buying a house that has power attorney

Probate then, not POA.

done it twice as we’ve renovated quite abit. No issue.

If it is POA and the owners are still alive it will probable be straightforward too. We sold my FILs house when he went into a care home and it was no problem at all.

The person with the POA can sell a property on behalf of the owner when they no longer have capacity. This money will be for care home fees or similar.
So yes a property can be sold by a POA. It doesn't mean op is incorrect, or that it's a probate issue.

I was my father's executor and I sold his house. I dealt directly with the buyer's solicitor.
I had POA for my aunt and I sold her flat for her through an estate agent.

POA stops on death, an executor takes responsibility for sorting out the estate. Authority to be an executor is given with a grant of probate or letter of administration from the probate office.

check with the EA what the status of the probate is. When someone dies the executors of the estate, or solicitors acting on their behalf, gather up all the financial info and apply for probate. there is then a wait whilst that is granted.

A house where the estate has not been granted probate can be put on for sale and legal process started but cannot be completed until probate granted.

The EA should know the status of the house and if probate has been applied for etc.

Maybe the solicitors are acting as POA for one of the family, whilst the family are happy for a lower offer, the solicitor has to act in best interests hence not acceptinga lower offer?

If your estate agent definitely said POa, he’s talking shit so be wary of him/her.

perhaps it was owned by a couple and one has died and the other is incapacitated.

If the owner has died the estate will now be in probate and power of attorney no longer applies. Ask a solicitor.

I bought a flat that was being sold by solicitors, who were executors of the will. There were only two differences I noted. First, they were quite slow, I guess because they had little need to treat it as a priority. Second, they had clearly contracted someone to do a house clearance, but they had left behind the guy's medical equipment and not tidied up the evidence of how and where he had died. I think a family might have handled that differently.

I guess a positive was that the solicitors just wanted to discharge their responsibilities. There was no haggling over price, no gazumping or gazundering, no niggling over moving dates or what counted as fixtures and fittings.

I don't think my experience is generalisable, though. It wouldn't put me off doing the same again.

You can actually give someone PoA for various responsibilities (as allowed by you) when you are in full capacity in every way.

Yes PoA is often set up for loss of capacity but a fully able owner could give a solicitor PoA to sell a house on their behalf.

My bad, our situation was indeed probate and not POA!

Sorry I don't know about POA then!

All that POA means is that someone acts for the person who cannot make their own decision for whatever reason.

In this case it looks like a solicitor already had power of attorney over the homeowner's affairs prior their death, and were looking after their finances, paying care home fees etc out of the homeowner's money. However, POA lapses at death. The only way the solicitor could still have POA is if the chief beneficiary or whoever had been nominated as Executor is themselves incapacitated and unable to deal with their affairs. So the solicitor could have POA over a surviving spouse's affairs, for instance.

Now that the person has died, the house belongs to the Estate of the deceased person, and presumably the solicitor is dealing with the will and its progress through probate. I would surmise that they have been nominated as the Executor of the estate, and as such they are duty bound to obtain the best price possible for the property. This could be why they are ignoring the wishes of the family, who presumably want their inheritance money.

Just think of the solicitor as being the seller, and that they will decide whether to accept your offer or not.

This is correct.
The sale cannot go through until probate is granted so the question to ask is whether the seller has probate.
Power of attorney ends as soon as the person dies.

It can. In this case.

Yes, if an elderly parent gives PoA to their Dc, that does indeed cease on death, and the estate goes to the Executor to administer and distribute the estate within the terms of the Will.

But PoA just means giving a third party authorisation to act on your behalf.

If family members inherit the house, for example, but don’t want to handle the sale (due to their own circumstances, e.h maybe infirm, live abroad, can’t be bothered, have done a Deed of Variatuon to leave all proceeds to cat home as don’t want any thing to do with late parents…) they can give power of attorney to a solicitor to handle every aspect of the sale.

It’s possible that the seller has died and they have a spouse who has inherited the estate but lacks capacity, is in care, and the solicitor has power of attorney. It shouldn’t make any difference in terms of the mechanics of the sale - the solicitor’s obligation is to get the best value for the estate and that’s usually served by a smooth and timely sale.

It is different if the probate isn't granted yet. It can take, solicitors especially, a superbly long time to complete probate cases, and for probate service to issue it. I do wish houses wouldn't be marketed without the grant. OP should walk away if it's not in sight.

Sounds like a probate sale with solicitors appointed as executors. So those solicitors are acting as the "seller" hence any offers go to them to consider and decide just like it would have gone to the seller if still alive.

There property sale itself is no different to any other, other than those selling it can't give quite as much detail as the seller would have been able to for themselves but for many properties it is very little difference

The executor must make sure that they get the best price they can otherwise beneficiaries can claim that the estate was mismanaged.

Is it possible the person who lived there has dementia and has been moved into a home, and the person with POA is selling it to pay for the care home?

You need to find out the stage of the probate process - when is probate likely to be granted?

Also, the solicitors who are the executors of the estate will liaise with the family who will inherit, i.e. the beneficiaries of the deceased's will, which could potentially slow down the sale.

Ask your solicitor to talk to the executor solicitors for more information.

Never a good idea to entirely rely on what an estate agent says in my experience.

It's likely a probate sale where the executors are selling. It's possible the solicitors are acting as or for the executors.

When we bought the house was a probate sale. There were no problems at all. It was helpful that there was no chain beyond the purchase.

It needed a lot of work though.