house buying problems - probate

chubbina

We had an offer accepted on a house in December and all seemed to be going well until our solicitors contacted us to say the executors did not have a grant of representation in place (as the owner had died) and there is nothing they can do until they receive this. We were initially told this normally takes 2 to 4 weeks to come through but considering our solicitors knew about this as long ago as 7th Jan I'm starting to get very nervous. Our buyer has been great but naturally wants to move asap now as we accepted his offer back in October!

I'm chasing our solicitors every week but keep getting the same response that they are doing all they can. The most annoying part about it is the fact that this grant should have been in place before they were allowed to out the house on the market. Is there anything more that can be done to speed this up? It's giving me sleepless nights.

subjecttocontract

Yes. I have dealt with probate for a family member and bought a property subject to probate.

For the family member I was able to complete all of the forms and visit the probate office personally to get the papers needed.....so it can be done VERY quickly if necessary.

For my purchase, I don't remember the delay taking any longer than a couple of weeks.

It really all hinges on the willingness of the people involved to actually get on with the job.

Why not threaten to pull out of the deal if probate has not been sorted within the next say, 2 weeks.

timtaylor

Probate advice regarding property

chubbina

I wish we had the option of pulling out. It took us ages to find this house and haven't seen anything anywhere near as suitable come on the market since.

We've also parted with over 1,000 so far for solicitors fees, the survey and mortgage arrangement fee. We can't afford to just throw away this sort of money.

To make matters worse I've just heard that the person who the house was left to has since died so it's now in the hands of the solicitors!

Can anyone help us out with this?