buying a house that has power attorney

[Lavenderflower]

Does anyone have experience, advice or thoughts?

Thank you for your response. This makes sense.

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.

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

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

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

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?

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Probate then, not POA.

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

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.

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..

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.

@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?

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.