Grant of Probate => Deceased Estate (Lon. Gazette) => putting property on market

JonMitchell

Hi 
With sadness, my mom passed away 3 days back.
She left a Will that I will be her executor, of which I would need to look into the aspect of executor soon. She has two properties under her sole name. I do know about the IHT topic so have that covered. 
Can I find out if the following can be done in parallel or tandem when trying to sell off her properties in due course:
Route 1 - activities carried out in parallel
Apply for Grant of Probate AND publish Deceased Estate on London Gazette AND getting estate agent to value/market the property AT THE SAME TIME, ie in parallel. Knowing that completion cannot go ahead until probate is granted. 
or
Apply for Grant of Probate AND publish Deceased Estate on London Gazette THEN market the properties later.

Route 2 - activities carried out in tandem
Apply for Grant of Probate
Only when granted, publish Deceased Estate on London Gazette
After 2months 1 day, then get the properties onto market

Ultimately I will have to pay the IHT etc but at the same time do not wish to waste time for potential buyers. I know my mom has no creditors, 100% sure, but publishing Deceased Estate just to ensure all is covered.
Anyone with past experience of probate and selling estates, do kindly let me know your past experience and time scales of achieving your probate and sale. Which will be greatly appreciated!
Thanks all and stay safe.

SevenOfNine

Firstly, my condolences.
First part of Route 1. Three times so far, early 2016, again early 2018 & again Nov of last year. Though none required the London Gazette advert as very close family members & we were 100% certain no debts & no unknown beneficiaries. If there was a possiblity of that I'd have placed the advert at the same time as moving forward with probate & up for sale "subject to probate", all together.

Buyers were made very aware that probate grant can be "how long is a piece of string", timeline isn't really predictable. This last one was less than 2 weeks & my copies had arrived through the post. The other ones were more like a few months.

Give some thought to the council class F exemption on council tax so you can aim to have sold before that ends & you have to start paying.

Keep_pedalling

Are you the only residuary beneficiary? If so I would not bother with the gazette. It protects the executor if a dept crawls out of the woodwork after distribution, but it does not protect the main beneficiaries.

JonMitchell

Thanks SevenOfNine, greatly appreciate the sharing of your experiences.

JonMitchell

Keep_pedalling said:

Are you the only residuary beneficiary? If so I would not bother with the gazette. It protects the executor if a dept crawls out of the woodwork after distribution, but it does not protect the main beneficiaries.

Am the only beneficiary.

JonMitchell

SevenOfNine said:

Firstly, my condolences.
First part of Route 1. Three times so far, early 2016, again early 2018 & again Nov of last year. Though none required the London Gazette advert as very close family members & we were 100% certain no debts & no unknown beneficiaries. If there was a possiblity of that I'd have placed the advert at the same time as moving forward with probate & up for sale "subject to probate", all together.

Buyers were made very aware that probate grant can be "how long is a piece of string", timeline isn't really predictable. This last one was less than 2 weeks & my copies had arrived through the post. The other ones were more like a few months.

Give some thought to the council class F exemption on council tax so you can aim to have sold before that ends & you have to start paying.

I was reading the guides on London Gazette and had thought if I followed the guides, it would have possibly taken extra months to get each "task" completed. Will see how best to do all 3 of Route 1 in parallel. Will also look at council tax exemption too.
The only issue is for potential buyers, usually their mortgage offer would be for 6 months max. If an offer is accepted and they know it is on probate, would it be wise to ask them to delay their mortgage application until Probate is granted or at least Deceased Estate had past? I am thinking of the worst case scenario situation.

p00hsticks

with route 1, you'll need to get a valuation of the property prior to applying for probate, either from several estate agents or paying for a professional RICS valuation.

getmore4less

Executor powers come from the will.

All the preparations for marketing can happen.
The timing to go live  is up to you.
Some delay application for the grant to optimise the 6month CT exemption if the property remains empty and not ready to market.

Timing to get grants has been variable.
You can even exchange contracts before grant just not complete.

JonMitchell

getmore4less said:

Executor powers come from the will.

All the preparations for marketing can happen.
The timing to go live  is up to you.
Some delay application for the grant to optimise the 6month CT exemption if the property remains empty and not ready to market.

Timing to get grants has been variable.
You can even exchange contracts before grant just not complete.

I might be jumping gun ahead, but can contracts be exchanged before probate is granted? Presume solicitors, especially buyers' solicitor, would probably discourage this approach?  

getmore4less

JonMitchell said:

getmore4less said:

Executor powers come from the will.

All the preparations for marketing can happen.
The timing to go live  is up to you.
Some delay application for the grant to optimise the 6month CT exemption if the property remains empty and not ready to market.

Timing to get grants has been variable.
You can even exchange contracts before grant just not complete.

I might be jumping gun ahead, but can contracts be exchanged before probate is granted? Presume solicitors, especially buyers' solicitor, would probably discourage this approach?  

Rare there is the need, often not worth the hassle to put in the extra terms to cover both sides in case something goes wrong best to just let the time line run 

Can be done, anyone can create a contract to sell anything even things they don't own yet. 

Builder do it all the time they contract to sell you something they have not even built yet in some cases never get built.

Probate properties fall under the same umbrella as separation divorce when it comes to motivations to sell
often more people involved and for probate there is often not the incentive of having a sale/purchase motivating progress

A key element of the time line is being seen as a motivated seller, this is a lot easier if a sole beneficiary as squabbling beneficiaries can disrupt sales.

On the housing board you get various issues that cause unnecessary delays probate applications left too late, property in a time warp and nothing done to get ready to complete weeks after agreeing a sale, beneficiary changes their mind and decides to keep or buyout the others.....

Very early days and a lot more to be thinking about for now

p00hsticks

JonMitchell said:

getmore4less said:

Executor powers come from the will.

All the preparations for marketing can happen.
The timing to go live  is up to you.
Some delay application for the grant to optimise the 6month CT exemption if the property remains empty and not ready to market.

Timing to get grants has been variable.
You can even exchange contracts before grant just not complete.

I might be jumping gun ahead, but can contracts be exchanged before probate is granted? Presume solicitors, especially buyers' solicitor, would probably discourage this approach?  

My understanding is that contracts can't actually be exchanged until the executor has probate, as until they do they do not have the legal authority to sell the property.

However they can put the house on the market, engage a conveyanver and sign the contracts in anticipation of probate being obtained.