Probate house

Booge

Hi

looking forward advice on what to do. I’ve been looking for a house to buy in outer north west London for most of this year. 

In April I had an offer accepted on a nice semi in Ruislip area, allegedly with no chain. I then found out later after starting the legal work and getting a survey that there was very much a chain, and that the sale could not proceed as the upper chain (the seller to my sellers) did not have the authority to sell their house and needed to go through the court of protection as they were a daughter trying to sell her mothers house as she went into care. 

So I waited. Then last month in June I was told the mother had died. So now they are going through probate. 

Meanwhile I had started looking at another house in Uxbridge for same price and they are keen to rapidly sell this property. 

I now need to make a decision on whether to wait for the one in Ruislip or go for the one in Uxbridge. 

In terms of the properties the Uxbridge one is detached and a better house in its own right but it’s the best house in a somewhat tatty road near the town centre. It’s convenient and near to the tube, but it looks like a spare bit of land that maybe the builder built himself a house at the end. So it’s the nicest house on a not very nice road. Uxbridge town centre I’m not keen on and is very “chavvy”. The house itself is fully renovated and very nice. 

The Ruislip house is also fully renovated but it’s a semi. Near to Ruislip Manor tube. The area I like much more than Uxbridge and the rest of the street is better. There are bigger houses than the one I’m buying. 

If I had certainty that it would go through I’d go for the Ruislip house, no question. 

However I don’t really get the level of detail I would like out of my sellers or the estate agent when I ask about where they are in the process. So when I’m asking things like “have they submitted form IHT 400 to HMRC yet” they don’t know and just say the solicitor is dealing with it. I’ve done inheritance tax and probate myself when a relative died so I know exactly what’s involved. It doesn’t fill me with confidence that they really have a “grip” on what’s happening. 

I’m told the estate is “simple” and that it shouldn’t take that long, but I can see this may well stretch on to near Christmas to get the grant of representation. 

To add to this you have rising house prices ( though it’s difficult to tell what’s happening after the stamp duty holiday has come to and end) and really terrible stock availability in this part of the world. So if the Ruislip house falls through it could take a long time to find anything else that is suitable. 

When I look at what’s on offer in this part of the country, most of it is horrible. So you’ve got houses that are staying on the market for 6 months plus that nobody wants, because they are in an advanced state of disrepair, or they are next to a tube line or they are on some horrendously busy road etc. Then on the odd occasion when anything half decent comes up 50 people try to put offers in. So what I’m saying is it’s really not easy to find anything of the same quality that I’ve already found. 

What would you do? Hang on for the Ruislip house with an unknowable timescale? Or go with the less than ideal location in Uxbridge which will go through straight away? 

I don’t have anything to sell by the way, I am just renting and can leave with a months notice. 

Many thanks

Booge. 

Daze400

We are going through the same thing at the moment, found something we like and half way through the same thing happened, we are also unsure what to do. Can I ask what you decided, did you hang on for the one you like with the uncertainty or go for Uxbridge? 

firebubble

Have you got anything which means you HAVE to be in your new place by a particular time? If not, and you can wait, I would put an offer in on the Ruislip house, restating that you're happy to wait until they are ready as long as they take it off the market. Even without probate, it will always take a couple of months to buy a house. The heirs will be pushing it through as fast as they can - the expectation of a chunky sum of money tends to focus people's minds.

I'd forget Uxbridge, because from your assessment of the area, you don't like it. No point ever buying a house in an area you don't like. It doesn't matter if it's a palace, if you're scathing enough to label it 'chavvy', it's not the area for you. Given that, I wouldn't bother looking for other properties in that area.

Get the offer accepted on Ruislip, and then keep looking. Maybe you'll find something better, maybe you won't. Even if you pull out, because it's a probate property, it's the end of the chain so it won't affect anyone else, and because it's probate, it will only go as fast as it will go, ie if you drop out because they weren't ready and you found something better, the next person who offers will be that much closer to the sale actually happening, so the sellers haven't lost out.

In your circumstances, you're in the perfect position to buy a probate property.

Waunakee

firebubble said:

Have you got anything which means you HAVE to be in your new place by a particular time? If not, and you can wait, I would put an offer in on the Ruislip house, restating that you're happy to wait until they are ready as long as they take it off the market. Even without probate, it will always take a couple of months to buy a house. The heirs will be pushing it through as fast as they can - the expectation of a chunky sum of money tends to focus people's minds.

I'd forget Uxbridge, because from your assessment of the area, you don't like it. No point ever buying a house in an area you don't like. It doesn't matter if it's a palace, if you're scathing enough to label it 'chavvy', it's not the area for you. Given that, I wouldn't bother looking for other properties in that area.

Get the offer accepted on Ruislip, and then keep looking. Maybe you'll find something better, maybe you won't. Even if you pull out, because it's a probate property, it's the end of the chain so it won't affect anyone else, and because it's probate, it will only go as fast as it will go, ie if you drop out because they weren't ready and you found something better, the next person who offers will be that much closer to the sale actually happening, so the sellers haven't lost out.

In your circumstances, you're in the perfect position to buy a probate property.

 Have you actually read the OPs post correctly?

 Offer accepted in April on Ruislip house and legal work in progress.

 As I understand it it is not this house that is subject to probate but a property further up the chain.

 

firebubble

Waunakee said:

 Have you actually read the OPs post correctly?

Clearly not! 

I don't think it changes my suggestion though - wherever the probate house is in the chain, that will be the transaction which dictates the speed of the chain. The OP can be flexible in waiting, but given that the rest of the chain may not be so flexible, the chain may collapse anyway. On that basis, keep progressing the transaction, but keep looking.