Anyone purchased a property going through probate? Do we stick or do we twist?

[ErlingHaalandsManBun]

Bit of a situation with the property we have just made an offer on.

It was being sold by the owners daughter on behalf of her Mother who has had to be moved into a care home. Daughter had power of attorney. All going well, we agreed a price and began to get the sale underway. Then we had a call from the Estate Agent selling to say that the owner had unfortunately and suddenly passed away (for which I have huge sympathy for them having not long lost my Dad and gone through this process myself) So, daughter's power of attorney no longer exists upon death and she no longer has legal rights to sell the property. So this will now have to go through probate.

Understandably the Estate Agent didn't want to be insensitive and probe too much as to what the daughters intentions are now as this death had only just occurred. However she thought the daughter would apply for probate and still want to sell. So we have been asked what we want to do. We have asked for time to consider our options.

WWYD?

Would you walk away from this seeing as though it could take months for probate to be granted which will more that likely piss off our own buyers who have already had to wait for us to find a house.

Or would you stick with it and hope that in a few weeks time the daughter applies for probate and its granted quickly.

As I said, I went through this with my Dad's house earlier this year. The estate was very simple, just myself and my sibling as beneficiaries and just the house and contents of his accounts so probate was granted within 8 weeks. Although I do know of friends who have waited best part of a year!!

My head is telling me to walk away and find something else but my heart wants to wait. But then there is the risk of losing our own sale.

Help! 😬

Thanks. This gives me hope. I have emailed the agents to ask if they could make some 'gentle' enquiries to see where their head is at and if they will be applying for probate anytime soon. I appreciate its difficult for the agents as they don't want to come across as insensitive pushy dicks.

I’d want reassurance that there is a will and that the executors were applying for probate within the month and still willing to sell to you. There could be a delay but our turnaround was around 16 weeks and it has been faster recently so I’ve heard. So it’s probably quicker to stick with it than start again but I’d keep looking in case you find a property you prefer.

This is a good idea. The executors for my father's house didn't apply for probate for a year!

Thanks, yes, good idea.

A house has come up this last week just down the road from the one we were buying. Its in better condition and needs less work so we are going to view it next week. Even if we decide to try and stick with the one we wanted, I think its worth exploring options.

We've been waiting since May for probate to be granted on the house we're buying.
We were advised it was a straightforward application. The owner's executor has been chasing up weekly and been given all sorts of promises. However, we've since found there's been an issue, following escalation to the registrar.
We didn't want to lose our buyers as it took 2 years to sell our house.
We've spent a fortune on holiday lets. It's been so stressful. We decided to hang in at the beginning as we love the house.
As time has gone on, we've regretted this, but if we start again we could be in a worse position. Plus, we haven't seen another house we like as much as this one.
Contracts are all sorted and we're good to go but there's no light at the end of the tunnel.
I really hope your experience will be much better.

See now this is the risk I think we will be taking unfortunately. No-one can tell you or assure you how long it will take. Its coming down to whether we feel we want to take the risk or not at the moment.

Thanks for sharing your experience though, it all helps us to see what other people have experienced.

Good Luck x

We also bought a probate property five years ago, it actually didn't increase the time it took. Our purchase was a complicated "share of freehold" property which we knew would take a while so we sold our own house first as we didn't want to lose our good buyer.

My mother's probate was quite complicated and took under four months, though we did have to push the solicitor quite a lot to encourage him to get on with things.

That sounds sensible, but it's hard to give up on a house you want.

It could take a long time. If you want to stick you may need to complete on your sale and move into a rental while you wait.

Thanks everyone who replied.

We have emailed our Estate Agent to see if they can gently ask what the daughters intentions may be in regards to the house. We will wait and see if we get any information back from that.

In the meantime we have arranged to view another house on the same street which has come on the market since we offered on our one. Its just a few doors down and has the exact same layout. However, its more expensive as its in much better condition and needs far less work, if anything. So we will see how we feel once we have viewed that.

We would be willing to go into rented we think but need to just do a little more research on costs involved with that but it may well be an option. We have two dogs so getting a rental may not be that easy.

So the next week will be a case of exploring options and see where we go from there.

Its completely unpredictable, it could be nice and straightforward, with no IHT to pay upfront or if it does need paying up front the daughter has it. She might be the only beneficiary

On the other hand there may be countless beneficiaries, there may be a complicated will, IHT may be due and HMRC need to have arrangements made and the beneficiaries need to work out who is going to pay that or borrow money to pay that, we had this and my dad nearly needed to take out a loan but HMRC took some money in lieu, agreed to release some cash from the deceased accounts and agreed the rest when the estate was settled but that took a very very long time. There were 15 beneficiaries in that case all over the world. Everyone also had a view about items in the house and what should be done etc etc.

