Emergency Probate criteria?

[MrChips]

Evening all,

Following on from a previous thread about a difficult house purchase that i'm going though... Click Here for the Thread

Does anyone have any experience in getting emergency probate? My understanding at the moment is that it's only generally available if the deceased had already exchanged contracts, but not completed, hence their estate was liable for breach of contract issues if they don't finish the sale.

Is there ever a circumstance where the executor can apply for emergency probate even if the deceased hadn't exchange contracts? I've googled it to death and found almost no info, and my own solicitor says he's looking into it, and couldn't get through to the registry office.

If an official emergency probate isn't possible, then is there anything that can be done to speed up the application once it's been posted?

Cheers in advance
MrChips

[MrChips]

Anyone?

[TooMany2cvs]

Just looking at that other thread, the thing that leaps out is that you placed the offer on the house KNOWING that the previous owner was deceased, so it was a probate sale.

Sure, it's turning into a saga and a half, but that was a risk you would have been aware of at the time of placing the offer.

[MrChips]

We knew it was a probate sale, but at the viewing we were told that the application for the grant had already been made. We we then told 2months later, that it was a misunderstanding, but that the grant was "imminent".... Repeat this process 4 times and were are now at the present.
I can't see why their solicitor has lied but we didn't make the offer knowing of any significant risk.

[TooMany2cvs]

MrChips said:

but we didn't make the offer knowing of any significant risk.

Probate always carries a risk of delay.

It's just unfortunate that it might take you to the SDLT changes. You can, of course, ask the vendor for that to be covered. They can, of course, say no. Either side can walk away at any point until exchange and, if the value of the property's risen since the offer was accepted, you've got a much greater incentive not to walk away than they have.

[blueg33]

If the estate is simple and you have a will and a death certificate probate can be quick. My FiL died in November just before exchange was due on his flat. The death cert took an age as it needed a full coroners report.

I downloaded all the probate forms and filled them in ready to go. As soon as we had the death certificate we sorted the Oath and got the probate forms off the same day. Grant of probate too about 2 weeks (in the run up to Christmas).

Annoyingly the buyer's buyer has spend the last 6 weeks dicking about, so we needn't have had the stress of rushing about at a time when Mrs B was grieving.

[MrChips]

The guy passed away in November 2014.

I think the question now is simply whether the emergency probate process is available in this type of situation.