to close the house with the introduction of the “empty house tax” … Prime Minister Kishida’s plan to increase the tax amount by 4 times]

“First of all, the land on which the building is located must be vacated. There are also detailed land requirements, and on top of that, each parcel (one piece of land that is independent on registration) is equivalent to ten years’ worth of land management costs. I will pay the country a burden to do.

Residential land and fields in urbanized areas under the City Planning Act or in areas not designated as land use districts will be charged 200,000 yen regardless of the area, but for other areas, the contribution will be calculated according to the area.

Apart from that, when you apply, you also need to pay an examination fee of 14,000 yen for each brush, and even if the examination does not pass, the fee will not be refunded.” (Mr. Kikuchi)

The reason why the government has started to revert to the national treasury, which is surprisingly difficult to use, is that the number of land whose owners are unknown continues to increase throughout Japan.

“The area of ​​land whose owners are unknown is about 22% of the country. It is said to be larger than Kyushu. At the same time, the increase in vacant houses is also becoming a problem in Japan.” (Same as above)

There are many people who have inherited their parents’ home due to the death of their parents and are having trouble disposing of it, and have the problem of vacant houses. There are three options: “take over,” “sell,” and “abandon.”

People who want to inherit a house that is so good that it can be inherited will not have to worry about it, but those who have to choose between the other two should want to dispose of their assets as little as possible.

In such a case, I would like you to check the “5 major principles” that I will introduce from now on. In addition, let’s refer to the actual experiences of people who actually faced “empty house inheritance”.

Mr. A (in his 50s), who lives in Tokyo, used the “30 million yen special exemption for inherited vacant houses” when disposing of his parents’ house, which became vacant, and achieved success. Mr. A speaks.

“My family’s home is in a commuter town in Chiba Prefecture, about a 5-minute walk from the nearest station. Built 45 years ago, the land area is about 185 square meters, and the building is about 133 square meters. There are three heirs, me and my two younger brothers. All of them already owned their own homes, so I decided to sell them when my parents started getting sick.”

The sale went smoothly because Mr. A’s younger brother realized that he met the conditions for a “special deduction.”

“In addition to that, my younger brother’s classmate was running a real estate business locally, so I was able to hear detailed information about buying and selling in the area. So I think it would have been better if I had checked while my parents were still alive.”

The house was demolished, cleared and sold. There is also a special deduction, and even after deducting various expenses, it is a plus of about 10 million yen. It is said that it became a “share” of several million yen per person.

In contrast, Mr. B (in his 40s), who lives in Tokyo, is struggling with the disposal of vacant houses.

“My mother is the fifth of six siblings, and my mother and the first and second siblings died before me. Two of my older brothers, five of my first and second children, and I became the heirs of my aunt, making a total of eight inheritors.”

Eight heirs had to reach an agreement on how to dispose of the aunt’s house, and with elderly relatives and complicated interpersonal relationships involved, it was no easy task. In addition, her aunt had a past lawsuit over a boundary dispute with the house next door to her.

The inheritance vacant house is located in the northern part of Ibaraki prefecture. It was a 53-year-old wooden one-story house with an area of ​​about 693 square meters, consisting of about 318 square meters of residential land, about 250 square meters of agricultural land, and about 125 square meters of forest.

The farmland was sold to a person who offered to buy it for 150,000 yen per roll. It is said that the building is looking for a sale, but if it does not sell, it will probably consider reverting to the national treasury.

We asked Mr. Kikuchi to estimate the cost for Mr. B’s case.

“If the removal of the remaining figurines and the dismantling work is 2 million yen, it will be a good deal. After that, residential land, farmland, and forests will be treated as three projects, so the contribution to the government will be about 617,000 yen, and the examination fee will be 3. It costs 42,000 yen for a brush, and I think the combined disposal cost is close to 3 million yen.”

B complains:

“I used to tell my aunt, ‘Throw away things you don’t need.’ I used to go clean up until about five years ago, but the house is still a mess. According to the contractor’s estimate, it will cost about 1 million yen just to remove the remaining figurines.”

Removing leftover items is a problem that every heir faces. Some local governments have subsidies, so if you want to reduce costs, please check it out. Mr. A mentioned above also had such an experience.

“In order to keep costs down, I brought the leftovers to a local processing facility, but they didn’t accept them because I didn’t have a resident card for that municipality, so I had to bring them several times with my relatives who live nearby.

Even so, there were many remaining ornaments, so in the end we asked a vendor to do it, and the fee was about 700,000 yen. “It would have been easier if I hadn’t touched it,” said the contractor. It would have been nice to get rid of unnecessary items in the house little by little.”

Mr. B accepts the reality and continues to dispose of the vacant house. In order to protect your relatives and yourself, there should be a lot of preparations you can do while still alive.

(Weekly FLASH merged issue on May 9th and 16th, 2023)