Not a chance. You aren’t allowed to speak to the probate office.

The thread isn't easy to follow. The owner of the house died, and the sale of the house under POA stopped the sale. If you can, find out who else is interested. Don't be fooled into believing someone has offered more.

Usually when a house of value it put up for sale by the heirs of an estate, the estate agents and local property managers, letting agents, landlords try to persuade the heir to sell low to avoid IHT. Many good properties go for the proverbial song because they get together and won't make an offer to buy until the heir can no longer afford to pay the utilities and other costs on an empty house. Faced with a low valuation to save giving some to the Treasury, the heir could buy it themselves, armed with the value given by the above.

I don't believe it only happens where I live.

Probate has to be done quickly because if there is IHT to pay, the Treasury adds interest after six months.

The solicitor acting as executor has communication with them. Thats how we got permission to dip into cash assets of the deceased to pay some money on account for IHT without probate yet being granted. Its a catch 22, you need to pay IHT before probate is granted, but if there is a property to sell and assets to get into you cant do it before probate is granted.

Never known an insensitive Estate Agent before - sounds more like she'd prefer you move on to looking for a quicker sale so she gets her commission. If you Google 'can you find out how many owners there are on a property after someone dies' it will give you some answers. I had a friend once that got tied up in a probate property purchase for two years but that was via auction.

Ring up the probate office and ask them.how long probate on property is taking.
Maybe helpful.

My dad died three weeks ago and I’m going through the probate process. I can market his flat but can’t complete until probate is granted. According to the estate agents probate is going through very quickly atm so you might be lucky?

We had exactly this earlier this year - we were days away from exchange when sadly the owner who was in a nursing home, died. Luckily daughter was only beneficiary and keen to sell. We told estate agents we would wait but advised them that if it dragged on we would have to start looking again. Probate went through very quickly . We stuck with it due to location and also already paying for surveyors etc etc and had already had architect and builder look at house. I guess it depends on how much you want the house

I completed IHT and probate within a fortnight in May this year.
Quite a large, but simple estate.
IHT was sent and returned within a week. Probate was then done online on a Thursday, the will sent to the probate office on Friday and it was granted the following Tuesday.

It might not take as long as you think but the vendor will have to sort out the financials first which will be the thing that takes the time.

My sister went through much the same situation. Although it was a hassle, she sold her home and rented for six months and then bought the house anyway. She really loved the house though and it was perfect for her.

This happened to some friends. They made an agreement to rent the property from the vendor while the probate went through. It took forever and was enormously frustrating for them, but at least they weren’t stuck trying to predict how long they needed to rent for in a an unconnected rental property.

Get your solicitor to approach theirs to clarify if the house is still going to be sold and if so would the Executor consider renting it to you whilst probate progresses. It's perfectly doable. I wished I'd known this when we were in the same situation but my solicitor only mentioned it once probate finalised!

I’ve posted about this before. Once someone dies and probate is being applied for, it does not mean the whole sale etc has to wait for probate.

The issue is that the executors cannot give a good receipt for the transaction without probate BUT they can apply to the Court for an Order authorising them to sell and give good receipt despite the lack of probate. It’s a simple application and it’s done in private so it’s also quick. You just need to tell the court of the offer and the likelihood of losing the sale.

What you need to do is find out if there is a will, because I’m not sure how this applies to administrators rather than executors, and also find out if the application for probate has to be made before the application for an Order (I suspect it does, but then you are just waiting for the application so should still be quicker than waiting for the Grant of Probate).

It baffles me why no one’s legal advisors, who know this stuff, never seem to suggest it.

thanks - yes, if you turn the water off but for complicated reasons we weren't able to do that option. We didn't mind it all mounting up but there were fines which some people don't like.

We had something similar 5 years ago. We ended up selling ours and going into rental, probate took 9-10 months but it was just post pandemic. It was a hassle but worth the wait for the house we’re now in. We had two dogs and rented a house that initially said no pets, but I sent the agent a link to the house we had just sold (which was kept beautifully), mentioned my dogs only stayed downstairs and the landlord came back saying ok. It was all hard floors downstairs. So it’s worth asking agents on rentals even if it says no pets and we found no issue having the two dogs.