Buying a house under probate?

Cissi

Having decided to wait a few more months before viewing any more properties until there is more of a shift in asking prices where we are (West London), something has just come on the market that may be worth looking at... It's in a desirable street, where only 5 houses have changed hands since 2000. The previous 2 were sold last summer, at about 90% of the asking price of this one. I think they were both on the market for some months.

The asking price is actually (just) within our range, but we don't feel that it's "worth" anywhere near that in today's market, especially as it would need a complete refurb. According to the EA, the vendor's family has lived in it for 40 years, the parents have died and the son is selling it to purchase a smaller flat. The EA confirmed that it's under probate, but disputed that this could be any problem :rolleyes: I've read some horror stories on here and I know there are possible pitfalls, but could it be worth a shot?

We're cash buyers, renting at the moment, in no great hurry to purchase but at the same time we wouldn't want to be stuck in limbo for years either. Any thoughts?

Catti

In my experience it is really a matter of bad news travels fastest! Who would bother telling anyone about a probate sale that went smoothly? It's just not very interesting!

I am dealing with a number of probate sales at present, and none of them are likely to be a problem. Contested probates are surprisingly rare.

Just ask them to confirm that Probate has already been applied for or granted to get some idea as to how ready they are to actually sell.

wildbri

when my mil died we were the executors, probate was easy and we sold the property
ourselves with no problems.................bri

Debt_Free_Chick

I can't see probate being an issue unless there are two or more beneficiaries (so, the potential for disagreement) and/or there is IHT to pay.

If there's only one beneficiary and no IHT, then this would be no different to any other sale.

lyndasharp

I ended up withdrawing from buying a house, had almost got to the exchange point but the sellers kept delaying as they were waiting for probate. It turned out that one of the executors had also died, and they had to get probate on the executor before they could get probate on the house owner. After that I'd be very cautious about buying a place under probate, unless you can get a clear timescale from them. I pulled out of buying because they had no idea of how long it would take, and I didn't want to lose my nice tracker deal. If you're not in a rush then I'd be less concerned about it!

Incidentally, I've since exchanged on somewhere else and with no probate involved, and will be moving in 8 weeks after making the offer - not bad over Christmas!

poppysarah

Probate for the bloke up the road took 11 months to sort out.

shirlgirl2004

OH and I bought a probate house and it was no different to a normal purchase from our perspective apart from the fact it was empty so we actually did a small amount of work after exchange and before completion (we had permission!)

Richard_Webster

It is simply a matter of finding out if there is a grant of probate yet or not.

Sometimes people put houses on the market without consulting their probate solicitors who (particularly if there is IHT to pay) may well say that it will take a while to obtain. the problem is that IHT forms have to be completed giving details of all the asdsets and it is assembling this information that can take time.

If ther eis no grant then the seller needs to be pushed to get a realistic estimate of timescales from his solicitor.

Cissi

Thanks for all the input. We've made an appointment to view it on Saturday. If we do decide to make an offer we'll take all the above points into consideration.

robyn02

This is a sort of similar situation to mine.

Me and my partner are first time buyers and have put in an offer on a house that has now gone into probate since we put the offer down but before we got our contract.

We're being told that it could take two to three months, but that 'no one is really all that sure as probate is a law unto itself'. I can't help but feel like we're not really being helped as no one can even tell us the date that probate was applied for (have tried getting it out of the estate agent and solicitors - all they can tell me is 'some time at the beginning of July').

We're being told that the plus is that the house was all the woman who lived there owned there's no other bits and bobs to get tied up, and the will states it was to be left to her two daughters who both agree that they still want to sell. The down side is that our mortgage offer is up at the end of this month, and although we're counting on an extension (not something we can guarantee but our mortgage advisor doesn't think there will be a problem) I'm worried that if it goes on any further than the end of September then we won't be granted another mortgage approval as my circumstances are about to change (having my hours cut at work to part time - we can still afford the house but it still doesn't look good to the mortgage provider).

Is there ANY way at all of finding out just how long probate will take? Can anyone help?

Fire_Fox

Write to the vendors, state your position in terms of mortgage offer and ask specific questions?