Probate property purchase / rent option

LCC9TP

Looking for some advice here please - we are currently in the process of viewing and potentially making an offer on a property going through probate. According to the estate agent probate was applied for in June 2021 so they expect to receive it "any day now" - aka "how long is a piece of string". That said - it does seem to have been ongoing a long time, but obviously no guarantee of timing. 

Due to circumstances, we have already sold our property and are about to exchange contracts with an agreed completion date in May. We recognise the risk but we don't want to lose our buyer, and have already lost one property we were purchasing (as well as the various survey and solicitor fees), hence how we find ourselves in this situation. 

The lower chain will not delay completion any longer - therefore we are considering asking if the sellers of the probate property would be willing to rent it to us short term, if it happens that we are all not in a position to complete on the purchase by May due to probate not being granted. Recognise the risks of this as well, but for various reasons we don't really want to rent elsewhere and move twice, put all our stuff in storage etc. I was wondering if suggesting a "peppercorn" rent would alleviate some of the issues, and whether a lease could be structured in such a way as to minimise obligations on the landlord (as far as is legally possible), and then terminate immediately upon completion of the sale. The property is currently vacant and has been for c.9 months - therefore in one way it is in everyone's interest to get it occupied again before it starts falling into disrepair. The family live some distance away and are not able to regularly attend to maintain it. 

Also to note this is all quite hypothetical and of course would consult our solicitor on the legalities, but from what I've read it's risky and not necessarily advisable to do this, but it is not illegal?! 

Any constructive advice would be much appreciated on this, TIA. 

Marcon

LCC9TP said:

Looking for some advice here please - we are currently in the process of viewing and potentially making an offer on a property going through probate. According to the estate agent probate was applied for in June 2021 so they expect to receive it "any day now" - aka "how long is a piece of string". That said - it does seem to have been ongoing a long time, but obviously no guarantee of timing. 

Due to circumstances, we have already sold our property and are about to exchange contracts with an agreed completion date in May. We recognise the risk but we don't want to lose our buyer, and have already lost one property we were purchasing (as well as the various survey and solicitor fees), hence how we find ourselves in this situation. 

The lower chain will not delay completion any longer - therefore we are considering asking if the sellers of the probate property would be willing to rent it to us short term, if it happens that we are all not in a position to complete on the purchase by May due to probate not being granted. Recognise the risks of this as well, but for various reasons we don't really want to rent elsewhere and move twice, put all our stuff in storage etc. I was wondering if suggesting a "peppercorn" rent would alleviate some of the issues, and whether a lease could be structured in such a way as to minimise obligations on the landlord (as far as is legally possible), and then terminate immediately upon completion of the sale. The property is currently vacant and has been for c.9 months - therefore in one way it is in everyone's interest to get it occupied again before it starts falling into disrepair. The family live some distance away and are not able to regularly attend to maintain it. 

Also to note this is all quite hypothetical and of course would consult our solicitor on the legalities, but from what I've read it's risky and not necessarily advisable to do this, but it is not illegal?! 

Any constructive advice would be much appreciated on this, TIA. 

It's certainly not illegal, but as you've recognised, it is quite definitely one for your solicitor to sort out with the benefit of very clear instructions from you. Executors frequently have no choice but to rent out properties (either because probate is taking ages, or because the property simply doesn't sell) and there is no issue in doing so, provided there is no detriment to the value of the estate they are administering.

NeverTooLate

We were in a similar position a couple of years ago and the executor of the estate (after consultation with their solicitor) agreed for us to rent the probate property prior to purchase. As I recall it was just a standard short let tenancy agreement.

In the end the probate came through very quickly and we were able to wrap up selling & buying on the same day without needing to rent.

doodling

Hi,

Renting the property is not a problem for you as a tenant.  The risk is all with the executors who need to make sure that their new residential lettings business is properly set up, all the necessary paperwork is done and that they can evict you if you decide not to buy the house.

Whether it can work will depend entirely on the extent to which the executors trust you and the legal advice they receive.

You don't need to worry about termination, once you own the place it is legally meaningless for you to be your own landlord and the tenancy terminates at that point.  Obviously you would need to agree with the executor what happens to your rental deposit -probably best to agree that it becomes part of the house purchase deposit when you exchange contracts, your solicitor will need to be aware of that.

Marcon

doodling said:

Hi,

Renting the property is not a problem for you as a tenant.  The risk is all with the executors who need to make sure that their new residential lettings business is properly set up, all the necessary paperwork is done and that they can evict you if you decide not to buy the house.

No need for them to set up a residential lettings business.

doodling

Hi,

Renting a house to a tenant for them to live in is by definition a residential letting business (unless there will be no rent - that wasn't mentioned in the original post?).

Whether the executor chooses to treat it as if they are running a business is a different question but that is what they are doing.

Try suggesting you are an "accidental landlord" on the House Buying, Renting and Selling forum and see how far you get without someone correcting you...

RoseBerni

Probate office wont generally tell you how long 
but i did my dads  in Oct a and it took7 weeks