Deceased Estate Valuations at date of death.
When property passes through an estate, the ATO needs its market value on the date of death. That figure resets the cost base for the beneficiary, supports the probate application, and underpins any later sale by the executor. It is a retrospective valuation with a fixed, non-negotiable effective date — and it has to be defensible years after the fact.
Quick answer
A deceased estate valuation establishes market value at the date of death — the figure that resets the cost base for beneficiaries and supports probate. We value at any date of death, including dates years in the past, from current inspection and contemporaneous evidence. Signed by a Certified Practising Valuer, from $440 incl. GST.
Why the date of death matters
Division 128 of the ITAA 1997 governs what happens to a CGT asset when someone dies. For a property acquired by the deceased on or after 20 September 1985, the beneficiary inherits the deceased's cost base. For a pre-CGT property, the beneficiary is taken to have acquired it at market value on the date of death. In both cases an independent valuation at the date of death is what makes the position provable — and it is the figure the Supreme Court expects in a probate application.
The legal framework
Estate valuations answer to both revenue law and probate practice. The report has to satisfy each.
- ITAA 1997 Division 128 — the effect of death on a CGT asset, including the pre-CGT market value rule.
- ITAA 1997 s118-195 — the main residence exemption for a dwelling passing through an estate, and the two-year disposal window.
- State Supreme Court probate rules — the inventory of assets and liabilities requires a stated value for real property.
- API Professional Practice Standards — the technical standard the valuation itself is prepared to.
When executors engage us
Estate work reaches us at several stages, and the sooner the better — evidence is easier to assemble while the property is still in the estate.
- Probate application requiring a value for the inventory of assets.
- Resetting a beneficiary's cost base on a pre-CGT property.
- Testing the two-year s118-195 disposal window before selling.
- Distribution between beneficiaries where one takes the property and others take cash.
- Historical estates, where the date of death is years or decades in the past.
- Disputed estates requiring an independent figure both sides can rely on.
Valuing as at the date of death
We treat the date of death as the effective date and build the report around contemporaneous evidence. Where the property has since been cleared, renovated or sold, we reconstruct its condition at that date from records.
- Comparable sales settled either side of the date of death.
- Current inspection where the property is still held, or historical evidence where it is not.
- Council rate notices, insurance records and executor photographs.
- Adjustment for the state of repair typical of a long-held estate property.
Reports built for executors
We can address the report to the executor, the estate solicitor or the accountant, and send it to all parties at once. It is formatted so it can be attached to a probate application without further work.
- Market value at the date of death, clearly stated on the first page.
- Comparable sales schedule with full addresses and adjustments.
- Description of the property as at the date of death.
- Signed certification by a Certified Practising Valuer.
How it works — five steps
Worked example: a pre-cgt house inherited in 2019
Illustrative example
A parent bought a house in 1979 and died in 2019. The beneficiary sells in 2026. Because the property was acquired before 20 September 1985, the cost base resets — and the reset date is the death, not the sale.
- The deceased acquired the asset before 20 September 1985, so it was a pre-CGT asset in their hands.
- On death, the beneficiary is treated as acquiring it at its market value at the date of death in 2019 — the purchase price from 1979 is irrelevant.
- The effective date for the valuation is the 2019 date of death.
- We inspect in 2026, establish the 2019 condition from the estate records, the probate inventory and any agent appraisal obtained at the time, and analyse sales settled around the 2019 date.
- The same figure serves the statement of assets filed with the Supreme Court and the beneficiary’s cost base, provided the report is scoped for both.
- If the property had instead been bought after 20 September 1985, the deceased’s own cost base would have carried over and a date-of-death valuation may not have been needed at all.
The trap. Whether a date-of-death valuation is needed turns on a single fact: whether the deceased acquired before or after 20 September 1985. Establish that before commissioning anything.
This scenario is constructed to illustrate the method and the sequence. It is not a client matter, contains no client information, and is not a prediction about your property. Which provision applies to your circumstances is a question for your accountant or tax agent.
What goes wrong
The errors we are asked to correct are almost never errors of judgement about value. They are procedural, they are made before anyone thinks to involve a valuer, and they cost more to fix than to avoid.
Commissioning the wrong report. For a post-1985 acquisition the deceased’s cost base usually carries over, so a date-of-death valuation may be unnecessary. Check the acquisition date first.
Missing the two-year window. A sale within two years of death can be exempt in some circumstances. That is a question for the accountant, but it changes whether a valuation is needed at all — ask before you spend.
Relying on the probate figure alone. A value put in an inventory to obtain a grant is often an agent appraisal or an estimate. It is not substantiation for a CGT cost base, and reusing it is the most common reason an estate’s position is queried years later.
Sources
- Income Tax Assessment Act 1997 — Consolidated Act, AustLII
- Market valuation for tax purposes — Australian Taxation Office — the eight valuation fundamentals
- Australian Property Institute — Professional Practice Standards and the CPV designation
This page is general information about how valuations are used for tax purposes. It is not tax advice. Your accountant or tax agent should confirm which provision applies to your circumstances.
Written and reviewed by
Jarrad Khoury
Head of Valuations at Asset Valuations Group, where he leads the Business Valuation Services division. Over 10 years in property and business valuation. Registered Valuer in Queensland (Not Limited), Licensed Valuer in Western Australia (Not Limited), CPV through the Australian Property Institute (Not Limited), CPV and CBV through the Australian Valuers Institute, and Registered Business Valuer through the AIBB.
Last reviewed 15 September 2026 · About the practice · Editorial policy
FAQs
Deceased estate valuation questions, answered.
The questions clients, accountants and solicitors ask us most often.
The date of death was years ago — can you still value it?
Yes. This is standard retrospective work; we regularly value estates from the 1990s and earlier using historical sales evidence and council records.
Can the report be used for both probate and CGT?
Yes. One date-of-death valuation serves the probate inventory and the beneficiary's cost base. Tell us if the solicitor needs a particular format.
Who should engage the valuer — the executor or the accountant?
Either. Most of our estate work is instructed by the estate solicitor or the accountant; we can invoice the estate directly and copy the report to all parties.
What if the property has already been sold?
We can still value retrospectively. The sale price is evidence but not the answer — market value at the date of death may differ, particularly where the sale was some time later.
How much does a deceased estate valuation cost?
Standard metropolitan residential valuations start from $440 incl. GST. Multiple properties within one estate are quoted together, usually at a reduced rate per property.
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