Legal question - house sale and severe ill-health

[Ozzie Osmond]

I know that when you sell a house binding contracts are signed at "exchange" and then a few weeks later official transfer documents are signed at "completion" when the money is paid and keys handed over.

Question: What happens if you die between exchange and completion?

• Does the contract fall away because it's impossible to complete?
• Does the contract remain in place and eventually get completed by the executors?
• Would the executors have to wait for a grant of Probate before completing the sale?
• What if there's a long delay before Probate is granted so completion is delayed? Is the seller's estate liable for any costs/expenses which the buyer suffers due to breach of contract?

Any guidance from the PH community will be much appreciated?

[Ozzie Osmond]

Errrm, is there a legal section? Wasn't sure where to begin. Thanks for your input though.

[Ozzie Osmond]

Thanks for the input guys. The position seems to be this,

• Seller and seller's estate are bound by the signed and exchanged contract so there is an obligation to complete in 28 days.
• At the supposed completion date there's no-one who CAN complete so it can't happen. It will be some months before a grant of Probate is given to the executors.
• Once the executors have a grant of Probate they can go ahead and complete, if the buyer is still around.

So in other words, it's all pretty chaotic with various options available as to what to do. See below,

"The practical problem may be that the buyers have contracted to sell their own property and they can be compelled to complete the sale by their buyers even though they are unable to complete their purchase due to the death of the seller. So a practical step which may be taken is for the executors to allow the buyers to move into occupation of the property while waiting for probate.

"The buyer may not be prepared to wait. He is entitled to terminate the contract, which he can do after service of a notice. The notice is to make "time of the essence" of the contract. The normal arrangement is that although a completion date is written in the contract, time is not of the essence of it. This means that the contract cannot be terminated just because the seller (or the buyer for that matter) fails to complete on the day. The aggrieved party has to serve notice making time of the essence. The contract normally states that that time will become of the essence at the end of a two-week period, or less if stipulated in the contract. At the end of that period, the aggrieved party can terminate the contract. If the buyer serves the notice, then the deposit must be returned to him."

[Ozzie Osmond]

Apparently not. The estate remains bound by the contract as an obligation of the deceased. Just like the gas bill etc.

[Ozzie Osmond]

What you suggest implies that it is impossible for an "estate" to own property at all after death - in other words that death frustrates the whole concept of ownership. That doesn't sound right to me. Contracts will surely survive death (like the gas bill) unless frustrated by impossibility of performance -for instance it would be no good Michael Jackson's executor turning up on stage to do the concerts!