House and Probate?

hourami

Well after many many many months of searching we have finally found a house that we want.

We couldn't be bothered to negotiate as we have been looking for a long time and this was well within our budget so we made an offer at full asking price and we were the first to see the property and the estate agent informed us that they would cancel the other viewings and start the paperwork.

We then called them a few hours later as nothing had arrived and we were then told that the person showing us the house had not been made aware of the full situation. Apparently the owners of the house had died and the house was being sold through 'sellmyhouse' or 'movemyhouse' or something similar and that legally they had to advertise it for two weeks to get the best price and that even if they put the offer forward it would not be looked at until the two weeks was up (and again he said legally).

I don't understand this. If they advertised the house at a certain amount and I have offered the full asking price then why can't my offer be accepted. Am I missing something here?

Mojisola

Executors have a legal obligation to do the best for the estate. As they have received one offer of the full asking price so quickly, they need to give it a little time to make sure they won't get a higher offer.

martindow

Have they obtained probate? If not there could be delays before you can exchange.

ValHaller

Mojisola wrote: »

Executors have a legal obligation to do the best for the estate. As they have received one offer of the full asking price so quickly, they need to give it a little time to make sure they won't get a higher offer.

Yes, perhaps you have pushed them to this step because you offered Full Asking Price. If you had offered less and let yourself be negotiated to FAP, the sellers may have judged they had pitched the price right. By offering FAP they will be seriously asking themselves whether they set the FAP too low.