Help please

cazzyd

alchemist to be fair to the guy it's up to him what he spends his money on, but he's had two long holidays since January. I'm not a solicitor but I work in the public sector and my job is stressful too but I've only had three nights away in the UK this year!

I doubt there are extenuating circumstances, we are buying through family and they haven't told us there are complications

G_M

I agree there is more to this than you have told us (probobly because you have not been told).

cazzyd wrote: »

...... came out of probate,

The house deeds were in the name of the late husband of the woman whose house we are buying.
So the wife is alive? She is the 'seller'?

1. That it would be a name change on the deeds, (to that of the will executor) and then subsequently ours...once purchase completed.
So the wife/seller is not the Executer?
or

2. It would return to probate for a second time.
????? what on earth does this even mean?
The Probate Office is a government department. Once it has reviewed the details of the death, and received confirmation from HMRC that any Inheritance Tax has been paid, it grants Probate.

Probate cannot be granted "for a 2nd time"

If as you say Probate has been granted, then the Executer (whoever that is - the wife or a n other) is free to sell the property and wind up the estate by distributing the proceeds to the Beneficiaries.

If the wife is Executer, there is no issue. As Executer, she can sign the TR1, attaching the Grant of Probate from the Probate Office.

If she is not the Executer, the issue may be either:

1) that the Executer (whoever it is) does not agree to the sale (or the price agreed), or

2) that the Executer agrees, but the sale is complicated by the fact that the wife has rights to the property via her marriage to the deceased, & the property being her home, as well as the Executer having rights over the property as part of the Estate.

But in this latter case, I can't see why the sale cannot proceed with the consent of both the wife and the Executer.

So my guess is that there is an Executer involved who is the one who should be selling (not the wife).

A further possibility is that there are other Beneficiaries of the will who might, for example, be arguing that the property is being sold too cheaply. If that were the case, they could potentially sue the Executer for any loss to their inheritance if he/she sold too cheaply.

Note: I am not a solicitor, but am currently selling a parental home, as Executer, following death and grant of probate!

cazzyd

G_M wrote: »

I agree there is more to this than you have told us (probobly because you have not been told).
If as you say Probate has been granted, then the Executer (whoever that is - the wife or a n other) is free to sell the property and wind up the estate by distributing the proceeds to the Beneficiaries.

If the wife is Executer, there is no issue. As Executer, she can sign the TR1, attaching the Grant of Probate from the Probate Office.

If she is not the Executer, the issue may be either:

1) that the Executer (whoever it is) does not agree to the sale (or the price agreed), or

2) that the Executer agrees, but the sale is complicated by the fact that the wife has rights to the property via her marriage to the deceaced, & the property being her home, as well as the Executer having rights over the property as part of the Estate.

But in this latter case, I can't see why the sale cannot proceed with the consent of both the wife and the Executer.

So my guess is that there is an Executer involved who is the one who should be selling (not the wife).

A further possibility is that there are other Beneficiaries of the will who might, for example, be arguing that the property is being sold too cheaply. If that were the case, they could potentially sue the Executer for any loss to their inheritance if he/she sold too cheaply.

Note: I am not a solicitor, but am currently selling a parental home, as Executer, following death and grant of probate!

it is in the hands of the will executor, the woman whose house we are buying died in September and her late husband some years ago. Probate occured in the months following her death and everything appeared to be moving quickly, until, it appeared the name on the deeds was the late husband. This was the last news we had in January and the information I am in posession of, is that is may go to probate (late husband) as he left said house in his will. Or that a deeds name change is sufficient. As far as I know they have pressed ahead with a deeds name change! But the whole thing is very confusing and I'm sure you can understand my frustration I want to know something and I know nothing!

melstar11

I read the OP to mean that the recently deceased is the wife whose husband died some time ago, but the title register still shows him as the owner although the wife inherited the house following his death. I think the person they are dealing with who is selling the house is the executor. Granted it isn't clear.

cazzyd

melstar11 wrote: »

I read the OP to mean that the recently deceased is the wife whose husband died some time ago, but the title register still shows him as the owner although the wife inherited the house following his death. I think the person they are dealing with who is selling the house is the executor. Granted it isn't clear.

true, sorry i didnt make it explicit this is the first time I've been in this situation, and I've had friends buy houses. this is by far a very complex situation

Cakeguts

I think what the problem is going to turn out to be is that the house is part of the husband's estate and not the wife's. Even if the house was left to the wife in the husband's will the solicitors will have to check that there aren't any other beneficiaries to that will.

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but this could take years to sort out not just a few months. If the wife's name is not on the deeds to the house and that means that the house is part of the husband's estate then the executor of the wife's estate can't sell it until it is confirmed to be part of the wife's estate. I think that is what you mean by the second probate.

The fault is with the person who didn't make sure that the deeds to the house were transferred into the wife's name when probate was given for her husband.

I will warn you that they may not get this sorted out this year so you will have to decide what you want to do.

csgohan4

I think look for another is best in this situation, probate houses can be a pain.

If you want to wait, don't be surprised this will take a year or so

cazzyd

Cakeguts wrote: »

I think what the problem is going to turn out to be is that the house is part of the husband's estate and not the wife's. Even if the house was left to the wife in the husband's will the solicitors will have to check that there aren't any other beneficiaries to that will.

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news but this could take years to sort out not just a few months. If the wife's name is not on the deeds to the house and that means that the house is part of the husband's estate then the executor of the wife's estate can't sell it until it is confirmed to be part of the wife's estate. I think that is what you mean by the second probate.

The fault is with the person who didn't make sure that the deeds to the house were transferred into the wife's name when probate was given for her husband.

I will warn you that they may not get this sorted out this year so you will have to decide what you want to do.

csgohan4 wrote: »

I think look for another is best in this situation, probate houses can be a pain.

If you want to wait, don't be surprised this will take a year or so

Thankyou both for this, everyone on this thread has been a million times more helpful than the solicitors in the last few weeks. When I spoke to my solicitor 3 weeks ago, she assured me that she would get it sorted as in her words as it had been going on a while.

Should I just tell the solicitor what I have found out and see if this is the case? And my second question, would we be able to find and complete on a house by the end of may if we were granted an extension?

davidmcn

Cakeguts wrote: »

The fault is with the person who didn't make sure that the deeds to the house were transferred into the wife's name when probate was given for her husband.

I think the fault is with whoever decided to market the house without checking who owned it!

It's rare for houses to be overlooked during the probate process, I suspect what happened was that everything else passed to the wife without needing probate and she possibly just assumed she didn't need to do anything about the house. I wouldn't be so pessimistic about the timescales (if his estate was contentious in some way, surely the arguments would have taken place at the time he died?), but obviously there are no guarantees about how long it will take.

Annisele

cazzyd wrote: »

T And my second question, would we be able to find and complete on a house by the end of may if we were granted an extension?

An extension to your mortgage offer, do you mean?

If you choose a different house, the dates on your existing mortgage offer arent' really relevant. It's a mortgage offer for one particular house - there's no guarantee the lender would lend at all on some other house.

Finding a house and completing by the end of May is just about possible, but it's an extremely tight timescale - and you'd almost certainly need to find one that wasn't in a chain.