Selling a house you never planned to own.
We buy inherited property as it stands: contents included, no clearing, no repairs, no viewings, and we work around the probate timetable rather than against it.
Inheriting a house is rarely the windfall people imagine.
More often it arrives in the middle of grief, alongside a set of responsibilities nobody prepared you for, and frequently several hundred miles from where you live.
The house is empty. The insurance company wants to know that someone is checking on it. The council tax exemption runs out. There are forty years of belongings inside that need sorting, and every item is a decision you do not feel ready to make. Meanwhile your brother thinks you should hold out for more and your sister wants it dealt with by Christmas.
We cannot help with most of that. What we can do is remove the property itself from the list: quickly, at a price we will explain in full, and without asking you to empty a single cupboard first.
Can I sell before probate is granted?
You can agree a sale and get the legal work moving. You cannot complete until the Grant of Probate, or Letters of Administration if there was no will, has been issued.
In practice this works very much in your favour. Most sellers wait for the grant before they even instruct an agent, then start a four-to-six-month marketing process from a standing start. That is the better part of a year with an empty house on your hands.
The alternative is to agree terms with us now. Your solicitor prepares the contract, carries out the searches and gets everything to the point of readiness while the Probate Registry works through its queue. When the grant lands on the mat, completion follows within days rather than months.
One exception worth knowing: if the property was held as joint tenants with a surviving co-owner, ownership passes automatically by survivorship and no grant is needed at all.
A realistic timeline
- Week 1 — you call us. We research the property and issue a written offer.
- Week 2 — terms agreed. Solicitors instructed, at our cost.
- Weeks 3 to 6 — searches, enquiries and contract prepared, ready to sign.
- Grant issued — currently taking around 12 to 16 weeks from application.
- Within days — exchange and completion. Funds to your solicitor.
Probate Registry timescales change; your solicitor will give you a current estimate.
What an empty inherited house costs while you wait
These are the figures people do not budget for, because nobody tells them to.
Unoccupied property insurance
Standard buildings cover usually lapses after 30 to 60 days of vacancy. Specialist unoccupied cover typically costs two to three times as much, and often requires documented weekly inspections.
Council tax premiums
There is an exemption for up to six months after the grant, but once it expires many councils charge a premium on long-term empty homes, in some areas up to double, and after two years considerably more.
Deterioration
Unheated houses grow damp. Undetected leaks become ceiling collapses. Gardens become a signal to anyone passing that nobody is watching. A house left standing for a year sells for less than the same house sold today.
Your time
Trips to check on it. Calls with the insurer, the council, the water company. Meter readings. Post redirection. It is the cost nobody puts a figure against, and often the one that wears people down most.
Leave everything exactly where it is.
You do not need to clear the house. Take the photographs, the jewellery, the things that matter, and leave the rest to us. Furniture, white goods, a loft of boxes, a garage nobody has opened since 1998.
House clearance typically costs between £500 and £2,000 and takes several days you would have to be present for. More to the point, deciding what to do with a parent’s belongings is not a task most people want on a deadline.
- No clearance, cleaning or repairs
- No EPC needed
- No viewings and no strangers walking through the house
- If you find something later, we will get it back to you
When the estate is split several ways.
Disagreement between beneficiaries is one of the most common reasons an inherited house sits empty for years.
Usually it is not really about the money. It is that an asking price is a hypothesis; it might be achieved in three months, or it might be reduced twice and finally sell for £18,000 less next spring. Nobody can agree to a number that keeps moving, and every month of delay costs the estate more.
A firm cash offer with a fixed completion date converts that hypothesis into arithmetic. Everyone can see precisely what they will receive and when, which tends to make the conversation considerably shorter. We are happy to put our reasoning in writing so it can be circulated to everyone involved, and to speak to any beneficiary who wants to ask us about it directly.
Where there is more than one executor, all of them will need to sign. Your solicitor will guide you through that.
What executors ask us
How long does probate take at the moment?
Typically around 12 to 16 weeks from application to grant, though complex estates and any inheritance tax liability extend that considerably. The Probate Registry publishes current waiting times, and your solicitor will have a realistic sense of where things stand. We can hold an agreed price while you wait.
Will selling below market value cause a problem with HMRC?
Inheritance tax is assessed on the property’s open market value at the date of death, not on what it eventually sells for. If it sells for less within four years, form IHT38 may allow the estate to claim relief on the difference. This is genuinely worth asking your solicitor or accountant about; it can be a meaningful sum, and it is frequently overlooked.
The house has a sitting tenant. Can you still buy it?
Usually yes, and you do not need to evict anyone first. We buy tenanted property regularly, including regulated tenancies from before 1989. Tell us what is in place and we will factor it into the offer. In many cases the tenant simply stays, which is a better outcome for everyone.
Do I need to be the executor to talk to you?
No. We are happy to discuss the property and give you an indication at any stage. Only the executor or administrator named on the grant can actually sell, but there is nothing stopping you gathering information first so the family knows its options.
What if I am not sure selling is the right decision?
Then do not. Get our figure, get two estate agent valuations, and compare them properly. An inherited house is not a decision to rush, and we will not chase you for an answer.
One less thing to deal with.
Tell us about the property and we will come back within a working day with a figure and our reasoning. Nothing to pay, and no obligation at all.