FTB-Probate sale advice

STAR_BUCK

Back in April my hubbie and I had our offer accepted for a house and were ready to proceed with the purchase. The elderly vendor then got guzumped on their retirement flat and then went into hospital, so we've been waiting ever since until the vendor was in a position to sell to us. Unfortunately the vendor has now passed away and we we're contacted by the EA who said the vendor's kids we're still keen to sell to us, but will have to wait until probate is sorted.

My questions are:
1) if will is fine and not disputed, how long does it take for probate to go through so that the vendor's son can sell the house to us?


I'm also worried that the vendor's kids might have to pay inheritance tax if the house is valued above 285k. Our offer was slightly below this figure when the vendor accepted. How is the value of the house for inheritance tax purposes determined? I'm worried that if the house is valued above and therefore tax needs to be paid, then the vendor's son may try to ask for more money?

Please could anyone shed some light on this

thanks in advance

silvercar

I'm also worried that the vendor's kids might have to pay inheritance tax if the house is valued above 285k. Our offer was slightly below this figure when the vendor accepted. How is the value of the house for inheritance tax purposes determined? I'm worried that if the house is valued above and therefore tax needs to be paid, then the vendor's son may try to ask for more money?

This is all not your concern. You have no way of knowing what other assets/ savings the guy had, so there is no way of knowing his tax liability.

Mrs_pbradley936

I agree with silvercar. The probate can take a while but no one can tell you how long. Just make sure you let the children of the original owner know that you are still interested.

Bossyboots

silvercar wrote:

This is all not your concern. You have no way of knowing what other assets/ savings the guy had, so there is no way of knowing his tax liability.

I disagree, this is a concern to the OP.

The property will be valued at the market value at the date of death. Therefore if the property prices have risen since then, the figure for the estate will be higher than you are paying. If the estate goes over the threshold IHT is payable taking account of the property value, not sale price so it would depend how much the family want to make from the estate as to how they handle this. They may decide to cut their losses and go with an established buyer or they may want to raise the price to recoup some of the cost. I think it may depend on how much other estate there is and what sort of people they are. If they are only liable for a small amount of IHT then it would seem foolish to pull out of the sale.

As for how long Probate takes, it can be dealt with very quickly if there is a will and not too much longer if there is not but this depends on the executors getting a move on and sorting out the paperwork. They cannot obtain Probate until the IHT is paid so they need to be getting valuations as quickly as possible. I doubt you will see any movement for 2 -3 months though.

STAR_BUCK

thanks bossyboots, you understood my concern.

We really want the house, so think we'll just have to sit tight until probate is granted. In the meantime we've expressed our desire for the property with the vendor's son and hope that the value of the house hasn't increased too much above our offer price.

Mrs_pbradley936

Do you know if the original owner had any other assets?