Chain or no chain? That is the question! Probate, deeds, time limits!

Millsey89

Hi All, 
Advice needed, get yourself a cuppa because it's going to be a long one 😔
We have accepted an offer on our house to a family who are selling their house back to the council. They council have given them a time limit of 6 months which comes to an end at the end of May/ beginning of june.  
We, have also found a property (our dream house!) and had an offer accepted on it. But here is where it gets complicated! 
The property is currently owned by 3 people (an older gentleman and his 2 grown up step children who acquired half of the house on the passing of their mother) 
The dad has moved out and the property has sat empty the whole time it has been on the market. (Coming up to a year)
The property had sold and fallen through twice and the stress of it all has taken its toll on the Dad and the day before we put our offer in, the Step children and him started the proceedings for the probate and step children to buy him out of his half of the house and then change the deeds to the step sons name and then sell the house between the 2 of them.. so that the dad doesnt have to deal with it anymore. 
So at present, the family selling the house we want to buy is currently going through probate (awaiting the grant of probate) and then will have to change the deeds...so we have no idea how long that will take and our buyers want to get the ball rolling asap to have the best chance in getting into our place by the end of may. 
So it has been suggested that we proceed with the sale of our house and complete, put everything in storage, move in with the in laws (chain stopping at us) and once the property we want to buy has everything sorted start the process with that... 
I have been told that if we agree to proceed with the sale with our house, if the house we want to buy gets the deeds etc done in the meantime, that we cant move forward with it until we have completed the sale of ours (is this true?) 
I'm worried if that happens(for example it's good to proceed with in 4 weeks time) the seller wont want to wait for us to complete and will put the house back on the market...
So we are stuck between a rock and a hard place...we dont want to loose our buyers so kinda need to crack on. Ideally we dont want to have to move twice either! 
Obviously the probate and deeds change could take longer than our house completing but if it doesnt...
Is it possible to add the house we want onto the end of the chain halfway through the process of selling ours? Or do we just have to ride it out and wait for ours to complete and hope that the seller wait for us? 

I hope that all made sense, any advice would be appreciated! 😊

coachman12

This sounds a nightmare. Walk away. Look for a new dream house----it WILL be there.

xylophone

So at present, the family selling the house we want to buy is currently going through probate (awaiting the grant of probate) and then will have to change the deeds.

Hang on a minute - Dad was the sole remaining legal owner and didn't actually need probate to deal with the sale of the property  See https://www.land-registry-documents.co.uk/information/joint-ownership-tennants/

To get past this restriction and sell the property, the sole surviving tenant in common can appoint a second trustee along with himself. This can be done either in the transfer or by a separate deed. The trustee then signs the transfer along with the proprietor and receives the sale proceeds jointly. It is then the responsibility of the trustee together with the surviving tenant in common to ensure that the beneficiaries receive their share. As long as the purchase money is paid to two or more trustees the purchaser is protected from any claim that the beneficiaries might have if they do not receive the money they are entitled to.

Why can't Dad and one of the stepsons deal as above and sign over the property to you?