Advice re court of protection issue

Booge

Hi All
I am a first time buyer in outer London, currently renting. Am in process of buying a property for £700k in an outer London suburb. When I viewed it the estate agent told me the sellers had inherited a large amount of money and that they were buying a house in the country that was not dependent on this sale going through. 

It’s now been about a month since I first viewed and have now started the conveyancing process, got my mortgage approved and arranged the surveyor. I have been asking what the position of the sellers are and whether they are ready to go once I have got a satisfactory survey completed and the searches done etc. I then got an email back saying “yes we are ready to go apart from the court of protection issue which we are chasing”

No more detail was provided and I have no idea what the nature of the court of protection issue is but if the people they are buying from need to apply for a deputyship to sell the house this could take a considerable amount of time.

I have asked my solicitor to clarify what it is and the sellers solicitor has now gone incommunicado for a week and a half. This now means that I’m going to have to extend my tenancy agreement because I can’t get a straight answer on what the issue is or how long it might take to resolve. 

I am beginning to wonder whether I should pull out of this purchase if I can’t get an answer soon as it feels like I could be waiting ages for this to be sorted out. 

Any suggestions on how to handle this?

many thanks

jonathan 

pphillips

Basically, the court of protection steps in when someone is no longer capable of managing their own affairs. I suggest you speak to the estate agent to find out when were they made aware that the seller had lost mental capacity, perhaps they didn't even know! It would make sense for estate agents to do more due diligence to protect themselves and potential buyers from timewasting vendors who don't have any legal power to sell.

NinjaTune

Sorry, just to clarify - is it the house your sellers are buying that is subject to the court of protection issue rather than the one you are purchasing?

Booge

NinjaTune yes it is the house that the sellers are buying where the court of protection issue applies. Not my sellers. 

But I was told this property was chain free when I put in the offer and now suddenly not only is it not chain free, but it now seems to have a potentially complicated issue attached to it. 

The estate agent now admits they were aware of this issue when they put it on the market (but didn’t tell me) but says they don’t understand what the exact issue is, other than that they know it’s an issue and are giving no more info than that

Jonathan 

NinjaTune

The seller's EA really should be speaking to their vendors solicitor to clarify what the situation is.  The other vendors may already have LPA/deputyship, however, they might still need to apply to the CoP for permission to sell the property.

Would your sellers be prepared to break the chain if the issue cannot be resolved any time soon?  I guess if they already have the funds to purchase without selling their property then they may not have any incentive to do this, i.e. not that bothered if the sale falls through.

Very frustrating for you, I hope things are resolved quickly and you can go ahead with the purchase.

lisyloo

You don’t necessarily know it’s a complicated issue. It might just be that they don’t have a COP order yet and things have inevitably been delayed by COViD.
my estate agent and solicitor did Due diligence but we’re prepared to proceed on the basis of an application for COP knowing an offer and chain would take minimum 4 months. It was a risk but an educated one.
Unfortunately I can tell you from experience that it’s not possible to get a timescale from COP. If you phone you get to speak to the someone that sounds like a security guard who passes on messages.
it is unfortunate that people aren’t being transparent with you - we’ll actually have lied - but you don’t know that the “issue” is complicated at all. It’s most likely quite simple I.e. they don’t have the right to sell the property Yet.
your choices are wait, pull out or put pressure on. 

Are you on a rolling contract? Is it a big deal to extend?

pphillips

Booge said:

NinjaTune yes it is the house that the sellers are buying where the court of protection issue applies. Not my sellers. 

But I was told this property was chain free when I put in the offer and now suddenly not only is it not chain free, but it now seems to have a potentially complicated issue attached to it. 

The estate agent now admits they were aware of this issue when they put it on the market (but didn’t tell me) but says they don’t understand what the exact issue is, other than that they know it’s an issue and are giving no more info than that

Jonathan 

But estate agents should be familiar dealing with all types of property issues whether the cause is a broken relationship, an inheritance dispute or this case, a loss of mental capacity. You may want to speak to a litigation solicitor about recovering you losses from the estate agent if they admitted that they lied to you about the property being chain free.

Slithery

Booge said:

This now means that I’m going to have to extend my tenancy agreement because I can’t get a straight answer on what the issue is or how long it might take to resolve.

This will take absolutely zero effort. When the fixed term of a tenancy comes to an end it automatically becomes a periodic tenancy if you are still in the property. You don't have to do anything.

Booge

Slithery - yes that’s the position of you don’t do anything but landlord won’t allow that. They are saying sign a new 12 month contract or get out. 

Slithery

Your LL has absolutely no say in this, no matter how hard they jump up and down and stamp their feet. A periodic tenancy is a legal statutory right which can't be overridden.

If the LL wishes to evict you it's going to take them 18+ months with the current Covid rules and court backlogs.

Ending/renewing an AST