Selling my late mum’s house myself or through a solicitor?

[BubbleLily]

I’m in my twenties so would be grateful from advice from people who have more knowledge or experience of this than me.

We’ve already been granted probate on mum’s estate. We (or more specifically I - no other family) now need to sell her house. I can either do this through her solicitor, who is acting as executor, or have it transferred into my name to sell it myself.

The pros of getting the solicitor to sell it is that I live across the country. The downside is that I don’t trust mum’s choice of solicitor to do a good job at it. It took them nine months from her death to even APPLY for probate, on a simple estate.

The pros of selling it myself is that I could choose the pricing strategy etc to balance selling it quickly against getting a reasonable sum for it. The cons are being 250 miles away and also that it would take at least twelve to eighteen months for me to be able to put it on the market according to mum’s solicitor because that’s how long it’s taking the land registry to update ownership records. The solicitor has said they would write to the land registry on my behalf to say I’d need this expedited, but that there’s no guarantee this would be granted, and if it were, we have no way of knowing how much it would speed up the process by.

I handled my mums not bug state and sold her house. From death to house sale was 4months.

priced the house to sell

empyied the house. Save what I wanted, donated/gave away the rest. Left white goods in the house.

if the estate is simple I would not instruct a solicitor. There is plenty of information online on what to do and how to do it.

I sold my dad's house myself. Solicitors will slow everything up. It was best to be in control. I had the house valued and sold in a few weeks.

Thank you both! Can I check how quickly you were able to get the house transferred into your names before selling it? I’m really worried about this 12-18 month long wait.

I don't think you do need to transfer it into your name, as long as you have probate granted I think you can just sell it

Mum’s solicitors are her executor, not me, and they have advised me that it would therefore need to be transferred into my name first.

Can I just check - they are saying it will take 12-18 months to get the house transferred to your name - is that right ? So if you let them sell for you and some one buys it, will it take 12-18 months to transfer it to their name ? IF not, why not?

Im assuming you live in England or wales as you mention probate - is that correct ? It matters because the legal system is different in Scotland .

If the solicitor is her executor, they are the only person who can sell it on behalf of the estate. Unless they stand down as executor and you take over, you should let them do it.

Hi, yes I live in England. I don’t know how long it would take for it to be transferred into a new buyer’s name if they bought it directly from myself or from the estate, but I’m confident that that’s not something I or the executor would need to worry about. It’s only an issue because I would need it to be in my name before I could market it and sell it myself, if I went down that route.

Yes, I am aware of this, thank you. They have advised that it could be transferred into my name as it was left to me, and I could then sell it myself. The choice is mine.

The Land Registry is currently taking up to 18 months to process changes of ownership, so the solicitor is correct. It will take up to 18 months before the Land Registry shows OP as the owner of the property. If they sell it to someone else, it will take up to 18 months before the Land Registry shows them as the owner. The buyer will own the property, but they would not be able to sell it until the Land Registry caught up and showed them as the owner.

You don’t have to get the house name transferred, you just have to take the grant of probate to the solicitor you choose to handle the sale. Get it on the market and go from there.

You need Solicitors for the legal part, not the selling part, as far as I’m aware.

Thank you but as I’m not the executor, mum appointed her solicitor as her executor, I can’t do this. The choice is her solicitor selling directly on behalf of her estate, or it being transferred into my name for me to sell myself.

I do in my case as the solicitor is the executor of the will.

When my mum died and I had to get the deeds changed in order to sell her property, I called the land registry, explained the situation, and got the new deeds within a couple of weeks. That was about 18 months ago.

Also, as I lived two hours away from the property, I used an estate agent that specialises in selling properties on behalf of executors, to save them the hassle.

I think that getting your solicitor to do it is likely to cost you a small fortune.

Edited to add that I hadn't seen that the solicitor is the executor and you aren't. So you might need more informed advice as to the pros and cons of you taking over the same.

You could do that but, as they say, it will take time. Also, if you own another property, you will be liable for CGT when you sell this property. You will also be liable for Council Tax on your mother's property and, if you own another property, you may be charged a premium for a second home.

The executor is in charge of selling the house and splitting the money between the recipients. If they happen to be a solicitor would that mean they would act as the conveyancing solicitor also? Sorry I'm asking a question rather than offering advice.

Thank you, I’m renting so no second home to consider thankfully

Thank you! It’s reassuring to hear you wrote to the land registry in the same position as me and they expedited it for you.

Can I ask (and you might have to DM me depending on mumsnet rules about advertising) which specialist estate agents you used?

I've messaged you. It's long, and messaging has formatted it into a huge single paragraph, so sorry about that!

But yes, I'd get more legal advice about any potential downsides about you doing it rather than the solicitor. A pp mentioned some issues that you might need to get clarified.

If you get it transferred to you then you become liable for all the running costs and council tax whilst you wait for it to sell.

Get it sold via solicitor for an easier life.

That's a good point. I had to pay council tax, water rates, unoccupied property insurance and energy costs (as I was responsible for it over winter, the insurers insisted that it was heated to 15 degrees pretty constantly) etc, while it was waiting to be sold.
I don't know what happens with regard to the insurance etc if the solicitor is responsible for the property. It's possible that they arrange it and the heating, and take the cost (including their time in setting those up) from the estate (so ultimately, from OP).

OP definitely needs some advice and info re the pros and cons, from an disinterested party.

Unless I'm missing something hasn't the solicitor's job as executor finished ... isn't their job is to share out to the beneficiaries and that has happened?

Have you looked into the solicitor's fees, is it in their interest to draw out the process?

Yep. I'm very suspicious about this bit:

it would take at least twelve to eighteen months for me to be able to put it on the market according to mum’s solicitor

I think the first thing to do is for you to contact the Land Registry to find out from the horse's mouth, what the processing time would be in your case @BubbleLily .