Probate/vendor issue 6 months on! Help please!

AlexMac

Sympathies; and while one could extend these to your sellers who are stuck in the same chain, they don't seem to be doing you any favours.

The mortgage offer might possibly be extendable? Nationwide were very helpful and flexible when we hit delays once (although maybe not as lengthy as yours).

But really, your only options are
1.to grin and bear it (as you cannot unblock the delay and your sellers appear unable or unwilling to exert pressure), or
2.to walk away (or at least view a lot more houses).

While you say this is the home for you, and you have already dismissed option 2, is it really? On two occasions, my purchases have fallen through, and both times, the alternative property we bought proved a highly successful and happy home! So can it really be the only house in the world for you?

And if you were to find another house to buy, a six-week completion on a chain-free property is difficult, but not impossible, assuming you're lucky enough to have a competent solicitor and an efficient local authority who can turn their search round in 2-3 weeks as many can? After all, anyone who buys at auction has to complete in 4 weeks.

Good luck

ValHaller

mp86 wrote: »

Thanks everyone for the advice.

We have our mortgage agreement till august but as we have even more saving now, we can afford to get a bigger mortgage and look at other properties.

I spoke to the EA just now who said it will take another 3 months at least because of probate 'admin issues' but he apparently doesn't know what these are.

I think we will just look around now. There is no point for us to hold on when we have no committment!
Didn't realise how ruthless the property market is

Mortgage offers do have a fixed end date. But in practice they can be extended on a specific property to a point - and if it really does reach the end of the road, then you can apply again although at more expense.

Otherwise if you find another property, the process will start again and if you are now better placed with savings, I doubt you will have a real problem

Dimey

Shame you've invested so much time and money for the survey but the vendor doesn't seem cooperative. There's nothing stopping him putting the house price up when the probate eventually comes through. And what if there's a family argument over the probate /sale. Its all such a gamble for you.

I'd let them think you are still in the chain just in case it works out but actively look for somewhere else. You're bound to find somewhere better. It would almost be a nice pay-back to pull out.

Let your building society know you will need an extension so they can plan their allocations.

bretts

I dont know if this help but I have just recently completed on a probate property and I was quite stressed too as the EA never told us it was a probate property till we were almost ready for exchange, but it eventually came through. Questions you could ask the EA or Vendor is how many people are involved, the more the number of people or executors involved the more complex it gets, as if even one of the executor decides to be a pain, the whole probate application falls through. I did a lot of research and found out that it usually takes about 6 to 8 weeks for grant of probate if all the documentation is ok. I had no contact with vendor directly so I asked my EA and Solicitor to ask the vendor and vendor solicitor respectively for as much info as possible but with no luck. Finally after almost giving up I started looking for more properties around in the same area when I finally got a call saying that the probate has been granted and we are now ready for exchange which was done in 2 days and completion in about a week.

I know sometimes you just have that feeling that this house is meant for you and you start seeing yourself living in that house and it gets really difficult to detach yourself from it, but if in your case if you can get to know what are the complications and all (most people might not share it) and you see the overall picture to get too complicated then I'd suggest move away now before you spend a lot of time, money and effort into it and move on.

Just be prepared for the worst and look beyond that.

zzzLazyDaisy

mp86 wrote: »

I was furious as the estate agent is the same for both properties andthey were aware of this when the vendors found their property in Feb 2013! Theydidn’t tell us why the delay till 2 months later because we kept chasing them.God knows when we would have found out if we didn’t chase them.
M

The estate agents act for the sellers. They will do anything to keep the sale on track so they will get their commission. There is no point at all in expecting the agent to do or say something that could put you off, or derail the sale.

Probate sales can take a long time. If there is a problem getting probate, or getting agreement between the executors, or there is a challenge to the will (unusual) then there is nothing your seller can do to move the chain along. They are probably as stressed and P*d off about all this as you are.

I think, in your shoes, I would be pressing for a date for exchange and completion. They could move into rented accommodation until the probate issue is sorted out, so they don't lose the sale. But you need to be prepared for then to put the house back on the market - after all if there is another 3 months + delay, they may have time to find a new buyer.

Whatever, do not conduct any negotiations through the estate agent - he is not on your side. Either go and see the vendors yourself and discuss the situation, or get your solicitor to write to theirs and issue an ultimatum.

On the other hand, if you have your heart set on this property, you will just have to get on with your life and be patient. You could be in for a wait.

Either way, even if you start looking again now, you are probably not going to be moved by August, so you need to sort out your accommodation in the meantime.

mp86

Hi everyone,

thank you so much for your replies and advice.

I think as most of you have said, we are in for a long wait and having already been waiting 6 months, it is very difficult to have the patience to keep waiting. Esp as we are getting no real information from the EA or even the vendor's solicitors.
We are in such a awful position and it is probably best that we look elsewhere now.

We did ask the vendors to go into rented accommodation, they refused. to Be honest, the vendors have no interest in keeping us as their buyers even though we are chain free.

All this negativity just puts me off the house, even though its a beautiful house.

I think it is time to move on... their 3 months could end up being longer if the vendors decide they want work done to the property before they move in, which was stated when they first found the property. It is just ridiculous if they think they can keep us waiting this long then ask for more money and still give us nothing!

If the property market was to fall, would they really take less for their property? I really think not!

Thanks again to you all for your help, really does make me see things clearer.

Best wishes,
M