Will estate agents do all the checks on seller before selling?

Flugelhorn

Choirgrl said:

dimbo61 said:

" Probate " 
Now there is a word that should come with a HUGE question mark hanging over it !
… 
The estate  agents will be under an obligation to sell at the highest price because that is what the administrators of the Will/Probate are required to do.
What does that mean ? well the estate agents will not take the property off the market in case someone comes in with a higher offer right up to completion 

In my experience (I used to work in a probate -adjacent job) that is not usual at all. Probate properties come off the market / are marked SSTC just like non-probate sales. 

exactly - have sold one under probate, for all the world it was like a normal sale - I e-mailed the EA a copy of the probate to show I had the right to sell  the property but they didn't ask for it.

LegallyLandlord

fitzykev said:

Will an estate agent do checks before selling a property on behalf of someone.  If a seller needs to produce a grant of Probate will the estate agent check they are actually entitled to sell the property before going on the market? 

Hi

Yes, estate agents do need to check identity under the Money Laundering Rules. Typically they will ask the representative/executor of the estate for a Grant of Probate, if a will was left, or a Letter of administration, if no will was left (intestate). They'll also need individual identity evidence.

Your seller's lawyer will do this too, and your solicitor will check it for you.

Hope that helps
Suzanne

JMA74

I know that 2 of the big corporates have systems that instantly check land reg when trying to publish to portals.  If it doesnt match it doesn't allow it to be uploaded and set live. The manual workaround for deceased cases involves getting death certificates and id for all executors and send it to a central team who can override the system.
There is no way to override this locally. 

This obviously doesn't apply to all firms.

It is entirely plausible for a property to go to market the same day as its visited as land reg checks take literal minutes 

Surrey_EA

JMA74 said:

Tiglet2 said:

JMA74 said:

Estate agents will usually have proof of identity that matches the owner showing on land registry.  If the ownership differs they should ascertain why. Might be that someone got married and they have a marriage certificate on file as well.

After some well publicised cases of fraud, estate agents generally do enough to make sure the person selling the house has the right to do so.

The solicitors will be more thorough obviously 

Although the EAs Code of Conduct states that they should obtain title documents from Land Registry, they rarely do.  So, they can't check the identity matches the owner on Land Registry.  They just assume that the people selling the property are the owners, because it will be the responsibility of the solicitor to do the due diligence.  Of course this isn't discovered until solicitors are instructed following an accepted offer.

Perhaps for a small independent but as someone who worked under the big corporates i can guarantee that they won't have a property for sale if they haven't checked they are allowed to sell it 

As a small independent I can guarantee I will not have a property for sale that I haven't checked the person who claims to be the owner is legally allowed to sell it.