Probate problems

Beeboo23

getmore4less said:

When did it go up for sale if your offer was mid march?
timing of a probate application when there is a house for sale can be important as council tax kicks in 6 months after grant issued if the property is empty.
Many like(should) market but be ready to stick the application in the post the day they accept an offer at the latest.

If occupied it makes no difference as the exemption is lost even if they move out.

Google can sometimes  find the obituary/funeral announcement  on address.

surprised you don't already have the title(or sent by solicitors) and searched the planning portal(that sometimes has applicant/owners names),  if you have got as far as surveys.

The property was only on the market for about a week before we made the offer. 

The property is vacant, the beneficiaries haven’t moved in or anything so they’ll soon be paying council tax. It’s going to need a fair bit of work to make it liveable. 

I searched google for the obituary with the address and didn’t get any hits unfortunately. 

The solicitor on my side hasn’t done any work yet because I didn’t want to incur a bill if the surveyor found any deal breakers. I have had documents but they all have the details of the executors not the deceased. 

Beeboo23

Flugelhorn said:

TBH the memorandum of sale should say "the executors of... " or "the estate of...."
But LR title should show the names (hopefully) 

I do have this, I’m looking at it now but it doesn’t have this information  unfortunately. It lists the vendors as the beneficiaries. 

Beeboo23

Thrugelmir said:

kinger101 said:

Beeboo23 said:

Thrugelmir said:

Ask the EA to ascertain the stage probate has reached. Understandable that over the past few months there have been delays. Totally unavoidable. 

I’ll check in with them next week to try and see if they can give me any more detail. I don’t know if it would be counterintuitive to hint that we’re going to start looking elsewhere or if this might spur them on. In saying that though if things are delayed due to covid there’s not much the sellers can do. 

The EA cannot speed up the grant of probate, so I don't think dropping hints will achieve anything.

Nor can the executors. 

Good points. I think it’s unlikely, but if on the off chance the vendors are using probate as a delaying tactic it may shift them in to gear. Alternatively it may just pee them off. I suppose I’ll just keep my other viewings to myself for now unless I find something I’m seriously interested in. 

Beeboo23

CLJP72 said:

We've been waiting for Probate to come through on a property we are buying, first time buyers so no chain. Offer accepted January, probate sent of for about the same time. Still waiting for HMRC and Probate, we're hoping our mortgage offer will be extended as it runs out tomorrow. We have kept looking all this time but nothing comparable has come up in the price range, area or criteria we want. If it did we may well offer on another property but it behold depend on the chain etc

Oh no really? That’s such a long time. Hopefully you don’t have to wait too much longer now. At least whilst this is going on it allows us to save a bit more while we’re waiting. 

Ive also kept my eye out but not found anything as good for the price/location. 

CLJP72

Beeboo23 said:

CLJP72 said:

We've been waiting for Probate to come through on a property we are buying, first time buyers so no chain. Offer accepted January, probate sent of for about the same time. Still waiting for HMRC and Probate, we're hoping our mortgage offer will be extended as it runs out tomorrow. We have kept looking all this time but nothing comparable has come up in the price range, area or criteria we want. If it did we may well offer on another property but it behold depend on the chain etc

Oh no really? That’s such a long time. Hopefully you don’t have to wait too much longer now. At least whilst this is going on it allows us to save a bit more while we’re waiting. 

Ive also kept my eye out but not found anything as good for the price/location. 

Think of the positives at least we also save on Stamp Duty

regans1

Sorry to jump on the thread, but does anyone know if the gov search for probate records is accurate/promptly updated? 

I was told in May that a property I am trying to purchase had probate granted , however there are no matches showing up based on the names on the deed. Starting to get suspicious as the vendor's solicitor and the estate agents are not engaging with us as quickly as we'd hoped.

Chloe901

regans1 said:

Sorry to jump on the thread, but does anyone know if the gov search for probate records is accurate/promptly updated?

I just did a search for a few common surnames (Smith, Jones, Johnson, Brown, Taylor) and the most recent result I'm seeing is 26 July, so it looks like there is a couple of days delay.

Beeboo23

An update in case someone looks up probate threads in future. I kept my eyes open for other properties whilst waiting for the probate to be done.
Yesterday we viewed and had an offer accepted on our dream house. As probate has been taking so long I’ve managed to save quite a bit more which meant we were able to stretch to a nicer property that we’ll stay in for longer. Just waiting for the mortgage offer to be amended and then will pull out of the probate property which still has no time scales and is still waiting for probate to be granted. This whole thing has been a blessing in disguise.