With around 25,000 houses in the Southwest laying empty for more than six months there is a need to speed up the process of finding new owners for properties when someone dies, according to a property specialist.
Probate properties form a significant proportion of the empty homes, according to specialist Sarah Choudhury, who is helping many families in the region find a speedy and sensitive solution to selling the home of a deceased relative.
Sarah Choudhury
She said: “At any one time there are around a quarter of a million homes nationally going through probate. Many of these properties remain empty for months — sometimes years — while families navigate grief, legal complexity and differing opinions.
“In the South West alone, thousands of homes are effectively frozen in the system. Speeding up probate sales sensitively could unlock much-needed housing supply.
“Often the problems come because a lot of emotion is involved. It may be the family home that is being sold for the first time and different family members will have a stake in it.
Sarah Choudhury, who is working with Pattinson Auctions to support families through probate sales in the Bristol and Bath region, said delays also cost vendors as empty properties continue to generate service charges, insurance requirements, utility bills and maintenance costs.
Some family members often try to hold out for highest prices or want to “test the market” by offering homes at higher than market value. Delays are also encountered because often homes are being managed from a distance where there is a different market and sellers do not understand local conditions.
Said Sarah Choudhury: “Above all grief affects decision making. For families often the house they are selling is the last tangible connection with the person they have lost. Understandably there can be differences of opinion on what is the right thing to do.
“It is not a standard transaction but by working sensitively with families and finding a speedy solution, everyone those tasked with selling a property can have financial and emotional closure.”
Auctions can be one solution to probate sales a it removes the risk of lengthy negotiations, collapsed chains and months of uncertainty. It provides focus and momentum, giving executors a clear pathway to conclusion.
