selling a house to an executor when one of beneficiaries is under 18

karenvnut

My Neice and I are executors of my mothers estate.
The house was to be shared half to myself and my sister and her two children to split the other half equally between them.

It was my Neices intention to buy my mothers house and our solicitor was told this on our first meeting with him( I can see she had a conflict of interest here). We also told the solicitor that my youngest neice is only 17 years old.

We applied for probate in both our names and it was granted.

It now appears we have a problem as the executor can only buy the house if all the beneficiaries sign in agreement. However the youngest neice is not yet old enough to sign.

The solicitor should really have spotted this before applying for probate and advised us to just apply in my name only to avoid this but unfortunatly he didnt.

My older neice's boyfriend cant get a mortgage in just his name so we are left with having to wait many months until the younger one is old enough to sign..

Anyone got any ideas?

TonyMMM

Is your niece intending to buy her children's share off them as well, or is the property to be jointly owned by the 3 of them ?

RAS

Has anyone asked if the 17 year old wants to lose her portion of the house?

And explained the consequences - like not being able to claim benefits if she is not working, possibly having savings that affect any grant or loans she might apply for educational circumstances?

whitewing

Could they move in and pay a quarter of market value of rent to you (as a quarter of the house is yours). Just in case it all falls through eventually.

karenvnut

Sorry I thought I had explained half the house is mine.

The elder niece is wanting to buy out myself, her mother and her sister.

The will states that younger niece's money has to be invested and she cant have any of it until shes 25 years old. But I do understand the point made by Ras and will make sure this aspect is looked into. Thanks.

daska

Have you investigated the possibility of a Deed of Variation?

Somerset

karenvnut wrote: »

Sorry I thought I had explained half the house is mine.

The elder niece is wanting to buy out myself, her mother and her sister.

Easiest just to wait till the youngest turns 18. But it still sounds like everyone's decided what to do with youngest's share, does she understand and agree ? Maybe irrelevant, but has your eldest neice got the finance in place to pay everyone off ? You mentioned her b/f can't get a mortgage which implies there's a shortfall. Lastly I assume the purchase (if it happens) is at a fair valuation and you've had a couple of valuations of the house ?

karenvnut

Thanks for the replies
I was under the impression that a deed of variation required all the beneficiaries to sign...again the 17 year old is too young.

Yes the youngest niece understands and agrees to the sale. In law she is too young to own a property as well.
Yes the elder niece has the finance but cannot legally buy the house
There have been four valuations of the house.
The stupid fact is we can legally sell the house to anyone but the executor.
I suspect we will have to play the waiting game

daska

Yes of course, sorry, got distracted by the talk of money being invested rather than house sale.

Fire_Fox

How can the house be owned halves by four people? Is the house held in trust for the youngest niece? If so the trustee can sign.

karenvnut

It can't. I get half and the other half is to be shared by my sister and her two children in equal portions.