If your house sale has stalled and nobody seems able to tell you why, there's a good chance the answer is sitting in a council office in-tray. New research from House Buyer Bureau has found that local authority search delays in some parts of England have stretched to 92 working days — nearly four calendar months for a single piece of paperwork that used to take a couple of weeks. For anyone mid-transaction, or about to start one, this is worth understanding before it derails your move.

"Most people assume that once probate is granted, executors can access everything the person owned. That simply isn't true with digital assets." That warning, from Stuart Downey, a partner at TWM Solicitors, cuts to the heart of a problem increasingly catching families off guard: a grant of probate gives you the legal authority to deal with someone's estate, but it doesn't hand you the password. If you're an executor, or you're thinking about who'll act as yours, digital assets are one of the areas most likely to catch you out.

If you've ever had a house sale collapse weeks before completion, you'll know exactly why the government has just published its Home Buying and Selling Reform Roadmap. The figures behind it are stark: around one in three property transactions in England now falls through before completion, costing consumers an estimated £400 million a year between them. With conveyancing firms this month being urged by their own regulator, the Council for Licensed Conveyancers, to get behind the plan, this is a reform that's moving from paper to practice — and it's worth understanding now, whether you're buying, selling, or both.

Nearly half of UK homeowners aged 45 and over describe themselves as "just getting by" financially — yet new research published this week shows their estates average £410,252, well over the £325,000 inheritance tax threshold. The survey of 2,000 homeowners by savings platform Flagstone found that 38% had estimated estates worth £500,000 or more, and 13% were sitting above £1 million. If you've never thought of yourself as someone with an inheritance tax problem, this research suggests you might want to look again.