Dependency legislation advice
Discussion
Will try and keep this short and sweet. We made an offer on a house about 6 weeks ago. Offer accepted. We were told owner had died and his wife wanted to downsize....
6 weeks later things are progressing slowly. About 2 weeks ago I became suspicious about what was going on due to massive delays in the draft contracts from the vendors solicitors. After 2 weeks of pushing for answers I have just had and email saying the vendor needs a court agreement for dependency...
FFS.
Turns out the "wife" is the GF..
My solicitor is being very vague. Does anyone here know roughly how long this might take?
I fear we have been led up the garden path somewhat on this and I don't want them (vendors solicitor) to come back and say 2 - 3 week delay when in reality its 2-3 months - or worse.
6 weeks later things are progressing slowly. About 2 weeks ago I became suspicious about what was going on due to massive delays in the draft contracts from the vendors solicitors. After 2 weeks of pushing for answers I have just had and email saying the vendor needs a court agreement for dependency...
FFS.
Turns out the "wife" is the GF..
My solicitor is being very vague. Does anyone here know roughly how long this might take?
I fear we have been led up the garden path somewhat on this and I don't want them (vendors solicitor) to come back and say 2 - 3 week delay when in reality its 2-3 months - or worse.
Not really enough information to make any reliable guesses but my best guess would be based on the following hypothetical scenario:
1. Deceased was the sole owner of the property;
2. Deceased either had no Will or did not leave the house to the GF in the Will;
3. The GF is seeking an order under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 that she should receive financial provision from the Deceased's estate in the form of the house or the house's value.
Its impossible to say anything about whether the GF's hypothetical claim is likely to succeed without a lot more information.
I've never run an Inheritance Act claim myself but its unlikely to be quick. You would usually expect a reasonable period where the GF would negotiate with the estate before it got anywhere near court.
However, unless the beneficiary to the Deceased's estate (whether under a Will or intestacy rules) wants to keep the house to live in or whatever, then presumably the estate will also want to sell the house (at a fair value which presumably your offer was) and therefore realise the value in the house whilst they sort out the GF's claim.
In the circs you may be able to complete the purchase whilst the GFs hypothetical claim is sorted out. However to do so you need to track down who the deceased's executors are and who is acting for them. Your solicitors will also want to make sure you are purchasing the property free of any rights GF may have.
Hope this might be of some use. Ultimately you need to rely on the advice provided by your solicitor. If the firm you are using has a probate/contentious probate department you might want to ask your conveyancer to have a chat with them to see if they can get to the bottom of what's going on between them.
1. Deceased was the sole owner of the property;
2. Deceased either had no Will or did not leave the house to the GF in the Will;
3. The GF is seeking an order under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 that she should receive financial provision from the Deceased's estate in the form of the house or the house's value.
Its impossible to say anything about whether the GF's hypothetical claim is likely to succeed without a lot more information.
I've never run an Inheritance Act claim myself but its unlikely to be quick. You would usually expect a reasonable period where the GF would negotiate with the estate before it got anywhere near court.
However, unless the beneficiary to the Deceased's estate (whether under a Will or intestacy rules) wants to keep the house to live in or whatever, then presumably the estate will also want to sell the house (at a fair value which presumably your offer was) and therefore realise the value in the house whilst they sort out the GF's claim.
In the circs you may be able to complete the purchase whilst the GFs hypothetical claim is sorted out. However to do so you need to track down who the deceased's executors are and who is acting for them. Your solicitors will also want to make sure you are purchasing the property free of any rights GF may have.
Hope this might be of some use. Ultimately you need to rely on the advice provided by your solicitor. If the firm you are using has a probate/contentious probate department you might want to ask your conveyancer to have a chat with them to see if they can get to the bottom of what's going on between them.
- *Edited to add that the Vendor will be whoever is the registered owner. Presumably that will be the deceased and therefore the vendor will be his executors on behalf of the estate. The GF is not the vendor if she doesn't own the property and so there is probably little point dealing with them other than to get details of the person who actually owns the property.
Edited by JimiGT on Wednesday 26th August 13:32
Edited by JimiGT on Wednesday 26th August 13:34
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