can EAs 'sell' a house before probate is granted?

Annie1960

Learn for the future. If a house is described as 'empty' then you need to ask as many questions as you can think of to find out what this means. It could mean the vendors have moved abroad, died, or any number of other things. The chain I was in had a property described as 'empty' at the top of the chain. This turned out to be a new-build, and caused no end of delays and other problems.

Hoploz

As an aside, think carefully about changing jobs before you have the new mortgage. Changes in circumstance like this can cause problems with applications. They don't like it if you haven't been in the same job for a good period.

martindow

Is there any possibility of the mortgage company extending the expiry date?

lindsaygalaxy

Hi, By update on this?

We too are waiting for probate. Got told maximum of 6 weeks and now it's week 11 and no need has a clue.

Richard_Webster

If the seller is dead first thing you ask is if there is probate.

If not, walk away and tell agent it shouldn't be advertised until there is probate - you could be waiting 2 weeks to 6 months for it to go through.

wanye

lindsaygalaxy wrote: »

Hi, By update on this?

We too are waiting for probate. Got told maximum of 6 weeks and now it's week 11 and no need has a clue.

finally, an update!

got a call from our solicitor last week to say probate should be done with now within the next 2 weeks. this week we get all the paperwork and the bill to sign and pay. last night i transferred over the deposit and fees and posted the signed contract stuff back

we got our mortgage extended, and it was replaced with a newer product which is 0.3% lower APR. which is nice

so if everything (finally) goes to plan, we should hopefully be completed approx 2 weeks from now.

the job situation has died down again... i wouldnt say im happy working here, but i'm a lot happier than i was 2 months ago, so the need to change jobs isnt as great now.. i can wait it out another year (or more maybe)

still in desperate need of a holiday though. apart from a long weekend camping in wales, ive not had any real time off this year... (ive taken 5 of my 34 days so far as i was waiting on the house!)... the plan right now is to get the keys, get the house rewired and a new heating system put in, redecorate, then move in sometime in september. then, after that, assuming ive still got loads of holiday to take, book somewhere sunny for my 40th in october.

my workmate bought a house recently, it took 8 weeks from having their offer accepted to moving in. its taken us just under 6 months so far, and we still dont have the keys...

NW_London

Congratulations OP, your story is remarkably like my recent purchase.

Made an offer on a house in Feb, chain free and vacant. No mention of probate or anything from the EA. I offered asking as I knew there would be a lot of interest because of the property's size and location. I expected the process to last 10-12 weeks and promptly sorted out my mortgage valuation and full survey as requested by the EA.

Once I knew all was ok, I instructed my solicitor and all was going well until the process came to a halt. Rang my solicitor to get an update only to be told that they couldn't progress to exchange until they had the probate. What probate? So I rang the EA and got told that they were unaware that the probate hadn't been granted and the vendor only just had applied for it (already 8 weeks in at this point). Of course no one knew how long the probate would take so I decided to wait it out.

It was now approaching the middle of June and my mortgage offer was only valid to the end of July. Numerous calls back and forth and still no progress. Then just as I was preparing to give up, the EA rang to say the probate had been granted and a copy had been faxed to my solicitor. As the solicitor was aware of the mortgage offer expiring soon, they hurried the vendor solicitor and I exchanged beginning of July and completed mid July.

It was a fairly stressful process as all the time I was waiting I had a fear of being gazumped, more so than losing the £1700 odd I'd spent so far. Luckily it all worked out in the end but I don't think I'd ever want to go through with that again.

wanye

another update... we should be exchanging today and completing on tuesday. on tuesday it will be 6 months and 2 weeks since we had our offer accepted.

even as recent as monday this week we were fully expecting to have to pull out due to it taking so long (the mortgage extension runs out next wednesday and we would have to apply again), but it's now at the final stage - the end is actually in sight!

well, i say the end... i mean the beginning. we've got a months worth of building work to do before we can move in!