Buying a House where probate hasn't been granted

IrritableFTB

Evening all, First Time Buyer WAY out of his depth here

Me and my partner had an offer accepted on a house in March, everything has gone relatively smoothly (bar the seller unwilling to negotiate, but thats another story), searches have been returned, no issues, survey done, draft contracts received by our solicitors but alas, there is currently one outstanding issue: Probate.

Unfortunately, the initial owner of the house passed away and so their partner (who had their own house) is selling it as part of their inheritance (hence the unwilling to negotiate). Now as described above, everything else is in place, we're just waiting for probate to be granted.

The initial owner died in December 2017 and the probate hasn't been granted as of yet, is this a normal amount of time to wait for this? We're chomping at the bit to get in and this is sort of dampening the initial 'Lawd we just bought a house' feeling.

I believe the probate is being dealt with by Chorus Law and having done a quick review search on Google, it appears they're about as useful as a chocolate fireguard.

I've never had to deal with probate and I've never bought a house before.. HELP

mije1983

Probate can take months unfortunately. 6 months or even more if it's more complex.

HHarry

I had to apply for probate last year. From date of death to receiving probate took 5 months. It was my first time, and I might have been able to knock a month off of that, but it was a very simple estate.

A friend asked a solicitor to obtain probate for his Mum's estate, which was even simpler, and they dragged it out for a year.

For you the process will be Partner supplies info on estate to Chorus, Chorus contact financial insitutions to get details, Chorus complete paperwork, apply for probate, probate granted.
That's dependant on a number of different people and it could well be months before it gets sorted - unless everyone is firing on all cylinders.

Good luck!

Slithery

Without knowing how complicated the will is there is no way of knowing. Could be 2 weeks, could be 2 years.

IrritableFTB

Thanks all, by the looks of it its a 'how long is a piece of string' situation. Cracking!

sheepy21

My grandmother died a couple of days fore Christmas, once we applied for probate it was done in about 3wks. BUT we did it all ourselves with no solicitor to hold us up!

getmore4less

If there is a will with a named executor you can get as far as exchanging contracts. but in practice that only stops then trying to up the price or changing their minds.

Solicitors won't like this as it involves extra clauses to avoid issue like they drag it out to ling(long stop) or it turns out there are issues with the getting the grant(probate).

IT sound like the deceased was the only owner but if by any chance they were joint owners(even tenants in common) they don't need the grant.


With probate sales where there is no one using the property the costs of having sitting there start to mount up, this can change the motivation of a seller.

It is easy to play hard when you know you can't sell the place and getting a keen buyer at full asking before a grant is the jackpot.


when did you first fine out this was a probate sale?

Thrugelmir

Once all known assets and liabilities had been identified, and the volumes of forms completed. Took me a further 6 weeks to obtain agreement with the HMRC of the IHT liability for my late mothers estate. Then another 3 weeks while I arranged an on account payment in order for the HMRC to give approval for probate to be applied for. Then 2 weeks for probate itself to be granted by the court. Time just passes. As basic as that. There's no way of speeding due process up.

kinger101

I got probate within two weeks of a death certificate being issued, but that was because it was way below the IHT threshold, and I didn't involve a solicitor. This could take months (or years if people start contesting things).

My recommendations;

(a) don't incur any expenses until probate has been granted.
(b) keep looking for other properties, preferably without chain.

You don't need to mention (b) to the EA or vendor. Until you've had an offer accepted on another property.

Richard_Webster

Did OP know that the owner of the house had died? If so,did he tell his solicitor? If he did then if I'd been involved first question would be whether probate had been granted - if not I I would have suggested clients went back to seller and estate agents asking why they were trying to sell when there was no probate yet.

Op could have pulled out and bought something else and sellers would have realised they were jumping the gun.

Mojisola

Richard_Webster wrote: »

Did OP know that the owner of the house had died? If so,did he tell his solicitor? If he did then if I'd been involved first question would be whether probate had been granted - if not I I would have suggested clients went back to seller and estate agents asking why they were trying to sell when there was no probate yet.

I signed up with an EA to sell Dad's house before probate came through but it was made clear to prospective viewers what the situation was.