Help needed - moving into inherited house during probate

Muttonchops_1943

Bit of a long story so will try to keep on point.
Our house has sold (still going through but almost at the end) and we had offer accepted on new house circa 3 months ago. Vendors of the new house dragging their feet, haven’t found somewhere to buy and refusing to start conveyancing process. In the meantime,  my mother in law agreed to let us move in with her after our house sale completed and until the new house sale went through. This meant we didn’t have to find somewhere temporarily to live.

Sadly she has since passed away. House is going through probate. My partner and his sister are executors and beneficiaries and will inherit the house jointly anyway as per will. No disputes. We ware now considering buying out sister’s share and for us to live there permanently. His sister is happy for us still to move in once our house is sold as per the previous agreement. There is no mortgage outstanding on the house.

For clarity, we would pay all utilities, council tax etc, all would be done above board. 

My questions are:
Any legal reason why we can’t move in whilst house is in probate?
Are we allowed to register this as our address as we will need to have one for raising a mortgage to buy his sister’s share out? (We are waiting for bank to let us know whether we can do the mortgage application before our house sale goes through and whether it could be left in place for 12 months to allow for probate time.)

Thanks! 

xylophone

Your partner and his sisters are the executors of the will and as such have the responsibility for safeguarding estate assets.

They may well agree that from the point of  view of insurance alone, it will be best for the house to be occupied.

There would therefore seem to be no problem about your moving in - presumably you will have advised the insurers and as you will be the occupiers, will take responsibility for council tax and utilities (having advised the appropriate bodies and read the meters so as to cover what is owed from estate funds).

With regard to your registering the property as your address - why not?

At the very least you are tenants ( and in effect your husband is a co owner as he will have taken a vested interest in the property at the date of death of the Testator).

Muttonchops_1943

Thank you. Have never been in this position before so very much a minefield knowing what to do, or what we can do. The family have appointed probate solicitors anyway so everything would be done above board. 

The feeling is it would be better to have the house occupied as opposed to being left empty and both siblings are having to call in daily to open blinds, switch night lights off. 

We have informed the insurers the house is currently unoccupied and would contact them again as and when that changes. 

Is it as simple as just moving into the property and registering utilities in our name? We would need internet installing as a minimum due to working from home. Do we need any legal document from the probate solicitors to say we can be there? Thank you again for your response. 

xylophone

I am no expert but as far as I can see, you will be occupying the property with the consent of the executors.

It would be possible for the exors to rent out the property for the purposes of administering the estate.

https://www.barkerevanslaw.co.uk/2018/03/can-executors-rent-out-property/

There would therefore seem to be no difficulties about your moving in,  taking over the payment of utilities/CT and arranging for internet access?

You could always check with the  solicitor your husband and his co exor have appointed if further "comfort" is required.

getmore4less

Will you need a mortgage?

Is not that unusual to buy a house you already live in, probably worth putting it by a broker.

If the goal is to buy and move in then get on with that.
It's hard enough dealing with a loss.

Biggest hurdle is often agreement on buyout price)

Muttonchops_1943

yes, will need a mortgage. We already have mortgage offer in place for the house we was originally going to buy before my MIL sadly passed away. The probate valuations have now been done by the solicitor so all in hand. Hence it’s important we have a registered address before the main mortgage application to buy sister’s share of property. It’s just one of those things and our house sale is so far progressed that there is no chance of tying up our sale with this purchase. 

xylophone

You have now withdrawn your offer for the property you previously had in mind?

Presumably you will hold the proceeds of sale of your property on deposit until you can arrange the mortgage to buy out your sibling?

Muttonchops_1943

xylophone said:

You have now withdrawn your offer for the property you previously had in mind?

Presumably you will hold the proceeds of sale of your property on deposit until you can arrange the mortgage to buy out your sibling?

Yes, all correct.

Flugelhorn

Muttonchops_1943 said:

Is it as simple as just moving into the property and registering utilities in our name? We would need internet installing as a minimum due to working from home. Do we need any legal document from the probate solicitors to say we can be there? Thank you again for your response. 

Yes you can do that - so long as someone is paying the bill, the utility companies really don't seem to ask any further - we have bought 2 houses recently and there was never any query about our right to be in them for any utility. When I was selling a house under probate, the utilities were desperately keen to get an account open in my name rather than it being under the estate, I managed to keep it under the estate as sale was going through but they would have happily put my name down even though I didn't live there