Buying a house under probate - deceased has left it to charity.

lea2012

Evening all,

We have had two viewings on a house and decided to make a bid.
The house is for sale at £99.5k which is a very good price for this street. (the last house sold in march 2012 for £123k and the one prev in dec 2011 for £122k) However it does need extensive modernisation as it has no real kitchen at present, has a stairlift that needs removing and also a garage which is asbestos so would need specialist services if we needed to replace it. (we have yet to see what it is like inside the garage so not sure how soon this would need doing.)

We originally placed an offer for £85k but this was refused by the estate agent, so we offered 87k. They then came to us to say that the solicitor had turned the offer down and wanted more. After a bit of digging we have established that the owner is now deceased and has no family so has left the house to charity and the solicitor is the executor of her will.

We did offer £90k but this has been turned down as well and the estate agent has advised us that this is due to the fact that the house has been left to charity and therefore the solicitor needs to be seen to be getting the best possible price. The house has only been on the market for 3 weeks and the agent has indicated that the solicitor wont accept an offer so quickly as they will be holding out for something better.

Can anyone advise us on whether or not there is a set amount that the solicitor can accept below the asking price? I.E 5% less than the asking price within 6 months or something? We have decided that our max bid will be 95k but how likely is it that this will be accepted? Any idea on the protocol in this instance?

Apologies if long winded I just wanted to try and give as much info as possible.

Thanks.

Annisele

So far as I know there isn't any formula for the amount under asking price that the solicitor can accept. (I think it's unlikely there is such a formula; if there was people would fiddle it by messing with the asking price).

The solicitor has a duty to act in the best interests of the beneficiary, which is likely to mean testing the market for a reasonable period. I'd just offer what I thought it was worth, and then walk away if that wasn't accepted.

Yorkie1

Will you need a mortgage for the property?

If so, what do you mean by it having "no real kitchen"?

lea2012

Thank you for the replies.

Yes we will be needing a mortgage. In terms of it having no real kitchen, what i mean is that at present it has a sink unit, with a working sink, a drop down breakfast bar and a cupboard. That's it. The previous owner had a small combi oven microwave that they used and the fridge is in a cupboard under the stairs! It's a very small kitchen and there is no space to fit a cooker/oven really so it's likely that we would need to knock through into the pantry area to make space for it. The kitchen has flooring, electric and water etc so it is habitable but it would not really work as a family kitchen.

lea2012

Thank you for the replies.

Yes we will be needing a mortgage. In terms of it having no real kitchen, what i mean is that at present it has a sink unit, with a working sink, a drop down breakfast bar and a cupboard. That's it. The previous owner had a small combi oven microwave that they used and the fridge is in a cupboard under the stairs! It's a very small kitchen and there is no space to fit a cooker/oven really so it's likely that we would need to knock through into the pantry area to make space for it. The kitchen has flooring, electric and water etc so it is habitable but it would not really work as a family kitchen.

hcb42

no there is no formula.

however they have priced it over £20K lower than anything else in the street, so expecting them to drop another £9-10K below that is probably unrealistic, given the short time it has been on the market.

bluesnake

next time get all your friends to view it and they all should put bids in around 80K, and you put your in at 85K. Don't appear to be too eager, and let 'em wait a bit.

Shows lots of interest, a value that people thought it was worth, and the solicitor looks like he is doing his job.

For £20k for an unmodernised house is not a huge discount. I got 20k+ of mine when I bought.

lea2012

Thank you for the comments, although the house is under priced already in all fairness you would need to spend around 20-30k to modernise it and do all the necessary work. As i have already said it will need a new kitchen and in time a new bathroom too. At some point it will need a new boiler too and as i say the garage will need replacing along with decoration and new carpets throughout so it will be a costly job and thats why we offered such a low price. we will gradually increase the price until we get to 95k and then we will opt out if its not accepted.
thanks again for all the replies.

motherofstudents

I think the key to this is that it has only been on the market for 3 weeks. My son bought a house which was a probate sale with proceeds going to charity. It was originally on at £130000. Cheaper than similar properties but needed a lot of work. They offered £100k which was rejected and then went up to £106k as their final offer. It was accepted even though it was a low offer as it had been on the market for 12 months.

agrinnall

The problem now is that there is nobody desperate to get the place sold so they can move; while the charity will be keen to get their hands on the money they would probably rather have 10% more in 12 months time than a low offer now. I doubt whether it will go for less than the valuation until it's been on the market for quite some time, so if you really want it you'll need to get a proper valuation done and if necessary up your offer.

moneyistooshorttomention

Since you need a mortgage, then I think it would be wise to clarify with your mortgage provider exactly what they mean by insisting that there must be a kitchen in place for the house to be mortgageable.

Would they accept that about the only thing that shows that the room is a kitchen is that its got a sink unit in it or would they expect to at least have a few units and a specific cooker point in it? My feeling would be that they would require the cooker point and a couple of kitchen units (even if only old-fashioned and tatty) and a bit of work surface space.

There is no point in proceeding much further on this house until you get that clarification of their definition of a kitchen in writing.