Deceased Uncles house wont sell..?

YesWillMan

I take it that the Solicitors are only dealing with the sale of the property and not with dealing with all the Estate, otherwise I would expect the Solicitors to be in contact with you as well. If they are just dealing with the sale they will only deal with the Executor but you could ask for letters regarding the property to be passed on to your brother if you have no direct contact with him.
I would find out from the local Probate Office if Probate has been granted then go to your brother or via the Solicitor and take it from there. The Solicitor will not put it up for auction without authority from the Executor.

dawyldthing

RAS wrote: »

Hi

They cannot sell the house until probate is granted. Executors can start the process but cannot complete a house sale without probate.

Which is why purchaser hate them; the executor wants to sell, put it on the market and then the whole process drags on for months because probate has yet bee organised.

i can second this after trying to buy probate, nearly 6 months after putting the offer in, and believe me its been a long hard slog to get this far and i'm surprised i'm not hairless by it all as i put the offer in on November and only found out Feb that it hadn't been granted after asking how the searches were going when in fact they weren't going anywhere!

Frozen_up_north

I am the executor of a will, something I have not done before, however, obtaining probate was fairly straightforward as the will was a simple one (house and bank account, well under the tax threshold) and the beneficiaries were only a phone call away. It took about one month to obtain once the property and bank account values were known.

The process was to send off the will and IHT forms to the probate office, receive an oath package for presentation to a solicitor, swear the oath and send it back with copies of passport and council tax bill to the probate office.

After obtaining probate it is necessary to place adverts under the 1925 Trustee Act, adding a delay of a further 2 months and 1 day to the process.

We are looking to sell the house soon, which will be around 5 months after the date of death. Fortunately we already have a buyer who is prepared to wait.

Assuming there are no stumbling blocks, it should be possible to wind up an estate in less than 6 months. If it takes more than a year you need to be asking questions as to why.

So far the tax people have been quiet, I might have to ask a few questions on here if they send me too complex a set of forms!

Svenena

OP, you have my sympathy. My aunts are executors of my granddad's will (I am a beneficiary) and my grandparents' house has been on the market since January 2011. I think the price needs reducing, but am uncomfortable about asking my aunts to reduce it, because I don't often see/speak to them, and I don't want to come across as mercenary or cause any kind of tension in the family. It's difficult. But ultimately, I believe that is the best way to resolve the issue - in your case, speak to your brother and ask him to lower the price. If your brother is also a beneficiary, it's in his interests to sell it too - it must be incurring costs if it's sitting there empty (council tax, some utilities? insurance).