Date of death property valuations for executors.
A date-of-death valuation is a retrospective assessment of a property's market value as at the day the owner died. Executors use it to establish the estate's asset values for probate and distribution, and to fix the beneficiary's capital gains tax cost base where the law resets it to market value at that date. It is prepared by a Certified Practising Valuer from sales evidence available at the date of death, so it can be prepared months or years after the fact.
When the cost base resets, and when it doesn't
If the deceased acquired the property before 20 September 1985, the first element of the beneficiary's cost base is the market value of the asset on the day the person died. That valuation is not optional bookkeeping — it is the number every later CGT calculation runs off.
If the property was acquired on or after that date, the beneficiary generally inherits the deceased's own cost base. The exception matters: the first element is the market value at the date of death where the dwelling passed to you after 20 August 1996 (but not as a joint tenant) and, just before the deceased died, it was their main residence and was not being used to produce income. It also applies where the asset passed to the trustee of a special disability trust.
Separately, a full main residence exemption can apply where the disposal settles within two years of death, and the Commissioner has a discretion to extend that period in circumstances outside the beneficiary's control. Because these tests turn on facts an executor often discovers late, a date-of-death figure is cheap insurance.
Source: ATO — Cost base of inherited assets. General information, not tax advice.
The Supreme Court registry on a probate application, the beneficiaries dividing the estate, the estate's accountant preparing the date-of-death return, and the ATO if the cost base is later reviewed. It is written to be read by all four.
Questions executors actually ask
Do I still need one if we are selling within two years?
Often yes. A full main residence exemption can apply where settlement occurs within two years of death, in which case the valuation may not be needed for CGT. Executors still commonly need a date-of-death figure for probate and to divide the estate fairly.
Can you value as at a date years in the past?
Yes. The valuer reconstructs the market at that date from evidence available then. The further back it goes, the more the report leans on documents describing the property at the time — photographs, plans, rates notices, agents' records.
When does the cost base reset to market value?
Where the deceased acquired the property before 20 September 1985; or where the dwelling passed to you after 20 August 1996 (not as a joint tenant) and just before death it was their main residence and was not producing income.
Is an agent appraisal enough?
Not where the value has to be substantiated. The ATO's position is that valuations by professional valuers are more credible than those from someone who is not a professional valuer, and that a valuation must be objective and supported with appropriate evidence.
What do you need from me to start?
The address, the date of death, access for inspection, and whatever describes the property at that date: title search, survey or strata plan, rates notice, building approvals, photographs, and any tenancy details.
What if beneficiaries disagree on value?
One independent valuation addressed to the estate is usually the fastest way through. The valuer is instructed by the executor, not by a beneficiary, so the figure is defensible to all parties and to the court if the estate is contested.
Estates rarely raise one question at a time
Market value, evidence standards and every deadline, state by state.
What the ATO expects when a value has to be set at a past date.
Single expert rules where an estate and a separation overlap.
Where the estate includes a self-managed fund holding property.