A common conversation in the sale and purchase of residential property is around a Grant of Probate.
When a person dies, a Grant of Probate is needed to evidence that the Executor or Executrix has the ability to sell the deceased person’s property.
A Grant of Probate is applied for by the Executor or Executrix if the deceased person had a Will. If no Will is located, the deceased is classed as Intestate and a Grant of Letters of Administration is required instead.
Sounds simple?
The mechanism is, but acquiring a Grant of Probate can be difficult if the Estate, the term used to group a deceased person’s assets, is complicated. Complications can be caused by a plethora of reasons but is usually due to a high number of assets and/or assets which aren’t easily administered.
The other difficulty is the time taken to obtain a Grant of Probate once the Grant is applied for at the Probate Registry.
In fairness, the Probate Registry had, up until recently, achieved an 8-week turnaround post covid and thanks to a new electronic system. However, as of January 2023, they announced the standard time period was increasing to 16 weeks.
In a nutshell?
Before a probate property is marketed for sale, ideally, the Grant needs to be obtained. Obviously, not all parties are that patient but I would be very wary of making an offer on a property where the Grant had not been obtained and at the very least, had been applied for at least 10 weeks in advance.
Just a reminder that you cannot exchange contracts without a Grant of Probate.
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