Seller needs deputyship in upper chain

Booge

I’ve posted about this before but there have now been developments. I had an offer accepted on a house in mid April in an area of outer London where there is big competition for houses. I had to offer more than guide price as there were multiple bidders and sealed bids. I was told at the time by estate agent that the sellers had inherited money and were able to complete the transaction for the place they were buying without the purchase proceeds from the house they are selling to me, and that it was at an advanced stage, therefore the sale could proceed quickly and more than likely meet stamp duty deadline. 

I got my mortgage in place with days and appointed a solicitor and a surveyor. I didn’t hear much from the sellers regarding their position so asked whether they were now ready to proceed. The reply came that they were ready, apart from “the court of protection issue”. This immediately rang alarms bells with me as it had never been mentioned before and anything to do with courts takes a long time (I used to be a solicitor so I know) .

I started asking for more information and was told an “application” had been made 12 months ago for the seller (the vendor to my seller in the upper chain) and then the court had asked for more information which had then somehow got mislaid and then only realised this was required when the daughter contacted the court. 

I have now been informed it will take 8-12 weeks for the court to look at the information that has been sent in (so I can kiss stamp duty discount goodbye)

I have now spoken to my seller and they still seem to have little information about what the application is for. They are just taking the vendors daughter’s word that “my solicitor says it will be sorted soon” but I’m not clear exactly what the application is for - probably deputyship I assume as I’ve been told it is a daughter trying to sell an elderly mothers house to pay for care costs. My seller says they don’t feel they can hassle them very often because the daughter has a lot to deal with managing her mother’s deteriorating health and situation etc. 

So now my dilemma is do I wait or start looking for other properties? It will take me 2-3 months just to find somewhere else snd restart the conveyancing process. So if the application is successful then it would make sense to wait. But what if it isn’t ? Or it takes even longer requesting further information, or the court rejects the application and they can’t sell? My concern is the housing market is going up all the time so if I wait 6 months and it then collapses I will then be buying at an even higher price.

what would you do? 

Jonathan 

AdrianC

If it really is a daughter trying to sell the mother's property, and there's no PoA so they need the CoP to get involved, then... continue looking. That's a VERY slow process at the best of times.

So much so that the quickest resolution will almost certainly be the mother kicking the bucket, changing the need for CoP into a need for probate.

https://www.clarionsolicitors.com/articles/court-of-protection-for-deputyship-application-delays-another-reason-in-favour-of-lasting-powers-of-attorney
"We are experiencing delays of over 7-8 months in Deputyship applications to the Court of Protection, compared to 7-8 weeks to register a Lasting Power of Attorney (“LPA”)."

Tiglet2

Agree with AdrianC above.  My aunt had to apply for Deputyship for an elderly relative who lacked capacity.  There was no Power of Attorney in place so the application for the Deputyship had to go via the Court of Protection.  It was a long and arduous process, taking nearly two years.  So much simpler if POAs had been set up when the relative had capacity.

AnotherJoe

Booge said:

So now my dilemma is do I wait or start looking for other properties? It will take me 2-3 months just to find somewhere else and restart the conveyancing process. So if the application is successful then it would make sense to wait. But what if it isn’t ? Or it takes even longer requesting further information, or the court rejects the application and they can’t sell? My concern is the housing market is going up all the time so if I wait 6 months and it then collapses I will then be buying at an even higher price.

what would you do?

Jonathan 

There's no harm at all in starting to look again in earnest.

You dont need to drop out of this one though wait you find soemwhere better. Maybe you'll get lucky and it will go through the courts fast, but most likely its many months away given all the backlogs there are so why wait (say) 6 months to find its nothing has happened.

So, restart your search right now.

K_S

@booge It looks like most of your costs for purchasing this property are already baked in. I don't see any need to pull out of the purchase but in your place I would consider actively viewing other properties as well.

Based on the limited information in your post, these kind of things can go on for a very long time with no clarity or over-optimistic timelines.

At the end of all this, if house prices have indeed risen further (or that impression conveyed in the media), the vendor could well decide to remarket anyway, leaving you in the lurch. Unfortunately, I've seen that happen far too often over the last year.

Booge

Ok thanks everyone. I’ve got more viewings booked in for this weekend. Hopefully I can find something else.