Probate house valuation

[GaryWilmotsWedding]

Hello all! Wondering if anyone can advise me -
We are thinking of purchasing a house that is in probate. The agent is maddeningly vague about value. It seems like a valuable estate to me (£3m plus I expect) and it’s my understanding that the beneficiaries will have been required to submit a value (suggested by a surveyor) to HMRC for the house. I assume this is almost always required to be done by a RICS surveyor? Or will the estate agent’s estimate suffice? I don’t believe them that it is possible to be this vague at all! I’m interested in knowing how likely it is they have a decent idea of the value before putting together an offer (and yes I know some people’s understanding of value is whatever someone will pay, I’m just trying not to get hoodwinked as it’s an unusual property.) Our offer will be solid and we wouldn’t try to chip away later (barring terrible discoveries!) so I want to get it in the right ballpark from the outset. Thanks for any guidance.

We had our relatives house valued by an 2 estate agents for probate purposes, that valuation went towards the estate assets

Estate agents can do them but a quick Google search tells me that some people recommend getting it done by a surveyor if the estate's value is likely to be over the inheritance tax threshold. But that's probably recommended by surveyors trying to sell their services...

I don't think the Probate Office has a rule that a house valuation has to be done by a surveyor.

We sold my parents house once probate was granted. It was valued at £250,000 by the estate agents. They told us that they always value low for probate. It sold for £100,000 more 9 months later.

I expect that once probate is granted, the price will sky rocket. I believe that they cannot accept any offers until after probate. Remember also, probate properties can take a year or more to be on the market. The Probate office has to make sure that the whole estate is declared prior to the Grant being issued.

Is it advertised at a price, you can put in an offer and instruct a survey which will look at the value

To answer your question about whether the EA can be vague. Yes they always are with Probate properties , purely because timescale is such a big unknown factor. If there are several beneficiaries, the executor might want to get a consensus opinion before listing the property. There are lots of bloody minded people where Wills are concerned.

Surely if it is being actively marketed there must be an agreed asking price, whether it's offers over, or a price band or an actual asking price 🤔
Isn't that in the contract between the EA and vendor?

My mother's estate was over the inheritance tax threshold and we were asked to get three valuations by estate agent, not surveyor. It is the market value, not what a surveyor thinks it is worth - and if you are over the inheritance tax on the estate it does not help to have an artificially low valuation as you have to pay tax on the excess and HMRC are really hot on it. They can also disagree with the valuations and throw them out, if they want, but estate agents will normally write a report explaining why they came to that figure and the local probate offices usually understand the market.

Have the vendors had the Grant of Probate? Without that they cannot complete on the sale and probate is currently taking quite a long time. On a not complicated estate, my mother died at the start of Sept 2020 and we got probate at the end of May 21 so we didn't even put the house on the market until we had the paperwork in our hands.

I got three estate agents to value my late parents house in October
They all came up with the same amount
House sold for 20k more due to biding between buyers
I got probate within 7 weeks using a firm to do it for me as I’m lazy 😂
I started it the week before the house went up sale
This was in October - November last year so pretty quick for probate