What happens to a residential conveyancing chain when one of the parties dies

This case study demonstrates the expertise of our Residential Conveyancing team who recently acted for a client buying their first property, when the vendor unfortunately died 4 days before they were due to complete.

Our experienced team guided our client through the process after being informed the vendor had suddenly died, and their representation were unaware of the death. This meant our client took residency in the property on Licence, as they had already exchanged and the client had quite rightly given notice on their rental accommodation. We also had to get the mortgage offer reissued as it expired before we could complete.

Grant of Probate was issued 2 months later and we were due to complete, but the vendors representation refused to pay the charges we had incurred which under the terms of the contract were due.  Therefore, our lawyers had to explain to the vendors legal representatives and executors that legally we were eligible to make such a charge to ensure they understood that they had to pay compensation for late completion, to which they eventually agreed to and completion took place the following morning.