Can You Sell a House Before Probate? Selling a Probate House That Needs Work
This is a made-up example. The people, places and numbers are not real.
You can market and agree a sale before probate, but not exchange. A worked case: three executors, one abroad, a house no lender would touch.
- Category
- Circumstantial: death and probate
- Property
- Three bedroom 1930s semi-detached house
- Area
- Outer London
- Main problem
- Needed a new roof and rewiring, so no buyer could get a mortgage
- Time to complete
- 7 weeks from probate
- Value added
- About £47,000
01The Situation
Joan Pellow died in January, aged 91. She left her 1930s three bedroom semi in outer west London to her three children in equal shares, and named all three as executors. Ruth and Mark live a few miles away. Owen has lived in Perth, Western Australia, for twenty years.
Nothing in the house had been touched since the early 1980s. The roof still had its original tiles and felt, with slipped tiles and damp in two bedrooms. The wiring was old rubber-covered cable on a fuse box, with no earth on the lighting. The kitchen, the bathroom and the back boiler all needed replacing.
The family did not wait for probate to put the house up for sale. Probate is the court's document that confirms the executors can deal with the estate. They listed it at £520,000, the local agent's figure for a house "in good condition". Two buyers agreed prices close to that. Both dropped out when their lenders' valuers marked the house as unsuitable for a mortgage until the roof and wiring were done. Four months had gone, probate had still not come through, the house was empty and winter was coming.
02The Diagnosis
Yes, You Can Sell Before Probate, Up to a Point
Executors can put the house on the market, show buyers round, agree a price and have the contract drawn up while they wait. What they cannot do is exchange contracts or complete. The buyer's solicitor needs the probate document to show the executors can sell, and the Land Registry needs it to put the house in the buyer's name. So the rule is: market it early, but do not promise any exchange date until probate is in your hand.
How Long Probate Takes Now
Government figures for April to June 2026 put the average at about 5 weeks from sending the application to getting probate. Applications that are not stopped take about 2 weeks. Applications that are stopped, because a form is wrong, the will has a problem or the probate office needs more evidence, average about 14 weeks. Before you can apply you need the estate valued, and if inheritance tax forms go to HMRC, you must wait 20 working days after sending them before applying. The fee for an estate over £5,000 went up from £300 to £526 on 13 July 2026. The Pellows' application was stopped over a query on the will, which is why it took so long.
No Mortgage Buyers
Once a lender's valuer says a house is unsuitable for a mortgage, every buyer who needs one is gone. That left cash buyers and people using short-term bridging loans, a small share of the buyers at that price.
A Price Set for the Wrong Buyer
£520,000 was roughly what the house would be worth finished, less a little. A cash buyer works the other way: finished value, less the works, less tax and costs, less a margin for the risk. Every week at £520,000 was a week wasted.
Who Has to Sign
Every executor who took out probate must sign the contract and the transfer deed, or the court must order otherwise (section 2 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925). An executor who does not want to act can step back when the application goes in. That is called having power reserved, and then only the others sign. The Pellows had already applied in all three names, so Owen's signature was needed. Documents signed in Perth take a week or more to come back by courier, and the buyer's solicitor has to check the identity of every seller.
An Empty House Costs Money Every Month
Normal home insurance stops covering a house left empty for 30 to 60 days. The family needed an unoccupied property policy at about £95 a month, with conditions: water drained down, heating on frost setting, weekly visits written down. Council tax was nil while they waited for probate and for up to six months after it (the class F exemption), then about £190 a month. With power and heating it came to about £650 a month once the council tax started.
Tax Clocks Running
Any gain above the probate value is taxed on the estate at 24 per cent, and must be reported and paid within 60 days of completion. Selling below the probate value means a loss, not a bill, but it still needs reporting properly.
03The Value
The value starts with the finished house, not the agent's guess. Three renovated semis on the same road had sold in the last year for £555,000, £570,000 and £575,000. The £575,000 one had a loft room. Finished, without a loft, this house was worth about £565,000.
A building surveyor wrote a schedule of work for £850. Two builders priced the same schedule, so their numbers could be compared line by line. The lower quote was:
Roof
Strip and re-cover with new felt, battens and insulation, with scaffold, £17,500.
Wiring
Full rewire with a new consumer unit and certificate, £8,500.
Heating
New combination boiler and radiators, £7,000.
Kitchen and Bathroom
£15,000 and £7,500.
Everything Else
Plastering, damp repairs, doors, flooring and decorating, £12,000.
