Seller Died Halfway Through Buying House - Can I Rent It During Probate?

NeverTooLate

NutWorld wrote: »

You say the property owner died in December 2018, and the property was offered for sale in July 2019, despite probate not having been garnted? Who was offering the house for sale? And how was it being offered (e.g. via an estate agent?).

The house was offered for sale in the normal way via an estate agent on instruction of the executors of the will.

NutWorld wrote: »

You also say the probate was only applied for in July 2019, and claim it was granted by mid July 2019? That is contrary to what everyone else has suggested regarding how long probate takes to get granted, and something I too am struggling to believe.

I guess that bit was misleading, we actually don't know when probate was applied for, the EA told us it been done very recently (not sure why they'd lie about that). My point to the OP was that probate doesn't always take a very long time.

NutWorld wrote: »

And you imply you offered, were accepted, exchanged contracts and completed in about 2 weeks???
(Mid July - early August 2019)

I think in total it was around 4 weeks - yes amazingly quick. Our solicitor who's been in the business for many years said she'd never done such a quick conveyance. And again my point for the benefit of the OP was to counteract all the previous replies of doom & gloom, that probate sales don't have to be protracted.

NutWorld wrote: »

I know you read the odd, exceptional report of someone having bought a house the same day, but that is generally marketing speel, and ignores the fact that all the preliminary work was done upfront, and that everyone was lined up to get exchange and completion done in the same day.

Everyone was motivated to get it done quickly, good solicitors at both ends and a knowledgeable estate agent. We were lucky.

RL11

Can the property complete immediately after grant of probate (weeks) or only after the whole probate process ends? I was selling via LPA and my father died! I am executor and beneficiary and just want to carry on and sell. The buyers also want to go ahead - or rent if necessary. The estate is literally just the house and a bit of cash - no inheritance tax due either,

unkle

RL11 said:

Can the property complete immediately after grant of probate (weeks) or only after the whole probate process ends? I was selling via LPA and my father died! I am executor and beneficiary and just want to carry on and sell. The buyers also want to go ahead - or rent if necessary. The estate is literally just the house and a bit of cash - no inheritance tax due either,

THE LPA ended when your father died i'm afraid.

Unless there is a surviving spouse (joint owner of property) you will need the grant before you can sell.

RL11

My question was more in terms of getting clarity of when I can sell. A lot of the discussion seems to indicate the process can take ages but grant of probate seems likely to only take a few weeks (HMRC site says 4-8 weeks due to corona delays but ordinarily 4), so at that point I can sell the property to my cash buyers and that's it? - no waiting for other probate related stuff to finalise? There is no surviving spouse and property was sole owned by Dad.
Seems a bit unnecessary that I even have to apply, being that I'm son, executor, beneficiary and was attorney already!

UnderOffer

No expert, but this happened to my friend. She had exchanged and owner died the day after, vendors children had LPA but of course that ceased immediately on death of parent. There was a will and children applied for grant of probate, (everything explained re exchange was reassured it would be fast-tracked 10-12 weeks), the probate still took 5 months to be granted on a straight forward estate, the contracts had to be redone and signed by children, this was a further 4 weeks on top of the 5 months, they then finally got the keys.

All in all it was very stressful, tearful and awful time waiting for probate, with virtually no communication from the vendors children, only the estate agent and their solicitor, they would have walked away if it wasn’t for the fact that no other types of this house was available on the market. Whatever you are told, double the length of time and expect some disappointments along the way. 

davidmcn

RL11 said:

My question was more in terms of getting clarity of when I can sell. A lot of the discussion seems to indicate the process can take ages but grant of probate seems likely to only take a few weeks (HMRC site says 4-8 weeks due to corona delays but ordinarily 4), so at that point I can sell the property to my cash buyers and that's it? - no waiting for other probate related stuff to finalise?

No, there is no "probate related stuff" (like what?) you need to to beyond getting the probate in order to complete the sale of the house.

Seems a bit unnecessary that I even have to apply, being that I'm son, executor, beneficiary and was attorney already!

As has already been explained, being attorney stops being of any relevance after the date of death. Being the son isn't necessarily relevant, and your buyers don't care who the beneficiaries are. The point of probate is to have a quasi-judicial process to determine who is actually entitled to act as the executor, rather than everybody having to figure it out (and take risks) for themselves. And also to ensure any Inheritance Tax has been paid before you distribute the estate and disappear.

RL11

Guess it's going to be anyone's guess how long then! Though I have started to investigate using a new HMRC online process and it seems to be very simple and straightforward to get the IHT and probate applications filled in and posted through. I'm going to remain optimistic that it won't take long at all!

RL11

Grant of Probate arrived in the post today! Three weeks from start of application to receiving the grant. Looks like something good to come out of covid, is that the online systems that have been introduced or improved, have made a huge difference to the efficiency of the services.