Probate not declared

Jones789

Hi,
Does anyone know if an estate agent is legally obliged to declare if a house in the chain is subject to probate?
Back in May I offered on a house that had just had a sale fall through, I was told this was for the buyers personal relationship issues. When asking about the chain we were told that the owners of the property were buying an empty house. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we discovered that the house he was buying was indeed empty but awaiting probate. We only discovered this because the buyer for our property saw a mortgage advisor at the estate agent our sellers were buying through.
When I rang our estate agent she told me probate was 'imminent'.
Now we are in a postition where our mortgage offer is due to expire and our buyer wants to proceed but still no sign of probate which I've been told could be months away.
Any advice greatly appreciated.

Surrey_EA

I'm not aware of any legal obligation, obviously any decent EA should be making those in the chain aware.

Probate might be through this week, or not until next year, very difficult to tell. Your solicitor should be making others involved in the chain aware of when your mortgage offer expires.

jimpix12

Ask if the probate has been granted or not. If it hasn't, expect months of delays to come. If it has, it could only take a few more days or weeks, generally speaking.

And tell them that an agent marketing a house when the probate hasn't been granted is likely extremely dodgy.

Freecall

Checking the Probate Register would be a good place to start

https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

At least you will know if it has been granted, you can then decide what to do from there.

Snuggles

spunko2010 wrote: »

And tell them that an agent marketing a house when the probate hasn't been granted is likely extremely dodgy.

Only do this if you want to look foolish.

Houses are often marketed on the instruction of executors prior to probate being granted - there's nothing dodgy about it.

martindow

I think you need to ask the EA for more details. When the application for thegrant of probate was made, whether they have been for the interview, etc. This may give you a better idea of what 'imminent' means.

Obtaining probate is a rare thing for most people and not surprisingly they often have little idea of what it means or the time scales involved. Sometimes people are reluctant to face up to it after a bereavement and the paperwork needed may take some time to track down.

wanye

we had this situation back in february!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5264795

it near completion now, but its been 6 months since we had the offer accepted, and told them we were pulling out if it wasnt all completed by the end of this month

lindsaygalaxy

We are buying a house with probate and it hasn't been fun. What we were told would be a 6 week process is now in month 6 and we still haven't exchanged. A couple of weeks ago the executors were on the phone for hours to the probate office who finally said it was sorted and be 2 weeks. That was 3 weeks ago and still waiting for the certificate.

Surrey_EA

spunko2010 wrote: »

Ask if the probate has been granted or not. If it hasn't, expect months of delays to come. If it has, it could only take a few more days or weeks, generally speaking.

And tell them that an agent marketing a house when the probate hasn't been granted is likely extremely dodgy.

There might be months of delays, or it could be very straightforward, it's impossible to tell without knowing the details of the estate.

I agree with Snuggles, nothing dodgy in marketing a property before probate is granted. Why do think it is?

Richard_Webster

If a house is empty ask why.

If its because someone has died ask to see the probate. If they can't produce it then they haven't got it and you will wait for ages.

EAs don't really understand this level of detail. However anyone asking them can reasonably say that they have heard stories of people being kept waiting for months so you think it is reasonable for them to prove that probate has bbeen obtained.

A lot of families of dead people don't realise that it is silly to put a house on themarket before probate has been obtained because it only winds buyers up. EAs ought to ask the postion but most of them don't think about it.

Little OP can do but pull out or wait.

Surrey_EA

Richard_Webster wrote: »

EAs don't really understand this level of detail.

some

Richard_Webster wrote: »

you will wait for ages

Not always the case, surely it's impossible to tell without knowing specific details about a particular transaction?