Contingency
£6,500 for what you find when you lift the floors.
That made £74,000 and about four months on site. Here is how a cash buyer who plans to keep the house and let it prices that:
- Finished value, £565,000
- less the works and contingency, £74,000
- less stamp duty at the higher rates for an extra home, about £30,800
- less legal fees, survey and six months of holding costs, about £5,200
- less the margin for the risk and the money tied up, about £47,000
That leaves about £408,000.
The family's first reaction was that someone would make £47,000 out of their mother's house. The buyer's answer was plain. Roofs on houses this age often hide rotten timbers, and a contingency of under 10 per cent does not cover that. Their £510,000 would be tied up for six months earning nothing, when a savings account would have paid about £11,000. And they were one of the few kinds of buyer who could buy the house at all.
So the family did the other sum: doing the work themselves. They would need £74,000 in cash between them, three people agreeing on a builder, and nine months. Finished value £565,000, less the works, less the agent's fee of 1.5 per cent plus VAT (about £10,200), less holding costs and fees of about £7,000, came to about £474,000 nine months later, if nothing overran. That was £66,000 more than selling now, but Owen could not put in his third, and Ruth and Mark did not want to run a building site. They chose the certain number.
04The Execution
While Waiting for Probate: Get Everything Ready
The executors used the wait to do everything a buyer would ask for. An energy performance certificate, which you need before you market a house. Office copies of the title from the Land Registry, about £7 each. A house clearance, about £1,800. The building survey and the two quotes went out to every buyer, so everyone priced the same work. Cost: £850 and two builders' visits.
Same Week: Sort Out the Signatures
Owen signed a power of attorney under section 25 of the Trustee Act 1925, letting Ruth sign for him as executor for twelve months. He signed it in front of a witness in Perth and told the other two executors in writing within seven days, as the Act requires. His identity was checked by video and certified copies of his passport. Cost: about £450 with courier.
Week 1: the Sale, Before Probate
The house went to cash buyers whose mandates covered probate and refurbishment within ten miles. Five buyers viewed on two days. Three offered: £385,000, £398,000 and £402,000. All three were asked for best and final offers by Friday at 5pm with proof of funds and a named solicitor. The best came in at £408,000, from a buyer with the money in a bank account. They were told plainly that exchange would follow probate, not a fixed date.
Week 1: a Ready Legal Pack
ID for all three executors, Owen's power of attorney, the will and the property forms were with the buyer's solicitor before probate arrived. Executors can answer "not known" to many questions, so the survey filled the gaps.
Week 2: Probate Came Through
The probate copy went to the buyer's solicitor the same day. The executors' solicitor placed notices for unknown creditors in The Gazette and a local paper (section 27 of the Trustee Act 1925), about £250. After two months, the executors are protected if an unknown creditor turns up later.
Week 5: Exchange
Three weeks after probate, with a 10 per cent deposit and completion four weeks later.
Week 9: Completion
The money went to the estate account. After the estate's costs, each sibling received about £131,000. Joan's estate was under her inheritance tax threshold once her late husband's unused allowances were added, so there was no tax to pay. Had there been, selling below the probate value within four years would have let them claim some of it back (loss on sale of land relief, form IHT38).
After Completion: the Buyer's Six Months
The roof went first, before winter. Re-covering more than a quarter of a roof needs building regulations approval, so the quote included insulation to current standards. The rewire came with a certificate from a registered electrician. The house was then let at £2,600 a month and refinanced on its new value.
05The Outcome
Bought for
£408,000
Spent
£110,000 on works, stamp duty, fees and holding costs
Worth After
About £565,000
Value Added
About £47,000
The family agreed the sale before probate arrived and completed seven weeks after it did. They stopped paying for an empty house and never had to manage a builder from three addresses on two continents. Owen did not need to fly back once.
The Lessons
- You can market a probate house and agree a sale before probate comes through. You cannot exchange or complete until it does.
- Probate takes about 5 weeks on average in 2026, but a stopped application takes about 14. Get the forms and the will right first time.
- Every executor who took out probate must sign. An executor abroad can step back with power reserved, or sign a power of attorney so another executor signs for them. Decide before you apply.
- When a lender's valuer will not lend, every buyer at your asking price has gone. Price for cash buyers from the start.
- Pay for a building survey and get two quotes from the same schedule before you sell. It ends arguments about what the work costs.
- Read the conditions on your empty house insurance in the first week. Break them and a claim may not be paid.
- Every estate is different, so check your own position with a solicitor.
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