Executor sale

[Beveren]

My aunt is buying a retirement flat having sold her own property. She has just heard that sadly the vendor has died. Can the executors continue with the sale, or does it have to wait for probate to go through?

The executors will need to get the Grant before the sale can complete, and probably before contracts can be exchanged. They can accept an offer and get to the point of exchanging contracts, but the sale will then stop until the Grant is obtained.

They can’t exchange until they have the grant of probate.

Oh dear. Apparently it's unlikely to be the most straightforward estate so it sounds as if the sale may fall through, unless the executors can rent the flat to her?

You can exchange before probate. It’s just done “subject to probate”.