Buying a probate property... help!

[thefluffybear]

Hi all, does anyone have any experience buying a probate property - how long did it take you to complete? Anything to be wary of when buying a probate property etc?

EA told us an offer has been made on the property above the asking price however it was rejected due to probate. The seller is estimating 3 months for the paperwork to be done/legalities completed and EA has said offers made before then are effectively pointless as they can’t accept any offers on the house anyway.

We are no chain buyers so keeping our options open as the market is so buoyant where I am and as there are 3 other parties who have registered interest, we potentially could be outbid when it eventually goes to closing.

Our solicitor has suggested that it might be 3 longer than 3 months due to COVID causing delays.

Aaaaargh absolute Sod’s law that we’ve found one we like but can’t even buy it!

It can take months and months. Definitely keep looking.

We've got probate going for my grandpa who died in January. We were told min 8 weeks from the application and it takes months to pull everything together for the probate. So depends on how far in the process they are. If they've applied tbh by the time mortgages, surveys and legal work is done it will likely to done anyway. If they haven't got that far then it could take a long long time

We had an offer accepted on a probate property back at the beginning February. They hadn't submitted the paperwork for probate, assured it was going to be done soon, but took quite some time to pull everything together...end result a LONG delay, especially with covid. If I had known this from the outset we probably would have walked away (we do love the house though)
It depends if they have submitted all of the paperwork and are just waiting for the grant, then go for it. It actually only took approx 6 weeks to be granted from submission (granted on the second week of July). It just takes a lot of patience and depends how much of a rush you are in.

We are due to complete on Wednesday....eek!

we bought a probate property and didn't have any problems at all from the legal/bureaucracy side.

my word of warning would be about the sheer quantity of JUNK in a probate property. I am sure the executors (the sons of the deceased) didn't do this deliberately they just underestimated the hoarding of their deceased dad. they hired a skip when they cleared the house and the day we moved in we couldn't use the drive because it was full of a skip that was full to the brim and it wasn't collected for a week. however there was a further 3 skips worth of junk left behind in the attic and shed that they just left for us to deal with. A skip costs £200 a time and a hell of a lot of effort to fill it, which we didn't have time to deal with when we moved in so we had to coexist with this legacy of junk until we did have time energy and money to cope with it. We had no comeback on the vendors for the time, money and inconvenience. I would suggest you make sure you instruct your solicitor to write into the contract that you shall receive the property empty of all possessions of the previous occupant except for those specifically agreed in the fixtures and fittings list, and that the vendors agree to bear all costs of removals of any additional items which are left behind unasked for.

I usually advise my clients not to market the property until the probate application has been submitted - they are currently taking longer than usual due to backlogs at HMRC and the Probate Registry - as you cannot exchange contracts until the Grant has arrived.
If you are feeling impatient and want to know as soon as the grant has been made you can search online to see if it has been made... during the lockdown they were often showing as granted a week or more before the hard copy arrived.

Hi everyone, thanks for your replies. We are not in a rush but getting very impatient and just want to move!!!! and will definitely keep looking. I'm constantly checking rightmove, on the market etc but nothing suits.

@LakeDistrictLover How exciting!! I'm sure you won't get much sleep on Tues night! All the best for Wednesday

@YinuCeatleAyru Jeez!!!! That is awful, so cheeky that they left it for you to deal with, what a bloody pita! Thank you for this advice though, I must admit its not something that's ever crossed my mind.

@Fleurchamp Yes thats what my solicitor said to me too as I couldn't get my head round why they jumped the gun to put it on the market considering they can't legally sell it . Had a quick google but seems as though you can only search records in England and Wales - we are in Scotland so looks like i'll have to keep my fingers crossed and be patient!

I think the poster who found a probate property full of junk was just unlucky, this is not a standard occurrence. You can buy a house off a live vendor and still find a load of crap left behind.
Op, it took us 18 months to get probate on our parents property, just bear in mind you may be in for a long wait, especially at the moment because of an hmrc backlog due to Covid (if there is iht to pay, that is).

I wouldn't write it off. My mum died at the end of April, I submitted her probate 1st of July (it would have been sooner but I had to do her inheritance tax offline due to using transfer of allowance from dad) and received the grant July 16th. I'd accepted an offer on the house the week I submitted probate and they knew we could do exchange but not completion until probate was issued - but that obviously hasn't been an issue

Do you know if the probate application has even been made yet? When it is submitted it’s normally a couple of weeks but currently it’s between ten to twelve.

We sold a couple of probate properties in Scotland, we marketed very quickly but probable was granted quickly, about a month after the owners passed, and the solicitors tied it all in together.

If there are three other expressions of interest, expect a bidding war then best and final offers in sealed bid. That’s how one of ours was handled. The solicitors handled it, but we had several offers, so they put a closing date and asked for sealed bids and we sold to the highest one, which was surprisingly very very high in comparable to the valuation.

Bluntness, what if the highest bid does not stand up to scrutiny by a mortgage company?

I like the idea of a probate project but I don’t have the deep pockets to win a bidding war.

Weary, I’m not sure but I think the fund availability is validated prior to offers being made,

Blunt not sure I understand. So the offer made by a buyer will be validated first before making a decision? Who would validate the offer?

You make offers via your solicitor in Scotland.

Proof of funds is also done in England, but usually after th offer and very quickly.

Clearly if someone isn’t in a position to make an offer then the next highest would get it.

Sounds a better way in Scotland. I think it is possible for people to offer high, get their offer accepted and then further down the line the value of the house is downgraded by the mortgage company but by then it’s too late for the other bidders.

I don’t know for sure but given how offers are made and accepted here, I can see that it is possible.

We bought our house last year, it was going through probate. We offered in June and moved in early December. It was our dream house though and we (and thankfully our buyers) were happy to wait it out. Super stressful though.

As you are no chain, I assume you perhaps won't mind waiting if it is your ideal property.
I'd get back to the EA and say you will be immediately proceedable with your offer once probate is granted . Chances are they'll come straight back to you as soon as it is -for an easylife-

Well it's not a probate property if a relative has just put it up for sale before they have got probate. They have no right to sell it and I am surprised the EA took it on. I had to show probate before my EA would proceed.
I am sole executor for my mother. I got probate before putting her house on the market and got a buyer within a week. That was in May.
It would all have gone through before now if the buyer was a cash buyer but it seems I am at the end of a long and winding chain.

Hi everyone, just an update. The property is going to a closing date next week however there is no date for moving in yet - could be 6 weeks/6 months. Unsure if we are going to offer as we have found another property we like that we could be in within 6 weeks.. decisions decisions

Best of luck fluffy. Is the property at a good price or is it overpriced already? Would agreeing a price on the other property be more straightforward and less nerve wracking?

@Misstic Thank you! Our offer on the other property was accepted yesterday, we are over the moon. Our solicitor told us we weren’t actually the highest bidder but due to no chain/flexible moving time (within reason) they chose us. Still can’t quite believe it!