Who owns house?

jsatellite

My sister and I have inherited our late mother's house, where I'm living until the house is sold. Named executors have renounced and I'll be applying for probate soon (letters of administration). Can anyone tell me who the owner of the house would be at this time?

p00hsticks

It belongs to the estate of your late mother.

Keep_pedalling

Assuming you mother owed the house outright and there were no life interest trusts on it from your father’s will then it currently belongs to her estate and will do so until transferred to the buyer. 

jsatellite

The reason I ask is mainly for getting insurance quotes. Online forms seem to have two options: homeowner or tenant. One well-known insurer I phoned recommended a broker but their quote was exorbitant, and we think they assumed the property would be empty. Should the regular companies be able to insure the house or will I need to go through brokers?

RAS

Start by asking the existing provider to transfer the account to you personally, after explaining the situation.

jsatellite

RAS said:

Start by asking the existing provider to transfer the account to you personally, after explaining the situation.

They were only able to continue the policy for a month. I might go back to them and see if they'll give me a new quote.

xylophone

Does below help at all?

https://www.bickersinsurance.co.uk/about-us/latest-news/unoccupied-property-news/occupied-probate-property-insurance-for-executors-or-solicitors/

HappyScotsman

For insurance purposes, since the estate is the owner, I'd argue you are a tenant. 

doodling

If you're only a tenant, insuring the property itself will be difficult so don't go down that path.  In general you can't get insurance for something where you wouldn't suffer a loss if the insured event happens.  For example, in a real tenancy, if the house burns down then the tenant hasn't lost the house, they never owned it and (other than the cost and hassle of finding somewhere else to rent, which they could insure against) it isn't really their problem.  The case here is different to a tenancy, because although the beneficiaries don't legally own the house, they do have a financial interest in it.

The original question is legally very interesting (more below), but that doesn't help the OP who I think would be best off describing the circumstances to an insurer (possibly one used to dealing with more "niche" cases) without using any jargon and seeing what they can do.

The legally interesting bit is that "The Estate" isn't a legal entity and therefore cannot own anything.  The actual legal position is that the ownership of the house (and everything else) passes to the executor (who holds it on trust for the beneficiaries) immediately following the death of the deceased.  Of course, a number of entities, notably people like the land registry, won't deal with an executor until probate has been obtained but that merely puts a legal stamp on a transfer of ownership to the executor that has already happened.

In this case, there were, but are no longer, any executors.  I think that means that the house is now owned by the "Public Trustee".  It is not clear to me whether ownership of the house passes to those who receive Letters of Administration or whether they are administrating on behalf of the Public Trustee who retains legal ownership until it passes to the beneficiaries.  Either way, I'm pretty sure that the Public Trustee is not going to arrange insurance on the property.

As stated above, the exact legal position doesn't help the OP.  The beneficiaries do have an insurable interest in the property and I suspect insurance will be available but they may need to do some digging.

Mojisola

jsatellite said:

The reason I ask is mainly for getting insurance quotes. Online forms seem to have two options: homeowner or tenant. One well-known insurer I phoned recommended a broker but their quote was exorbitant, and we think they assumed the property would be empty. Should the regular companies be able to insure the house or will I need to go through brokers?

It's a shame you're having so much trouble with insurance.  When Dad died, I contacted the insurance company as his executor and they just extended the house insurance although they added some extra conditions - the property had to visited and checked regularly, either heating kept to a certain level or pipes drained, etc.

jsatellite

In the end I phoned the original provider, who were happy to reinstate the policy and at a reduced premium. Funny the option wasn't made available to me originally but at least it's sorted now.