Buying a property when the owner died intestate

[RacheltheRabbit]

Is there anything we should know? Does the process take longer? Are we more or less likely to get a cheeky offer accepted?

Thanks

Intestate is not the issue. A family member will take of the estate and house, and usually sell in the normal way. However any house that forms part of an estate that isn't needed by the family may well go for less than the market value because they may want a quick sale to free up the money.

Thank you - I think I've got the wording confused. There's no family, it's being sold by the Crown?

Ask your solicitor.
Re family members, if there is a will, nobody can sell until probate is granted; I don't think houses ought to be allowed to be marketed until that has happened, as it isn't established who owns the property until probate has been granted. If family inherit where there isn't a will, there must be some sort of legal process to go through to establish who has the right to sell.

Do you know if the crown (or local council) have made any attempt made to track down distant relatives? They'd have engaged the services of a genealogist / 'heir hunter' to see if there is anyone that could inherit. I'd think they need to establish that there is nobody from this list first, and that would take a while:

www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will/y/england-and-wales/no/no/no/no/no/no/no/no

So they've done all that, and not found anybody? Or they don't need to dig too deeply?

Good question to ask the estate agent, thank you