Seller passes away the day before exchange of contracts

[user1494597756]

Hi there,
We put our flat on the market the week before lockdown. It sold in the October of last year and the buyer has been waiting for us to move since then. She has rented 1 bedroom in a house and has been boxed up since the beginning of the year.
We have lost out on 3 houses, mainly because we have the mortgage offer in principle initially, which is then reduced and we can then no longer move forward.
This has been an exasperating time.
We set our limits lower and managed to find a property were the owner, an old lady, is in a nursing home, and her children have power of attorney.
All was going well, we were due to exchange last Wednesday , our buyer was due to go and sign her contract at the solicitors, hand over her deposit Tuesday at 4pm and we were to exchange contracts Wednesday morning.
We get a call Monday afternoon to say the old lady has been put on end of life care, no food or drink etc.
…. She passed away Tuesday…
The day before exchange. ….
Our mortgage offer expires December, we would then have to reapply, and he has changed jobs.
We have no idea how long probate takes, 3 months to a year as a guideline is not much to work with.
I don’t want to pester the family at this sensitive time.
….any ideas?

It’s correct that the POA ceases on death, so you will almost certainly have to wait until probate is granted. The executors (if there is a will validly appointing them) can legally go ahead without the grant of probate but it’s unlikely that your mortgage company will be happy with this, they will probably insist on waiting.

PP is correct that there is a fast track way to get probate for a sale, it’s call an application for ad collegenda bona. I don’t have direct experience of this but I think it’s used for complicated estates where probate is going to take a long time, so may not be necessary / appropriate in this case.

Probate took a few days for both my parents.

We had almost exactly this experience although we weren’t quite so close to exchange. Probate took about a month to be granted and we were told this was pretty good going, but this was pre-Covid.

@user1494597756

Thanks everyone. It would be fantastic if probate was within the next few months. Titchy… it’s not about what I do and don’t sell for, being off the property market means taking a risk. A risk that you won’t be able to get back on again. Prices in the south east are going wild, we’ll over asking price. I’m not mortgage free, so I’ll need one going forward. The longer I’m off the ladder the more prices can change and the closer I am to retirement. The closer to retirement, the less they lend. Id do it if I was younger, but not now. Godmum56 … I think I’ll take your advice thanks 🙏 Cellophaneflower, condolences on your loss, but 24 hours is remarkable…. Thanks for your advice. I thought that as the family had power of attorney, they would have a good insight into their mums estate and that may speed things up a little?

Thank you.

I was expecting probate to take ages, due to covid. The advice line said not to call for an update unless you hadn't received notification within 8 weeks. I applied online, which I think also speeded things up. You're not able to do this if more than 1 person is named as executor though. I received a text message the day after I applied saying it had been granted and that the documents I'd sent would be returned shortly. I hadn't even sent any documents! I called to query and was told that sometimes when a straightforward application comes in they just push it through. Hope it's the same in your case! I'm sure the estate agent will be able to test the water for you soon and find out where they're at with things. Hope it all works out for you.

*sped not speeded. Christ

This happened to us three years ago. Vendor very sadly died the day before exchange. The solicitor was excellent and emergency probate was granted within a couple of weeks.

We had this
After a year we walked away- it was another year until it sold
No will

And if they were selling for care home fees they may no longer wish to sell now

My MIL passed away in Feb this year and probate was through by April. 10 weeks in total

The executors could apply for Administration Ad Colligenda Bona. This is used when a sale of a property is going through and the seller dies during the process.

@LublinToDublin

Having just sold deceased parents house, POA ceases the moment a person dies so is irrelevant. You can't complete on a sale before probate has been granted even if the execyors and / beneficiaries are all in agreement.

In the Uk, the executor can