Selling A House in Probate
in Birmingham

No, you can maintain ownership of the house after inheriting it. Many people choose to either live in an inherited property or rent it out.

You should wait until probate is granted before clearing out a house. Otherwise, you might throw away something that belongs to someone else.

When an executor refuses to follow the terms of a Will, you should aim to obtain a court order. This order can involve replacing the executor with someone else. It is recommended that you get legal support with this, since it is an important and often complicated procedure.

Yes. However, it is better to make a claim sooner rather than later, as the longer you leave it, the more challenging and costly it may become.

The UK government has an online ‘Inheritance Tax checker’ which offers a rough valuation of your estate. Alternatively, you can estimate this yourself, or bring in a valuer to do it for you.

Probate tends to be required once the value of an estate goes above £5,000. If a property is included in the estate, probate is almost always necessary.

If your property is owned solely by you, with no one else on the mortgage, then probate will be required when you pass away. It will also be needed if the house is owned as a ‘tenancy in common’.

The UK government keeps probate records which you can search, to find out if probate has been issued, when, and for whom.

When you are dealing with an estate which includes more than just savings (for example, a property which was solely owned by the deceased), probate is necessary.

Probate properties can often sell for cheaper if they need significant updates. For example, decluttering a house, fixing broken doors/windows, or making changes to improve the EPC can be costly, and this decreases the value of the house.

The most common reason that a property doesn’t have to go through probate is because it is jointly owned with someone else, who is still alive. You should speak to a legal expert for guidance on this if you are unsure.

An inherited house will usually go to probate because it is solely owned by the person that passed away. In this case, even if a Will exists, probate will be needed to sell the property or transfer it into a new name.

Probate can take a long time because there is lots of tax, administrative and legal steps which you need to follow. If you have not completed this process before, then it is easy to make mistakes, which can delay the process even further.

If you hire a solicitor to take over the probate process for you, then you are reliant on them being efficient and responsive. In this situation, it is highly recommended that you keep touching base and communicating with them, so you don’t fall down their priority list, and all tasks are completed quickly.

In most cases, you are not required to pay stamp duty on a house that you inherit. You can sell the property to a cash house buyer like Sold.co.uk without incurring any additional stamp duty tax. This means that it often makes ‘financial sense’ to sell your probate property to a cash house buyer after inheriting it.

You can sell a property immediately after a Grant of Probate comes through. It is entirely up to you who the house is sold to, or even if you decide to sell it at all.

Often, in the middle of the grieving process, spending several months selling on the open market is in no one’s best interests. That’s why using a cash house buyer like Sold.co.uk could give you the ‘clean break’ you deserve.

Selling a property you’ve inherited through probate is simple with Sold, we can break it down into 3 easy steps:

1. Get a valuation completed
2. Agree terms
3. Complete the sale in a timeframe of your choice

The Will of the deceased person will determine who owns the property once probate has been granted. Usually, the executor will assign it to whomever the previous owner requested it be given to.

Alternatively, if there is not a Will, then the rules of intestacy will determine who inherits it. This is usually the closest living relative of the person that passed away.

Alternatively, if the house was owned by in a joint mortgage with someone else, then the property’s ownership will automatically transfer to them once the co-owner passes away.

The probate process itself takes between six to twelve months and may take longer the more complicated it is. This is the length of time that probate tends to take in every part of the UK, and Birmingham is no different in that regard.

Certain aspects can speed up the process, such as the length of time it takes the tax authority to process inheritance tax and capital gains tax. Remember that while there is a time limit for inheritance tax to be paid on a property, there is not a time limit for probate to be completed. You can therefore wait a while after your loved one passes away to get all your ‘ducks in a row’, if that is convenient, before then selling the house.

To avoid the lengthy wait involved with probate, lots of homeowners sell immediately to a cash house buyer, instead. This option will get your probate property sold within 7 days.