Purchasing a probate property

[Overthinker19]

Hello
im after some advice please. We are purchasing a probate house, sorry if my wording is wrong however I am very new to this..I’ve have read around and believe that I should be able to search for the application here:
probatesearch.service.gov.uk

however I can’t find anything with names that match up the info within documents from our solicitor.

So I’m assuming the probate hasn’t been applied for or is this wrong?

Should we refrain from doing any survey (going for level 3) until the probate has been granted? I’m reading threads online where the whole probate process is taking months and months!

Does anyone have any advice?

thanks

It will only apply on the register once probate is granted - and that can be a number of months after it was applied for. Your solicitor can ask where they are in the process.

I sold my parents house while applying for probate. We exchanged the day after it came through.

The sale cannot go through until the grant of probate is issued. The amount of time this takes will vary and can depend upon how busy the Probate Registry is. There is nothing to stop the sale progressing whilst the probate is awaited but the sale will not be able to complete without it. Problems can arise if the estate is not straightforward and getting the probate is not difficult, most likely cause is arguments in the family. So if you choose to proceed pending the probate you risk it taking a long time to be granted . It would be worth trying to ascertain where they are up to in the application process.

We bought a probate property, last year, thankfully the executor had applied for probate before the property was marketed, come through in about 9 weeks, it didn’t hold anything up. As pp said you cannot exchange until probate has been granted. Good luck.

Thanks for your replies. How can I get a credible answer re if probate has been applied for? Can my solicitor check this? I don’t want to rely on the EA, I’ve read too many threads about people being strung along. I am also going to delay the survey until I know where they are in the application process. I was naive to all of this and initially assumed that the ‘8 weeks’ the EA advised was credible.

I would ask your solicitor to enquire if their solicitor. They should be able to get a feel for whereabouts they are in the process.

The probate office currently state 8 weeks but it actually takes them twice that time simply to acknowledge receipt of your application - or that was my experience last year!

They changed the system just before Covid and there have been huge delays since.

However you could do what we did years ago which was move into the house we were set to buy when probate came through, paying a nominal rent in the meantime. Simple extra legal document was drawn up by the solicitors.

Grant of Probate is taking about 12 weeks after application at the moment, assume all goes to plan. Is the estate being handled by a solicitor? In that case I’d expect it would go smoothly. If the relatives did the application there is a chance it wasn’t filled in properly and takes longer.

however you should be able to ask the Seller for proof that the Application was submitted.

Most sensible people wouldn’t market a house until they had submitted the application for Probate, or were very nearly ready to do so. If they haven’t yet even sent in the application you may have a longer wait.

Be prepared this can take a long time. I went after a probate property I gave up in the end after months of nothing happening.

thank you all, your responses have been very helpful and I have asked my solicitor to check when the application was submitted and requested proof of application.

@Sitdowncupoftea is that because the sellers hadn’t actually applied for probate at the time you made your offer? When we offered, we were advised it’s a property in probate and that should take 8 weeks and that we can’t exchange until then. I really hope this is the case, our buyers are patient but I want to manage expectations.

Once probate is granted, is the process straight forward / like any other house purchase? Or are there other issues I need to be aware of that could delay things?

Once probate is granted it's very very quick IME.

We sold my FIL's house which was a probate sale - DH and siblings were all in agreement and the sale went through as smoothly as any other . The only thing we had to do from the other side of the fence was to clear it all out and clean it - My SIL is a solicitor, I am not , but I think your solicitor should be able to get a clear view as to where the vendors' are with the probate by talking to the sellers' solicitor . This would seem to me to be a requirement from your and the vendors' solicitors.

Best luck

@Overthinker19 The property was in probate. Not all probate are clean cut some can take over a year.