Buying house-What if owner dies?

[Preggersntired]

That's it really... We are considering a house where the owner is seriously ill, and reading between the lines, he may not pull through. We understand that the owners DC have been asked by the owner to get on with selling the place.

But wouldn't a death part way through the purchase mean we'd have to start again, after probate...? Not willing to take a risk as we're moving for schools to start Sept 2013... Or is the any way to expedite the process before the owner dies? (Sorry I know this sounds callous...) We have nowhere to sell, but we do need a part-mortgage....

Any conveyancers out there know the procedure, and length of time things might then take... ? Or anyone with a similar experience?

The owner sadly dying halfway through our house purchase did not delay us. We still completed in six weeks, in 2010. The owner's children had been given the necessary power to sell the house from the start though, and they were anxious to get it done and dusted as soon as possible.

We recently bought BTL with part mortage and completed in 4 weeks so it is possible!
It only takes 48hrs to have mortgage agreed by underwriters and you can pay for extra quick searches. Our homebuyers reports were done within a week of morgage application.
We know of a super fast solicitors firm you can use!
If the owner dies during purchase I guess the property will have to be on hold for probate as the DC do not own the house. My Mums probate took 8 months!!!!
Wait for colerabate and mumblechum to come along but in the meantime I wish you much success!

Ok - guess I need to ask the agents if the children have power to sell, thanks Chutes. Is that called power of attorney - Or is that something else entirely? Sorry I'm clueless, but don't want the agent to think that...

I didn't know that stuff pippala... Re fast searches.... Yes pls - would love the name of the speedy solicitors... Are they a web company?

We used through our mortgage with Birming Mid shires.
I will pm their details to you in the morning.
You need Rory!

Birmingham Mid shires! typing too fast. good luck !

I was chatting to the receptionist at our solictors when I signed our contract last week and I asked whether they had ever had any sales fall through between exchange and completion, and she said the only ones she had, had been when the owner had died in between exchange and completion, due to the whole probate issue (which surprised me, because I would have thought that once the 'dead' person had exchanged contracts, then that would be okay).

So in your situation I would definitely want to be sure that the children can sell the house if that happens. It's probably the owner's solicitor you need to speak to rather than the agent though (or are you not at that stage yet?).

I was just talking to someone at the weekend who had this very problem - owner died between exchange and completion. Their kids had power of attorney but that ceases when the owner dies as the whole estate goes into probate. They still got the house but there were some delays whilst it was being sorted out.

Birmingham midshires - thanks. They're a building society aren't they?

Thanks - they're all v useful points. I like the idea of speaking directly to the owner's solicitor... However in my experience they are sometimes unwilling to communicate with non-solicitors. Still-it's worth a try.

Apparently they do have power of attorney... But ecuse - how long does the process then take?? This might be too risky for us, with the amount of time we have left....

Power of attorney will be irrelevant in case of death - they will still need to be granted probate. Our house was a probate sale and it added a good month to the process due to the children having to wait so long to be a given an appointment for the probate interview. The house only went on the market after the process had already beeen started - in total I think the probate process took 5-6 months in their case.