Can I rent a house out before probate has been granted? 13 February at 10:52AM in Deaths, funerals & probate 5 replies 415 views

cmk1969

Some brief details - I am the executor to my aunt's estate. The house is in a Family Trust and I am one of the trustees of that.

The estate is well under the IHT threshold.

I have applied for probate but it has not yet been granted.

Is there anythng preventing me from getting tenants in the house before probate is granted?

I have no wish to sell the house. I aim to keep it after the will is settled and maintain it as a rental property.

Thanks in advance.

RAS

Did aunt own the house before her death or was it owned by the Family Trust and she occupied it?

What sort of trust?

Keep_pedalling

Are you making this decision alone or with the approval of the other trustees? Beware of the eye watering tax rates that may apply to rent coming into a trust.

doodling

Hi,

Who owns the house? It will be one of:
a) you as executor (are you sole executor?), in trust for the beneficiaries of your aunt's estate; or
b) you (jointly with the other trustees) as a trustee of the family trust.

Either way, you can do whatever is consistent with which of those ownerships are applicable. If the house is already owned by the trust then probate is irrelevant, if you own it as executor then you can still rent it out although you are open to the "are you really the executor?" question (if anyone asks it) which can only be answered by probate.

getmore4less

The powers of executors come from the will, that would be sufficient to answer are you the executor question with proof of ID  

doodling

Hi,

getmore4less said:

The powers of executors come from the will, that would be sufficient to answer are you the executor question with proof of ID  

But it won't be sufficient to answer a "is that really the last valid will?" question.  If someone is determined to argue with an executor then probate is really the only conclusive answer.

Fortunately that rarely happens but if I was a (malicious) tenant I might try it as a defence against eviction or as a reason to delay payment of rent until probate was achieved.