Pay IHT then apply for probate?

40somethingmum72

Hi, 

I've just offered on a house which I knew was going through probate, but had been told they were 4 months in. I recently waited 6 months for probate, so thought that would be fine. 
I've since been told the vendors have just been told how much IHT they need to pay. I'm now worried they've not actually applied for probate yet, and have spent the last 4 months identifying the estate to calculate the IHT. Does anyone know if the probate process starts once iHT is paid, or could it already be part way through? 

Thanks

GrumpyDil

They need to either pay or agree a payment plan for the IHT before probate is formally granted. 

That said IHT is the final stage in getting probate and they have presumably spent the time to date getting as much ready as possible so the probate will be the final element needed to actually sell the property? 

Rhubarbium

They need to pay IHT before probate is granted.

in terms of the process you fill in the forms for IHT and send those off to HMRC at this point you can pay IHT based on your own calculations or await HMRC calculations. Four weeks after submitting the IHT forms you can then apply for Probate which takes upto 16 weeks.

I’d ask some black and white questions about when they sent off the will and submitted the probate application to work out if they’ve started the 16 weeks and or not.

Grizebeck

So officially the probate application can't have started yet. Unfortunately your going to be in for a long wait