Buying a house under probate

TomO

There is a house we are very interested in buying that has unfortunately notcleared probate. The lady who has inherited the house from her mother is unsureexactly what she wants to do with it, but has let us look around the propertyso selling isn't out of the question. However she wants to get probate sortedfirst before they decide.

We have been talking to her on and off for about 7 months but there seems tohave been little progress made on the probate. The current stalling point thathas lasted 4 months seems to be missing details of the lady's father who passedaway about 20 years ago.

We really want to buy this house, but we cannot wait for ever for it. Isthere anyway we can help to keep things moving?

There also could be some more complicated finances involved. Is it possiblefor her to obtain probate on part of an estate, i.e. the house and complete the rest at a later date or is it possible to sell the house to us and have the money from the sale kept by the solicitor until probate is sorted?

thanks for you help,
Tom

G_M

Property can't be sold till probate is granted.

Could take ages by the sound of it.

antrobus

G_M wrote: »

Property can't be sold till probate is granted.....

Yes indeed. Probate is essentially the process by which the legal title to assets is transfered from the dead to the living. Until you've got probate, the deceased still has the title.

TomO

Thanks for the replies.

Can probate be split into two halves? If the house could be completed before the finances, it could be sold to us before the rest of the probabte is completed.

zzzLazyDaisy

TomO wrote: »

Thanks for the replies.

Can probate be split into two halves? If the house could be completed before the finances, it could be sold to us before the rest of the probabte is completed.

It doesn't work like that. The executors have to get probate before they can deal with the estate - that is all the assets, it is not something you can do in bits and pieces.

The house that you want to buy is not for sale and will not be for sale until the executors have obtained the right to sell it. Even then there is always the possibility that they may want more than you are willing to pay for it, or that someone else will also be interested in buying it, or they may decide to keep it in the family, and not sell.

At the moment it is just a fantasy.

Either take the opportunity to save up towards a bigger deposit, or look for another house to buy.

TomO

Thanks for everyone’s help. I thought that would be the case, but for sanities sake I thought I would check. The time scales involved could be huge so I think we may not be successful on this one.