Buying a house where someone has died

tracex

Hi, if you buy a house and the owner has recently died, how long does it take to get through the probate system? I was told by my solicitor that it could be 2-3 weeks but I know someone who had to wait months for the sale to complete.

Debt_Free_Chick

It depends on how complex the estate is.

But it's NOT YOU that goes through probate - it's the Executor of the Will. And they can only apply for probate once they've sorted out every tiny little detail of the Estate.

I think your best option is to find out who the Executor is and then to write and express an interest in buying the property. Eventually, though, the Executor is likely to market the property as they are duty bound to get the best price they can for it.

Addiscomber

The executor shouldn't market the house until they have obtained probate. When my mother passed away towards the end of an October my sister and I didn't get probate until about March the following year as far as I recall.

Wig

What question would you ask an Estate agent to find out if the property (being marketed) is part of a deceased estate and being sold by the executor.. and if the sale will go quickly or if there will be probate related hic-ups?

Debt_Free_Chick

Wig wrote: »

What question would you ask an Estate agent to find out if the property (being marketed) is part of a deceased estate and being sold by the executor.. and if the sale will go quickly or if there will be probate related hic-ups?

Ask to meet the vendor :rotfl: :rotfl:

Seriously, just ask "is this a probate sale?"

Melissa177

I bought a house from a dead man, and it was the easiest sale in the world.

I even got all the furniture thrown in! :rotfl:

coal9011

From my experience the fastest probate can be sorted is about 8 months and the longest 18 months. I would say an average period of 12 months is about right.

It is the Executor's duty to to realise all the assets of the dead persons estate. Usually the property is the largest asset and is sold during the first few months of probate. This leaves plenty of funds in the estate and if the executor is a solicitor they usually pay themselfs an "interim payment" on account of their fee's from the proceeds of the sale.

So, in answer to you question the house should be sold fairly quickly.

Solicitors: "crooks in suits!" :rolleyes:

[Deleted User]

I recently had to sort probate out for my grandmothers estate & it took 3 weeks.

IamNotOneOfTHEM

Melissa177 wrote: »

I bought a house from a dead man, and it was the easiest sale in the world.

I even got all the furniture thrown in! :rotfl:

A reminder as to 'you cant take it with you when you die'.

http://humanities.byu.edu/elc/student/idioms/proverbs/you_cant_take_it.html

Lets share & live

Zammo

I recently viewed the home of an old woman who was recently deceased. It was most upsetting as all her furniture, food, pictures and clothing were still in the house. But worst of all was the overwhelming stench of p1ss emanating from her bedroom.

:mad:

Richard_Webster

Probate is likely to take longer if the estate is above or near the Inheritance Tax threshold because then the HMRC want a lot of detail about the value of all the assets and this can take time to collect.

If the estate is well under the IHT threshold then HMRC do not require as much detail and therefore probate can be quicker. If the executor uses a solicitor he can send the application in, and if no IHT is involved, it generally comes back from the Registry in about a week. If the executor does it himself it takes longer because the Registry set an appointment for him to go and see them some weeks ahead and this delays things.

Unfortunately people don't always realise that there can be delays with an estate involving IHT in preparing the documents for submission to the HMRC and the Probate Registry and the family can happily get an estate agent involved and find a buyer at far too early a stage.

Of course, at the moment there is the "HIPs" factor where people have been marketing property a little prematurely to avoid having to provide a HIP.