Buying a probate property- advice please !

[danceallnightinsnow]

We are in the middle of buying a probate property.

Its been four months since our offer was accepted (we were not made aware it was a probate sale until we instructed the solicitors).

The only thing outstanding is the grant of probate.

The sellers solicitors responses avoid answering questions about this.

Can anyone offer any advice as to what you would do next ?

We understand there have been delays due to covid but the house went on the market in July.

Unfortunately it’s a waiting game. Probates are taking months to come in. There’s probably nothing the sellers solicitors can do. Ask when they applied, that should be quite telling!

We have asked them and they seem to be avoiding answering it which is making me more concerned.

Pre-COVID on my Nan's estate we applied in March and we're granted in October/November!

Just in the process of purchasing my second probate property. The first one 3 years ago took 11 months for grant of probate. This one I am buying now probate was granted in just under 3 months. It depends how complicated the estate is of the deceased. What you can do is check online yourself, if you know the surname of the person who has died you can find out when probate was applied for. probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills

@umpteennamechanges was that just for the grant or was that for the entire probate ?

@WhispersAnonymous thank you for your information! We have been checking via that site but it doesn't bring anything up.

We know when they sadly passed away and that is coming up to a year soon.

So usually you have conveyancing solicitors and probate solicitors. So you'll probably find that you chasing their solicitors just means they are chasing the solicitors handling the probate. If it's co op handling the probate I wish you good luck 😂

The vendors have been quite cheeky in marketing the property.

Our solicitor wouldn’t let us commence marketing my grandfather’s house until probate was granted.

Death in May, confirmation (it’s Scotland) in October. Not a complicated estate.

I know two people who have bought a probate property, both nearly pulled out because of the length of time it took (this was pre-covid).

When we bought a probate property a few years back it took about 9 months from when we offered to grant of probate BUT it turns out there was an inheritance tax issue and the IHT400 form (from memory might be called something else ) must be submitted before probable can be applied for and then there is a 2-3 week period that needs to pass before you can apply for probate. Just because the seller thinks it's been applied for doesn't mean the solicitor has formally made the application so I would ask for detail and get an actual date the application was made and then do some research about current waiting times.

[quote WhispersAnonymous]Just in the process of purchasing my second probate property. The first one 3 years ago took 11 months for grant of probate. This one I am buying now probate was granted in just under 3 months. It depends how complicated the estate is of the deceased. What you can do is check online yourself, if you know the surname of the person who has died you can find out when probate was applied for. probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills[/quote]
This only tells you about the probate after it’s granted. 2 weeks after the probate has been granted the government online records are updated.

No way of knowing when they applied unless they tell you.

Similar situation to you OP. We are moving and now buying a probate property. Apparently probate applied for in July. Since October we are told they expect to get it any day now. We’re still waiting.

We sold a probate property last year, probate was applied for middle of June we got it middle of September. The estate was worth over a million pounds but a trust fund had been set up to pay the inheritance tax so this may have speeded things up. It was a relatively straight forward estate so no solicitor was involved. We put the house on the market at the beginning of June making it very clear we were applying for probate, we received an offer in three weeks but the buyer did not have his mortgage valuation done until we had probate which was fair enough, we kept him informed all the time, the sale went through at the end of November there was lots of delays towards the end, if our buyer hadn't been mucking us around it could have gone through at the end of October.

@Onmyleft this is the same thing we keep being told. We've had the estate agents telling us this almost weekly and its beyond a joke.

@gettinglonginthetooth we have everything in place but our mortgage offer expires in April,so we face more potential fees again.

I just feel they aren't being upfront. We've asked for the date it was put in and nothing.

Our mortgage offer ends in April too but our offer in the property is subject to completing before stamp duty holiday ends. We will pull out if this goes past March if they do not drop the price to the equivalent of the stamp duty savings loss.

Oh, did I say we are totally and utterly sick of it all.

IMO your sellers are being slightly disingenuous.
We were advised by the Revenue to work out and then pay the inheritance tax with the probate application which is what we did which is why we got it quicker than the examples above We were told that it would take up to 12 weeks to get it from sending in the application and paying the inheritance tax. As I said we were completely upfront with our buyer and kept him informed all the way. He was a total pain in the arse as was his solicitor in many ways but he was advised too and was right to wait until we'd probate. Go back to you vendor and ask then what happening with the probate application? From what I understand (although I may be wrong about this) you need to pay any inheritance tax to get probate.

The sellers will have no idea on where the probate is in the process, do they can't tell you anything.
When we were selling our mother's property last year, we made sure that everything was in order so that as soon as probate was granted we were able to exchange within a couple of days.

@Onmyleft we know we are going to get caught for the stamp duty and can cover that luckily, its more the fact that we have no end in sight at all and we want to start putting money aside for other things

We were told by someone at the Revenue on applying for probate that providing we'd paid the inheritance tax upfront it would take 12 weeks max it took just under 11 and that was with them loosing a key piece of paper work (the will!!).

Probate was granted for my late mother's estate beginning Oct 2020, applied/paid IHR June 2020.

We applied through the registry in Newcastle following advice (no way to confirm but seemed reasonable) that their queues were amongst the shortest.

Although it was a simple will, it had still taken six months to get all the valuations confirmed. We were not really in any hurry, so decided to wait for full valuation rather than go ahead on estimates.

It's obvious why the party selling & their solicitors do not want to let you know anything about the progress of the process. There is indeed no end in sight. It was disingenuous of the other party to not mention that it was a probate sale. What did they say when asked about the situation, they might have been in a chain?

Unless you can fund an indefinite wait, I would be inclined to start looking around again. Horrible, but there it is.

Ask them again when probate was applied for and tell them in plain language that unless they answer your questions you will/or are considering withdrawing your offer. They really should not have put the house on the market until they had GOP and as they are refusing to give you any info I really would consider walking away.

If you proceed I would make it clear that if the stamp duty holiday expires before they can complete you will deduct that sum from your original offer. Either walk away or start to play hard ball.

@FinallyHere

We asked them why it was being sold and were informed that the owner was going into a care home and needed to sell. There was no mention of probate at all and none on the house advertisement either.

Back in 2012, I applied in person, in London. Earliest appointment available was fourteen days out, probate was granted on the spot.

www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate/apply-for-probate

In person no longer appears to be an option.