Buying property before probate granted

[FairyPoppins]

I am executor & sole beneficiary after a relatives death. There is a property but also substantial savings.
The house is too big for me to live in, so will need to be sold after probate is granted.
There is enough money in savings for me to buy a small property outright.
Do I need to wait for probate to be granted to buy somewhere out of the cash - plus the sale of my house, or is the Will proof enough when it comes to providing proof as to where all the funds have come from?

Do you need probate to access the savings? If not, then you should be able to go ahead with using them for a house purchase.

No.

As executor you do not have the legal authority to distribute the estate, even to yourself.

@Newnicknameforme The numerous bank accounts all seem under the probate amount for each bank, not sure if this is just luck or judgement.
I have the money in a completely separate bank account from my normal one.

Who does then?

This. part of the process known as "probate" is confirmation that the deceased doesn't owe anything eg in the way of taxes or benefit overpayments. There may also be money to add to the estate. In my grandmother's case she was owed uncollected state pension (she had been unwell and unable to collect it) although of course now its paid directly into a bank account, this is less likely.

the executor but AFTER probate

I think if the total amount requires probate then you still have to wait. I was sole legatee and executor of my husband's will and still had to wait for probate to be able to claim his assets.

I think the simplest thing would be to go to the solicitor or conveyancer that you intend to use and ask them if the will, death certrificate and the transfers from the accounts are sufficient for their KYC procedure.

If they are, then all well and good. If they insist on seeing the probate then you will need to wait until you get that.

It doesn't make any difference how many different pots of money there are - they all form part of the entire estate, which cannot be distributed until after probate has been granted.

What's the hurry anyway?

There is no hurry... I was just asking the question.
The point being made about monies in various bank accounts was that they were each under the individual banks threshold for needing to provide the probate certificate, so were able to be withdrawn to the executors account which enables the utility bills to continue to be paid.

The Executor… after probate.

Probate gives the Executor authority to distribute the estate.

If you're sole executor and beneficiary and the banks have let you have access to the money without probate then there's nothing to stop you distributing it to yourself now. Just make sure you keep records of everything so that when you do come to apply for probate you can give the correct value of the estate.

(Continued from above as I posted too soon)

If you want to buy a property with the money you will likely need the probate to be completed though to be able to prove source of funds.