Vendor has died between exchange and completion

sascor

We were due to complete on our house purchase next week but have just heard the sad news that the vendor has died. Our solicitor was unable to give us much idea of what would happen from here other than that we won't be completing next week, although she has assured us that the vendor's daughter still wants the sale to happen.

We are currently in rented accommodation and gave our notice just after we exchanged, so we are due to leave our flat on 8th August. The agent is just starting to book in prospective tenants for viewings. I am tempted to try and immediately revoke our notice with the landlord, but the solicitor said we may still be able to complete within a couple of weeks. This seems unrealistic to me but I'm not sure how much the fact that we have already exchanged will help the situation.

I was wondering if anyone else has been in this situation and can advise me on how long it took to finally complete?

hethmar

So sorry to hear this. I think you can only be guided by your solicitor about the situation. If all is in place already then it may well be as he says and the sale will go ahead swiftly.

Very best of luck.

clutton_2

probate may need to be established to prove that the seller (the person who has inherited the property now) is legally entitled to sell it - probate can take a long time. if the person who has died has not made a will this will cause huge problems

pawpurrs

I should imagine it will have to go to Probate, I had a case where this happened before and it took a while to sort out, It depends how efficent the soliceter is, and how straight forward the will is. Hopefully it will be sorted for you asap.

lincroft1710

Unless deceased's solicitor is executor of will or has power of attorney, cannot see sale proceeding until after grant of probate.

tootsmyboots

Haven't been in exactly the same situation, but with regards to probate:

My dad died and I was his sole executor. We did probate ourselves and the probate interview took place exactly two months from the date he died and the grant arrived two weeks after that, so two and a half months. I think we were "lucky" (Believe me I dont feel lucky, I lost my dad, I am devastated) in that the probate office wasnt too busy and we didnt have solicitors involved. Our selling solicitor was happy for us to begin marketing once the interview had taken place as she knew how straightforward ours was.

I would have thought if contracts had been exchanged then the property sale has been signed for by the deceased. Your solicitor and the selleris solicitor are going to be the best people to know how to proceed. Sorry to hear the sad news and appreciate the worry this must have caused you also.

muskoka

My mum passed away and I did probate myself. Completed in 5 weeks - paperwork giving grant arrived shortly after that. Mum had a will & I was sole executor

Cliveski2009

I guess consider yourself lucky you were in rented - had you been stuck in a chain this situation might have been ten times worse.
You still have some way to go before the end of your rental period so I hope it can be sorted before then.

PasturesNew

I always believed that even if you did die the contract still completed.

Bummer.

Keep us updated with all the progress as this is a rare event.

It was probably the stress of selling that bumped him off.

G_M

Try asking for permission to move in even if Completion is delayed by probate. Perhaps you could rent the house from the planned Completion date until then? Always worth asking....

sascor

Thanks for the replies and advice, especially from those that have been on the other side of this. However worrying this is for us we are conscious of the fact that the seller's family are suffering far more.

While I would like to wait for a while until the situation is clearer, this could mean the difference between being able to stay in our flat or not and with a young baby I really don't want to be moving more than we have to. From the responses it seems that probate is likely, and that this is likely to take as long or longer than the remainder of our tenancy, plus there is work that needs to be done in the new house ideally before we move in. So on balance I think the best thing is to speak to the landlord asap to see if we can stay on for a while longer.

Thanks for the help.