Buying a probate property / any advice?

[tigerbear]

Hi all, we offered on a probate property several months ago, where probate hadn’t been granted yet, but the agent lead us to believe that grant of probate had all been applied for and was imminent.
They’re now saying they ‘think’ it’ll be by end of August, but no one really knows.

We’ve sold our house, and now staying with family (and since we offered on it, we negotiated a 40k discount from original offer), but very worried that we’ll be stuck waiting for months.

Anyone else sold or bought probate recently in the UK? How long did it take?

I sold my parents’ house this year. I didn’t put it on the market until probate had been granted, and that took almost 6 months, on a very straightforward estate.

The solicitors dealing with probate can put in an application to expedite the grant of probate, if the sale of the property is at risk etc.

Our vendor passed away unexpectedly prior to exchanging contracts. Executors wanted to carry on with the sale, but our mortgage offer was due to expire. Lender gave us an additional 3 months. After a month of the probate application had been sent off and our solicitor and estate agents sent a letter/email to the solicitor dealing with probate advising that the sale was at risk as mortgage offer was expiring imminently. The solicitor used that to put in a request to expedite the probate application. Probate got granted within a month or so.

I'm surprised you got posted like that, those people must be very ignorant of the law as well as very rude. Until a property is yours you can't set foot on it without the owner's permission, let alone leave your junk there.

It was a straightforward estate but it only took three months to get probate last year after my late Mum died and so didn't hold up the sale at all.

It took just under 20 weeks to receive the Grant of Probate for my late mother's straightforward estate. We put the house on the market after probate had been applied for, the idea being that the searches and conveyancing could get started whilst waiting for probate.

I have a couple of experiences with this.
We brought a probate property back in 2010 as a BTL.
Offer was made in December 2009, probate was granted in February 2010 and we completed in April 2010. It was all plain sailing.

It all depends on circumstances - it can be a sensitive time for the vendors as these properties will have many decades of memories and selling the house of a deceased loved one is often the final closure.

I agree with you I am currently in the process of selling my late father's place and
I am very 'protective of it ' in the sense that it was his home. I would not want people moving stuff in to the garden before completion I didn't even know they would be allowed to that ! I am executor and we currently have a sale progressing at searches stage atm. The bit I have hated is the feedback from estate agents from people viewing who were running the place down in order to put in a cheeky offer! So OK it is a need of a cosmetic makeover but some of the viewers were making it sound like it had been neglected for years which it definitely hadn't. We had an the issue of a private parking space with no gates.
I could imagine the neighbours fighting over who was going to park there if it was left vacant.one even suggested that they knew someone who needed space for some building materials lol! So we left my dad's old car on the space until we got probate to stop the neighbouring vultures from picking over it !

i am waiting for probate to be granted for my dad's house too Chris, the place does need revamping and loving again so I am keen for it to get on the market. I will try to ignore people trying to offer way below the asking price.

When I sold my MILs house they wanted a couple of grand off the price as the boiler was so old. The proceeded to completely gut the whole house and replace everything. I know house prices are high but it's awful when they try to negotiate a lower price (this was done a couple of months after we accepted the offer).

Hi @tigerbear and others

Just wondered how your situation resolved (if it has).

We had an offer accepted on a property mid July 23 awaiting probate. Here we are still waiting 6 months on. One small hiccup along the way which we were told was resolved at the start of Jan this year. Still waiting and vendors solicitors are not giving any updates to us.

We've sold our house and due to compete in 1 months time and don't want to lose our buyer. We're facing the real possibility of probate not coming through in time. It's the uncertainty that's stressful, not knowing if it's possible to a) rent the probate house 2) move in with family with us having 2 kids or 3) rent somewhere else.
But not having a definite timeline is causing such a headache. We could rent somewhere for 6 months and probate comes through next week!

Hi @SANDWT88
sorry you’re in this situation, it is beyond frustrating when you’re in the thick of it.
However, in our case, it all worked out in the end - we completed and moved in mid October, and I think probate took around 7 months.

My advice would be:

• try to stay with family, and give them a nominal rent. We never imagined that this would be an option (what with us being 2 adults, DD and a puppy!), and I was a bit embarrassed asking my SIL and BIL if we could stay, but it turned out to be a lovely experience. Just make sure you’re all completely clear of exactly what to expect, how you’ll spend your time, who’s responsible for what. In our case, we gave them £1k per month, inc bills, but we paid for, shopped and cooked our food separately. Some days we offered to cook for everyone for meals like Sunday lunch.
• Give a deadline for completion. Obviously the vendor can’t push probate along, but do make it known that you’re not happy, and ask for a discount if for example you aren’t in by the time your buyer wants to complete. Post completion on your sale, you’ll be in a really excellent position to ask for a discount. At this late stage, the vendor won’t want to lose you.
• You can ask to rent the house from them prior to probate coming in, however we did, and it was a big NO from the solicitors (I think the family can’t let out somewhere they don’t officially own yet)

Very best of luck!
Hang on in there, I can def say it was all worth it!!

Hello,

Just seen your comment and looking for some advice.

We have had an offer accepted on a house which is going through probate. The probate was applied for 5 weeks ago.

We have instructed our solicitor and opened the case however we aren't sure when we are supposed to process our mortgage application or proceed with the solicitors. We are worried if we apply for our mortgage now, it could expire if the process takes longer, but we also don't want to leave everything and make the process longer down the line.

We are in no rush, as it gives us more time to save for the plans we have. We just don't want to cause any delays.

Any help? :(