Buying a house - probate not granted yet

Clearlier

We agreed a price on a house a week ago and engaged a solicitor. We received a letter from our solicitor today stating that the executors of the estate of xxxx who are selling the property are in the process of applying for the Grant of Probate.

I phoned the EA who wasn't aware of this and said he will contact the executors and the solicitor to find out what's going on and get back to us on Monday.

I don't know much about what this means beyond that the house can't be sold before probate is granted.

We asked a surveyor to take a look at it and he's supposed to be doing that early next week. Should we tell him to hold off until we find out what state the grant of probate is at?

Similarly, should we ask our solicitor to hold off on searches (we haven't paid for them yet) until the position is clearer?

We may or may not be in a position to wait as we're in rented accommodation at the moment but it is on the market - no notice has been issued but two months isn't an awful lot of time to find a place and complete a sale and we haven't really got a safety net in terms of family/friends.

Are there any particular questions I should be asking?

G_M

Put everything on hold till you get clarification on the Probate situation.

You do not want to start racking up legal and survey fees, only to have to wait 6 months for Probate.

Now it may be that the Estate is close to being wound up, and it may just be a week or two. But it could be months, and if there is a dispute of any kind over the will, or worse if there is no will, then any timeframe is impossoble to predict.

motherofstudents

Good advice above but don't panic. It may be that the grant of probate is very close to being issued and if there are no unusual circumstances, it should be straighforward. You do need to make sure of course before spending any money on it but just get all the facts first and don't worry too much at this stage. The house really shouldn't be up for sale if there are any issues to be resolved re the will etc. so just get as much info as possible.

rosyw

Whilst I do agree about checking how things stand with the probate before arranging survey etc., if it is an uncomplicated estate, getting probate will be straightford and shouldn't cause any delays. When I sold my last place I was in the process of obtaining probate on my OH's estate and was told by my solicitor that even if I got a buyer straight away, probate would have been granted long before completion. It is quite usual to put a house on the market before obtaining probate, and may not cause you any problems.

ognum

Probate is like a piece of sting, can be quick, can take years. the fact that the executors have got the house on the market does mean they are at least motivated so that is positive.

Unfortunately frequently things are out of the hands of the executors but some EAs have a requirement that the house is within 2 weeks of grant of probate before they will put it on the market. The current market conditions with homes taking many weeks to sell may have encouraged some EAs to get them on the market early.

One thing that you may consider, the executors may be prepared to rent to you until probate is granted. There is no reason why they cannot rent the house, the rent will go into the estate rather than to an individual.

Its probably not what I would choose to do as an executor but it could stop them losing the sale. It really depends how saleable the house is!

VfM4meplse

Nothing is simple in this life. Even dying can be an incredibly expensive process.

DVardysShadow

ognum wrote: »

... One thing that you may consider, the executors may be prepared to rent to you until probate is granted. There is no reason why they cannot rent the house, the rent will go into the estate rather than to an individual.

Without probate, the executors are not vested as executors and do not have the standing to offer a tenancy.

Imagine the long lost nephew from South America turns up and establishes himself as heir and executor after the supposed executors have rented the place out without probate. And suppose he wants to live in the house. Probate is not just a nuisance, it has a very practical purpose.

Also, if I was moving out of existing accommodation, I would want an exchanged contract. The executors cannot do this either without probate

getmore4less

Obtaining probate can be very quick, very few reasons why it should not be just a few(3-6) weeks with motivated executors.
(how long since DOD will give an idea of the motivation)

Winding up an estate can take long time but that is not "probate" which will be needed to complete a purchase.

The other is there going to be any issues over the offer.

Are all the benifitiaries agreeing that the offer is acceptable, if there is a charity involved that could cause trouble. this usualy causes more problems than probate.

Contrary to popular belief you can exchange contracts with executors before probate(if there is a will) subject to probate, but cannot complete.
There are risks for executors so most will not entertain such a move.

DVardysShadow

getmore4less wrote: »

Contrary to popular belief you can exchange contracts with executors before probate(if there is a will) subject to probate, but cannot complete.
There are risks for executors so most will not entertain such a move.

Although executors could exchange, they cannot exchange unconditionally, as you admit. So the exchange would be fairly useless for the purposes of any ordinary buyer in a chain and hoping to live in the property.

dawyldthing

Mines a probate sale, also didn't know that it wasn't granted at the time and by that point i'd got the solicitor sorted and the Homebuyers report done. I made the offer mid November and it should finally be granted first week in April (holidays permitting).

Questions to ask - how close is it to being applied for (as theres several forms to fill out on their half, for mine one form took 5 weeks for both sides to fill in based on what i received the other day)

You need to find out if its a complicated sale, as for mine theres 2 sellers but there miles apart so its dragged on, but if theres more i can imagine it can be more of a pain.

I'd ring at least twice a week to chase it as I didn't bother from December to mid February thinking all the searches would be ongoing etc, only to find out nothing was happening as they had 'forgot' to tell me that probate hadn't even been applied for. Now i've been phoning twice a week its all gone through a lot quicker as i think there sick of me phoning.

The other problem is that they may not know a great deal about the house, so if there is problems they may not know the answer to it, so i'd get a full survey to cover your back (for extensions and the like).


If it is a straightforwards case it can be done within weeks, but its all the twoing and frowing from their paperwork side thats the pain bearer as there all so blooming slow! Even the solicitor whose working for the seller knew the lady who died, still not helped it get done any quicker!

And don't do any searches or anything until it is confirmed it is only a few weeks away as my solicitor did recommend waiting, and i'm glad she did tbh

I'd also ask how long realistically it will take as i have been told 'a few weeks' a few times, so in the end asked for an actual timescale as i am weary that my mortgage is running out in a month!

Richard_Webster

Mines a probate sale, also didn't know that it wasn't granted at the time and by that point i'd got the solicitor sorted and the Homebuyers report done. I made the offer mid November and it should finally be granted first week in April (holidays permitting).

Questions to ask - how close is it to being applied for (as theres several forms to fill out on their half, for mine one form took 5 weeks for both sides to fill in based on what i received the other day)

You need to find out if its a complicated sale, as for mine theres 2 sellers but there miles apart so its dragged on, but if theres more i can imagine it can be more of a pain.

I'd ring at least twice a week to chase it as I didn't bother from December to mid February thinking all the searches would be ongoing etc, only to find out nothing was happening as they had 'forgot' to tell me that probate hadn't even been applied for. Now i've been phoning twice a week its all gone through a lot quicker as i think there sick of me phoning.

The other problem is that they may not know a great deal about the house, so if there is problems they may not know the answer to it, so i'd get a full survey to cover your back (for extensions and the like).


If it is a straightforwards case it can be done within weeks, but its all the twoing and frowing from their paperwork side thats the pain bearer as there all so blooming slow! Even the solicitor whose working for the seller knew the lady who died, still not helped it get done any quicker!

And don't do any searches or anything until it is confirmed it is only a few weeks away as my solicitor did recommend waiting, and i'm glad she did tbh

I'd also ask how long realistically it will take as i have been told 'a few weeks' a few times, so in the end asked for an actual timescale as i am weary that my mortgage is running out in a month!

This is sensible and contains hints about what to ask etc.