House in probate

Liz65

Hi, just wondering if anyone can advise me.

My husband and I are in the process of buying a house and have just found out that it is in probate.

When we viewed the house and put in an offer that was accepted this was never mentioned.

I feel very annoyed as we would never have put an offer in if we would have known as we wanted a quick straightforward move.
I was only told yesterday by the lady dealing with the purchase for us and she had only just found out as well.

When I called the manager of this well known estate agents he said he can only apologise and that the weekend staff were told to inform clients that it was in probate, the thing is that later I remembered we were shown the house by a senior sales assistant that. I had been talking to for months, it seems unprofessional not to have mention such a big thing!  

I was told to wait a view weeks to see what will happens which I feel reluctant to do as I feel I have been misled by this estate agent.  

I was getting a bit suspicious last week as the vendor had not returned any documents to solicitors so haven’t had search or anything carried out yet, I now feel they are holding it all up because they are waiting for probate to come through.

Can I do anything about being misled?

Also can we look around for other houses in the meantime? 

Many thanks in advance

Choirgrl

Do you know when the grant of probate was applied for? The time from application to grant is unpredictable, and seems to be taking longer than usual at the moment, but knowing when the application was made will give you some sense of if there is any chance of it coming through soon, or if you’re likely to have to wait eg at lest six weeks.

Can you view other houses? Absolutely!

As for being misled by the EA, you can at least formally complain in writing.

Flugelhorn

agree it depends on whether probate has actually is applied for or is about to be granted - I applied for probate a few years back and it took less than 4 weeks though clearly can take a lot longer. 

Did you check about the chain when you viewed ? what did they say? that might have given a clue about the fact that they owner had died

canaldumidi

There are 2 timescales:

1) from date of death to application for Probate. This is totally unpredictable and depends on the size and complexity of the estate, whether IHT is due and been calculated and paid to HMRC (and HMRC have agreed the amount) etc etc

2) from application to grant of probate. Used to be around 4 weeks but threads here suggest... double that?

So you needto establish if 1) above has been completed and the application has been submitted to the Probate Office (2) above, and if so, when

Can I do anything about being misled?

Also can we look around for other houses in the meantime?

I guess you could complain tothe relevant ombusdman the EA is signed up to. They might get a slap on the wrist....

Yes - good idea. Start looking around and let the EA know you are doing so.

My next door neighbour died June last year. Probate was granted in April this year.

donutandbeer

Liz65 said:

Can I do anything about being misled?

Anything you can do (ie complaint) will not result in a quicker purchase of this property, so most people don’t bother doing it, especially when you are still in the early stage (no searches or surveys done) so you have not wasted any money yet.

Personally I will not put in any complain for the EA until I complete on my purchase, whether it be this one or not. If this one falls out and you start viewing again, you might still end up viewing a place that’s listed by this EA, and I would not want to burn my bridge with them (for now). There’s so little on the market right now I would think it would be quite difficult to completely avoid a specific EA. Just gotta have to give them benefits of the doubt for your own peace of mind, but be mindful next time to ask specifically about vendor’s position.

Choirgrl

canaldumidi said:

There are 2 timescales:

1) from date of death to application for Probate. This is totally unpredictable and depends on the size and complexity of the estate, whether IHT is due and been calculated and paid to HMRC (and HMRC have agreed the amount) etc etc

2) from application to grant of probate. Used to be around 4 weeks but threads here suggest... double that?

So you needto establish if 1) above has been completed and the application has been submitted to the Probate Office (2) above, and if so, when

Can I do anything about being misled?

Also can we look around for other houses in the meantime?

I guess you could complain tothe relevant ombusdman the EA is signed up to. They might get a slap on the wrist....

Yes - good idea. Start looking around and let the EA know you are doing so.

My next door neighbour died June last year. Probate was granted in April this year.

If they haven’t even applied for Probate yet then, if I wanted a quick, straightforward move, I’d withdraw my offer. (And shame on any EA that would list in those circumstances, quite frankly.) The timescale given by the Probate Office is 8 weeks once all documents received. The Probate discussion board on here suggests lots of people are waiting longer.

Zerforax

Don't spend any money on the process (solicitors fees, mortgage fees etc) to the extent possible.

In the meantime keep looking for any other houses which suit you. If nothing comes up (the market is tough) then you have this house to fall back on. If something comes up, tell them the timeline didn't work for you so pulling out.

Normally I wouldn't mess other people around but since they did it to you.. you may as well have another option/backup.

Liz65

Thank you for replies, i think we may look for other houses until we find out what is going on and if one comes up and would be quick we could go for it and pull out.

Did you check about the chain when you viewed ? what did they say? that might have given a clue about the fact that they owner had died.

With regard to the above question from flugelhorn, we were told it was chain free.  The house was being rented out to 3 young men who have since left. There was no mention of the owner having died, we thought that he was simply renting it out.  This is why I am so angry!

donutandbeer

Liz65 said:

With regard to the above question from flugelhorn, we were told it was chain free.  The house was being rented out to 3 young men who have since left. There was no mention of the owner having died, we thought that he was simply renting it out.  This is why I am so angry!

It does sound crazy unless the owner literally passed away between your viewing and now…

FreeBear

donutandbeer said:

Liz65 said:

With regard to the above question from flugelhorn, we were told it was chain free.  The house was being rented out to 3 young men who have since left. There was no mention of the owner having died, we thought that he was simply renting it out.  This is why I am so angry!

It does sound crazy unless the owner literally passed away between your viewing and now…

Not unheard of. I recall a thread here where the vendor passed away during the sale process. Took best part of a year to complete if my memory serves correctly.

user1977

FreeBear said:

donutandbeer said:

Liz65 said:

With regard to the above question from flugelhorn, we were told it was chain free.  The house was being rented out to 3 young men who have since left. There was no mention of the owner having died, we thought that he was simply renting it out.  This is why I am so angry!

It does sound crazy unless the owner literally passed away between your viewing and now…

Not unheard of. I recall a thread here where the vendor passed away during the sale process. Took best part of a year to complete if my memory serves correctly.

Think we've had more than one example of that - many sales are because the owner is too infirm to carry on living in the house, and they won't necessarily have the courtesy to carry on living until the conveyancing is complete.