buying a house that has power attorney

Financial POA, unlike a health POA, is often used when people still have full capacity.

For elderly parents, for instance, sometimes just because they no longer want to be so involved in all the back and forth or complex transactions. It allows someone close to them to legally use their bank account to pay bills or to move money around for the best returns providing it’s with their agreement.

Edited to remove bit that just repeated what you’d said.

Another thing to consider when weighing up whether to buy is you may need to apply to the planning department at the local council for change of use from an HMO.

Yes, you can set it up in that way, but it doesn't usually take effect until the person does become incapacitated. It is also used when someone is spending a long time overseas, so someone in their home country can deal with their finances for them.

POA ends on death, they must mean Probate.
Buying a Probate property is fine as long as it has already been granted and you aren't waiting for it

Presumably you instructed the solicitor but were still around to sign for the sale. However, if you are elsewhere and cannot do that (if you live abroad, say) then you need to give your solicitor POA in order that they can do that for you.

I’m confused. I had PoA for my relative who has died. PoA died with him. I no longer have PoA but am the Executor for the estate. I engaged a solicitor to deal with Probate and instructed them to sell the property. No requirement to generate another PoA.

Can't be sold by PoA if person owning has died. Would need to go through probate so you need to know where that us up to.

Yes, that’s what I said.

The POA wouldn’t be on behalf of the person who died. If the solicitor is dealing with the sale but is not the executor then they will need a POA from the executor in order to transact the sale on the executor’s behalf.

Ours is a bit complicated in that it was calculated based on market value before sale which allowed Probate to be granted but the house sold for less than market value which meant we had to apply to HMRC for an adjustment which requires recalculating the tax bill and having probate sealed again which is where we are 5 months after the buyers moved in and we are still waiting for the Probate to be granted so the estate can be distributed.

That's interesting because everyone I know who has sold a house had to wait for probate to complete before the buyer could move in.

POA or probate should not make any difference to the selling process. The only difficulty I can see is that the house was an HMO.

My house was a probate sale and I had thought with no chain either side it would be quick. It was not. The solicitors liaised very slowly with the charity it was left to and very slowly with my solicitor. They seemed very old fashioned and took things personally (like I wanted to make sure the boiler and electrics were serviceable because it was a very old lady who had lived here. It just as well I did because the boiler was not). Even their EA got fed up in the end and told them that if they continued to be obstructive I would walk away.

But I absolutely love it here!

POA dies with the person it was meant for.
it should be the Executor of the estate who should be dealing with this or an appointed solicitor.

Probate has nothing to do with a purchaser buying a property. Probate will be based on the market value of the property. If the property sells for more or less than the market price there will be an amendment required to be sent to HMRC to recalculate the tax bill. This does not affect someone buying the property. They are two completely separate things. Just been through it and the house was sold and new people moved in while Probate is still ongoing.

If the previous owner has died it would come under Probate. The same person who had POA may be acting on behalf of the estate.

The family don’t get the proceeds. The money will go into the estate of the deceased as part of probate. Then the executor is responsible for distributing the funds according to the will.

How quickly do you want to move?

Ask if they have completed probate or not. It took us about 6 months to complete the inheritance tax part of the process and only 3 weeks to complete probate. If timescale is important you need to ask the Estate Agent to find out where in the process the seller is.

Neither of those things are to do with the sale being of a deceased person's house

What specifically is worrying you about that aapect

If the sale is being managed by the solicitors they may well not be the executors of the estate, just managing the sale on behalf of the executors, in which case the executors could have given the solicitors POA to sell the house on their behalf. This is often done if, for example, the executor lives abroad.

So it could be both a probate sale AND a POA sale. The POA shouldn’t make any difference but probate could. Do check that probate has been granted and they are in a position to proceed with the sale. It took nearly a year for us to get probate when my mother died a few years ago. A previous sale falling through because the chain failed is the sort of thing that happens when probate hasn’t yet been granted.

OP you need to find out if probate has been granted yet. It only took four weeks for my DF but it can be a few years after someone has died.

A POA ceases when the person dies and it then becomes a probate sale. The solicitors can find out how long probate is likely to take, the sale cannot be completed until probate has been granted.

@Lavenderflower
I bought DMs house when she passed.
I was the executor and bought my Dsis's out.
I think the estate agent has had a slip of the tongue as POA ends at death.
EA must have meant probate as you can't sell a house until probate has been granted.
The solicitors will be acting as executors.
They will be duty bound to obtain the best sale price.
When I bought DMs house, I still had to get three quotes from estate agents, then agreed a price with dsis's somewhere in the middle.
The whole process took about 6 months inc selling my house.
The solicitor should be passing all offers onto the family.
Are you offering a reduced amount due to the amount of work required?

Yes I agree with previous poster, a property can be marketed and a sale agreed but without probate being granted can’t exchange contracts. You need to get answers to clarify if this is the position? The length of time to grant probate can vary greatly depending on the complexity of the estate. We bought a probate property, the family had applied for probate, prior to marketing, it took 3mths. I would be asking a lot more questions before I made an offer, especially as to why two,previous sales,have fallen through,did they get fed up,of waiting I,wonder. Good luck Op.

Dont believe what Estate agents or soliciors say you are just one of many they deal with, just been involved in the sale of a property where I had POA, (person was going into care), the solicitor was "on the ball" when she asked for the grant of probate, told her the person was alive and well when we visited him earlier that day... not a word of apology and that was not the only "mistake" she made in the process..

Check to see if probate has been granted. This might be why prior sales have fallen apart. If a will was in place probate is often granted quite quickly. If there was no will or something is being challenged it can take a lot longer.
The sale cannot legally exchange & complete until probate is granted.