Buying probate property and planning permission prior to purchase

[ContractorBanking]

Parents looking to buy a house and downsize - a probate property 4 doors down from where they use to live has just come up.

The vendor is looking to sell once the grant of probate has been achieved. Spoke to them and agreed a price - parents and vendor are both happy. Should take around 2 months for the grant to go through.

Parents want to add a single-storey downstairs extension and if they did this after completion, planning permission would take a further 2 months, so construction would commence around the beginning of Dec. Clearly this is not the best time as parents want to be in my xmas, with the new extension.

So, is there any way to apply for planning permission before the grant of probate has been finalised AND have adequate protection should things go wrong?

Its a private sale, cash purchase and no mortgage and parents know the family quite well, so we don't anticipate any mischievous behaviour on their part, but naturally mindful if things go wrong.

Any way to achieve this? ie if you don't sell to us by x date, vendor has to pay £x in lieu of planning permission.

Thoughts?

[PurpleGorilla]

Pretty sure you can apply for planning permission on somewhere you don't own. But if you get it, and the seller finds out, they may want more for it. So you need to make the offer conditional on planning approval, and get paperwork drawn up by a lawyer.

[northernladuk]

So they are selling a house that could become a house with planning permission before it's sold..... What do you think the seller is going to do?

I'd think the planners would want access to the property and as it's not yours you can't authorise access can you? You can get outline permission for sure though.

[BlueSharp]

They have permitted development around here and a single story extension would fall within that. Might be worth checking to see if the PP is even needed.

[SueEllen]

Also if the builders are any good they won't be free for months.