Buying as first time buyers & now seller's tell us they just applied for probate!!

Polkadotty88

Hello,
We had an offer accepted at beginning of January & were hoping we'd be moving in by mid-March at very latest. House we're buying is empty & parents of two son's had lived there. Now just found out the son's are just applying for probate! Is there any way we can get them to hurry up? We wondered if we suggested an exchange date of beginning of April and if that didn't happen we would rent the property from them at reduced rent as we have been inconvenienced so much? Would this be possible if they were agreeable? And if so what would we need to do/be aware of?
Many thanks for reading.

Marvel1

Polkadotty88 wrote: »

Hello,
We had an offer accepted at beginning of January & were hoping we'd be moving in by mid-March at very latest. House we're buying is empty & parents of two son's had lived there. Now just found out the son's are just applying for probate! Is there any way we can get them to hurry up? We wondered if we suggested an exchange date of beginning of April and if that didn't happen we would rent the property from them at reduced rent as we have been inconvenienced so much? Would this be possible if they were agreeable? And if so what would we need to do/be aware of?
Many thanks for reading.

Their solicitor would advise against this and they be mad to also - they would have to follow the landlord rules

comeandgo

How have you been inconvenienced so much? I take it the sellers never agreed an exchange date. You could offer them more money if they can speed things up or withdraw your offer. I can't imagine they are in a hurry to proceed. They may still be grieving and the house will be the final link with their parents.

Bonniepurple

So you were anticipating 6/7 weeks for conveyancing? Our first place (repossession) took 7 weeks - and that was with no mortgage (shared ownership- but that didn’t cause the hold up). Our current place (us moving from shared ownership property into an empty property and people moving into said shared ownership place - so a very short chain) took about 22 weeks. Again, no mortgages involved (very long story). House buying and selling is not a quick process.

How have you been inconvenienced? You have not been given a date. If you decided to order furniture/book a holiday/give notice on an assumption that if you had asked anyone- let alone your solicitor- would have advised caution then that is your problem. Not the estate agents. Certainly not the vendors who sound like they have been recently bereaved and are going through the rigmarole and soul destroying process of turning a loved ones goods into a set of figures for HMRC.

In other words, you saw an empty property and assumed that you could move in pronto. You now discover that it doesn’t work like that. Unless YOUR solicitor gave you a date in writing (and even then it can change until exchange!), then the only fault lies with you.

babyblade41

I would expect probate to take some time depending on the estate and who's dealing with it...no inconvenience as nothing has started ..I'd expect a minimum of 6 months if you are lucky

Doozergirl

We found a house for a client and have been waiting 10 months now for a deputyship application to go through the courts.

I'd keep looking whilst waiting.

As it happens, we haven't found anything that presents better value for money so haven't pulled out.

Kyresa

You can be sure the estate agent knew that it was a probate sale! I think the problem is with your expectation rather than how the process actually works.

There are also a LOT of delays with the Probate Registry at the moment. You're looking April/May time at the earliest I'd say.

AnotherJoe

I would not withdraw but start looking again. In case you find something better. You are probably realistically looking at 3 months absolute minimum and 6 months more likely. And no there is nothing you can do to get them to speed up. Oh and if a solicitor is doing the probate not the brothers make it a year

martindow

It could well be the first time that the sons have never previously applied for probate so they could well have had no idea of the time-scale involved. The agents should have been aware but agents are not required to have any knowledge or training and many deserve their poor reputation.


As a FTB you also had unreasonable expectations of the time between offering and completing, probate or not.

Simby

I would leave the offer there, but start looking ASAP..l and look to find something that does not require probate

cattie

You were naive to expect to have completed by mid March! I've bought & sold a few properties over the years. Always to ftb's & buying a vacant property, so no chain either end. In spite of this it has always taken at least 12 weeks from offer to completion.

Obviously a probate property will take longer & your idea of renting the house is not feasible as any solicitor worth his/her salt would strongly advice the vendor's against it.

If you're going to look at other properties, be more realistic with your completion time expectations.