fair reduction of agreed house price

Debt_Free_Chick

Pennywise wrote:

It sounds like the executors are being a bit slow/incompetent in dealing with their side of things. There is no need for it to be dragged out from a legal point of view. If there is some internal squabbling. disagreement, or communication problems between the executors/beneficiaries, etc., then that is their problem, not yours.

Not necessarily.

An executor is generally a member of the family of the deceased and not usually familiar with tax issues. Often, delays are due to Inheritance Tax, which was not planned for in advance.

I think it would be dangerous to assume that the executors are "slow/incompetent". They may simply be inexperienced in dealing with the big-wigs of the Inland Revenue (Capital Taxes Office), who will want to go through the estate with a fine toothcomb - especially if it's close to or over the IHT allowance.

Also ... any delay with dealing with the sale of the property IS the OP's problem, as they've agreed to deal with it. The executor simply cannot dispose of ANY asset from the estate without the necessary permission from the Inland Revenue. They need Grant of Probate and this will not be given if there are outstanding tax questions.

The buyer cannot push the process here - we're dealing with the Tax Man! :eek:

calleyw

Pennywise wrote:

It sounds like the executors are being a bit slow/incompetent in dealing with their side of things. There is no need for it to be dragged out from a legal point of view. If there is some internal squabbling. disagreement, or communication problems between the executors/beneficiaries, etc., then that is their problem, not yours.

I was going to comment that pennywise has never dealt with a will and probate. As they would know that it is not easy and as quick as you would like it to be.

You even have to book an appointment to go to the registrars office and swear on the bible that everything is as correct. Not going to get an appointment just when you want it. It could be weeks. And if the executor work it is going to take longer.

Some of the websites I have read this afternoon about granting probate say that it can take a couple of months to get all the correct paper work together and then another 4-6 weeks to be granted probate. And that is if it is an easy straight forward estate. A more difficult one you could be looking at months.

Yours

Calley

calleyw

deemy2004 wrote:

You could argue a £1k reduction for every 4 weeks, using the excuse of extra costs being incurred. any more and the ghost may come back to haunt you....... :eek:

What extra costs are they incurring they are living with parents. If they had sold there own property and then had to go in rented then maybe.

I think they OP is just looking at a way to get more money off the asking price and using the time lag as excuse.

But as it seems it is a probate/Tax man problem. They take there own sweet time. So I think it is just a case of sit and wait it out.

Yours

Calley

beadysam

We sold our house, bought another and moved from Leeds to Wales in exactly 4 weeks! We used a firm in Liverpool called Complete Conveyancing and they were brilliant. Everything was done by phone and post (we never met the people dealing with us), sent back and forth in pre-paid 1st class envelopes. They were also the cheapest we found out of quotes from over 10 firms!

Having said that, probate is a different matter. My mum died on 7th January. She had no debts. She lived in rented accommodation. There is no will. She had about £35,000 in her account. There are 4 adult children, no spouse and no other benificiaries. The estate is in probate (we decided to let the soliciters do it as the family is scattered country wide - although I would have prefered doing it myself!). We are still waiting for any news or settlement...

SAM xx

Pennywise

I appreciate probate can take a while, but we aren't looking at just a few weeks since the person died - we are looking at a few weeks since the house sale was agreed, which could have been weeks, or months, after the death of the owner. The process needn't be delayed until the house sale has been agreed. Also, if the probate process had not been started and therefore everyone involved knew that there could be a longer delay, why was the purchaser led to believe that their suggested exchange date was possible. I stand my ground - sounds like incompetence or negligence to me.

Debt_Free_Chick

Pennywise wrote:

I appreciate probate can take a while, but we aren't looking at just a few weeks since the person died - we are looking at a few weeks since the house sale was agreed, which could have been weeks, or months, after the death of the owner. The process needn't be delayed until the house sale has been agreed. Also, if the probate process had not been started and therefore everyone involved knew that there could be a longer delay, why was the purchaser led to believe that their suggested exchange date was possible. I stand my ground - sounds like incompetence or negligence to me.

It seems it was the seller's Estate Agent that agreed to completion within 4 weeks. An Estate Agent's agreement to a legal/conveyancing matter is worth ... nowt

dougk_2

Its quite "normal" for probate to take months or even years!
Again as D_F_C said its the estate agent to blame. They will promise the earth to get a sale agreed. Its often the EA who trys to hurry the sale along (ours did) becuase they want their cut.
I guess you have the choice, continue as is or walk away and find another house - the chances are though this will take upwards of three more months if you started on a new property. The days of a two week agreed sale to completion are long gone, partly as everyone does extra checking to protect their backs.

Debt_Free_Chick

Pennywise wrote:

I stand my ground

But it's not a contest Just a free exchange of views - and we're doing so with only one side of the story. No point in encouraging the OP to accuse anyone of incompetence, without being sure that's actually the case.

Chill

Pal

You would think that the IR would have no problem at all with the sale of assets at market price as long as the money remained in the estate until the tax was all sorted out.

'Tis a strange world.

Pennywise

dougk wrote:

Its quite "normal" for probate to take months or even years!

So what's to say the delay is just a few weeks? You could still be waiting in six months time. I would say that you do need some cast iron guarantees now to prevent weeks turning into months. I would suggest a threat of withdrawal or, as someone above suggested, a reduction of £x per month to focus the minds of the other party.

And yes, I have been involved in two probate cases, one as an executor and one as a beneficiary. There were no delays caused by the Inland Revenue or the local registrar (we got an appointment within the week), but we kept it moving by constantly being on the backs of the solicitors involved, both involved properties, but neither had long delays at all - just a few weeks. In the end, the sale of both properties went through without a hitch because the probate had been sorted before and during the early stages of it being put on the market.