SQE1 sample questions

Question 93

A solicitor is acting in the sale of a house. The seller is a woman who is in the process of moving into a care home. The house is being sold to raise the money for the care home fees.

Contracts are exchanged with completion in five weeks.

Following exchange, the solicitor receives a telephone call from the seller’s son to say that his mother has died. The son wants to know how the sale will be affected by his mother’s death. Now that the house does not have to be sold to raise funds for paying the care home fees, the son would prefer to keep the house. He is both the sole executor and the sole beneficiary of his mother’s estate and has taken the necessary steps to obtain a grant of probate.

What is the position in relation to the sale?

A. The son, as the sole executor of his mother’s estate, is legally bound to sell the house under the contract.

B. The mother’s death means that the contract becomes void in law and equity.

C. The son, as the sole beneficiary of his mother’s estate, has the right of first refusal to have the house assented to him from the estate.

D. The son, as the sole executor of his mother’s estate, has the option to terminate the contract by notice in writing to the buyer.

E. The son, as the sole executor and the sole beneficiary of his mother’s estate, can apply to the court for termination of the contract.