Buying a Probate Property

[danceallnightinsnow]

We are first time buyers and put an offer in which was accepted a couple of weeks ago. Everything has been progressing well until last night we were asked by our solicitor if we knew it was a probate sale.

We weren't told this by the estate agent and were told the reason for selling was due to the owner going into a care home.

Has anyone been through this as we are now unsure how long this will take or the time scale as they haven't had probate granted yet .

I think it often takes 3 months but I’ve heard of almost a year too. Might be worth speaking to the solicitor to see how far along the process is.

It depends how organised the executors are.

We put in a probate application in the summer and it came back very quickly (4 weeks) but it had taken some time to get all the valuations etc done for the IHT forms.

If it's a simple estate and the executors are organised it shouldn't be a huge issue but it's completely fair that you ask some questions to see how far along they are.

You need to know if they have applied for probate or not - once applied for, it should be back in 8 weeks max, but people can take forever getting ready to submit.
My second parent died at the end of April, probate was submitted at the end of June and came back in 2 weeks. The house completed last week, but I was upfront with the buyer that I didn't know how long it would take as my dads probate took the full 8 weeks earlier in the year

Ours was purchased through probate, offer accepted in Jan and we completed in Aug. The will was being contested though, family members disagreeing about the split. We weren't in a chain or a massive hurry either thankfully

I applied for probate in August 2015 and it came through in the October. Obviously that was pre Covid so it may take longer now.

It took 6 months for us to purchase our probate property. We were told by the estate agent it should take 6 weeks for probate to be granted but turned out it hadn’t been submitted so took longer.
As others have said, find out how far along in the process the sellers are.

I'd ask how far into the process they are. If they haven't applied yet could take six months to get everything together and probate granted

We have just had an offer accepted on our second probate property. Luckily this one has had it granted. Our first property probate hadn't been granted we put in an offer in April/march and we finally got the keys at the end of September.

The reason it took so long was that the children were fighting over their share etc in the estate.

Couple of experiences. My current home, the owner sadly died during the sale. Her (adult) children were executors, they wanted the sale to continue, so i can only remember it adding a few weeks to the process.

However I've also been involved in situations (not where I was buying, though) where it's taken months and years to even apply for probate. So I think it's fair to ask if probate has been applied for, or when it will be.

I’ve just put a probate property on the market. Forms have gone off to be processed and solicitor urged me to get it on ASAP now, as did trusted estate agent - but it’s how long’s a piece of string. Our probate is very straightforward so neither solicitor nor EA believe it will delay any sale process. You should have been told sooner but like other posters say - you need to find out more. Good luck!

Thank you everyone for your responses ! I think its more the fact that we were lied to by the estate agents and weren't informed it was a probate sale.

My partners going to chase tomorrow to find out what stage it is at! If anyone has any more advice in regards to buying in general the help would always be appreciated !

We weren't told this by the estate agent and were told the reason for selling was due to the owner going into a care home

I would be absoloutley furious at being lied to. How can you trust the EA or the seller to tell you the truth about anything now.

Hi OP.
I've been looking for a property on behalf of DM (long story which I won't bore you with).
A couple of the ones I viewed were in probate, and I was told it would take around six weeks.
I have no idea if that was true as we didn't proceed with either of them, but it might give you an idea - if there are no problems of course.
(DM made an offer on one of them and it became clear that the family were prepared to try and sit on the market for full asking price - only it was about £10k over value, so never going to happen - we steered clear.)

Ours took about 6-8 weeks to go through probate

You may not have been lied too. We sold my Grannies house recently as she went into a care home via hospital after a nasty fall. The house sold really quickly but she sadly died two weeks later in the home. Tread carefully. It may not have been deceitful. The lady/man may have literally just died, hence why you’ve now been informed.

Probate is presently 4 to 6 weeks.
Have a house on the market presently. Put on market whilst awaiting probate and this info is on the legal bumf for prospective buyers. It depends how quickly it is applied for. I did the form myself which is an estimate of the estate. Ask who is taking responsibility for probate. Give them an 8 week deadline or you will withdraw. The market is all over the place at the moment and they may not want to risk delaying the sale.

We are just awaiting a call from the estate agent to clarify what stage they are at. They have confirmed it has been a probate sale from the very start and we have made it clear that we are not impressed at being told otherwise.

My stepfather died just short of a year ago and my mother has been told they're still at least 10 weeks away from probate being granted. Nothing complicated to sort out either, but the solicitor handling it got furloughed and it seems there weren't enough staff in the office to keep all cases ticking over.

i grew up at my grans i moved away at 16 years of age to study at collage when ,i found out my gran had passed on half way through my collage course so made my way back to find out that the aunt an the aunts son had moved in saying they were homless ,an had been there 2 years prior in all the years i had never met thease people or ever heard of them ,i lived with my gran all my childhood , i went bck to finish my studyin ,i thought nothing of it didnt know my nans house was even bought never crossed my mind even thought of the fund side of it,, she always told me she would look after me when she goes ,i finished my collage cause an moved back to the area an got on with my day to day life but somthing has always been on my mind ,i looked on the gov,uk page randomly , i was just curious as time had gone by to where i found a will that the aunt made, herself exacutrix an the beaficary the son ,alarm bell were ringing how this had made its way through probate the will itself was so roughly done how it got through probate is beyond me ,one of the witnesses has the first name thats unreadable an no second name ,i still remember asking my dad why are threm people in my grans ,he said gran dont want them there but shes to old to move them on ,i mentioned it to the benficiarys freind in so many word to where the son told his freind he was buying the home ,the will doesnt look right atall

As others have said, sadly some people go into a care home and then die within quite a short time period. In that type of situation some of the proceeds of the house sale will go towards care home costs.
We bought a probate house last year. The advantage for us was that it completed the chain (we also had a property to sell and so did our buyers). It was issues with selling our buyers property that held the chain up, not the probate issue.
Providing the probate is straightforward, being a probate property shouldn't hold you up any more than being in a chain. Usually it's slightly quicker as people don't want to deal with maintenance and bills for an empty property longer than they have to.