The short version: if a will is being contested, most lawyers advise pausing any major sale of estate property until the dispute is resolved or the court specifically authorizes moving forward. Selling into an active dispute carries real risk for the executor.
Who can actually contest a will in BC
BC's Wills, Estates and Succession Act includes a specific mechanism called a Wills Variation claim, which lets a will-maker's spouse or children ask the court to vary the will if it didn't make adequate provision for them. This specific claim is only available to spouses and children — other relatives, like siblings or parents, don't have standing to bring a Wills Variation claim, though a will can separately be challenged on other grounds (such as the will-maker lacking capacity, or being under undue influence) by a potentially broader group depending on the circumstances.
There's a hard deadline on Wills Variation claims: generally 180 days from when the Grant of Probate is issued. This is one reason some executors deliberately wait before making major, hard-to-reverse decisions immediately after probate comes through.
Why selling during a dispute is risky
An executor has a fiduciary duty to the estate and its ultimately-entitled beneficiaries — but while a dispute is active, it's not always clear yet who that will turn out to be. Selling a property and distributing or spending the proceeds, only to have the court later vary the will in a way that changes entitlements, can create real complications and potential personal liability for the executor. This is exactly the kind of situation where moving cautiously, with direct legal guidance, matters more than moving quickly.
Mark Jontz has handled estate sales where a dispute emerged mid-process — in those situations, close, direct coordination between the real estate side and the family's lawyer becomes essential, not optional.
If an offer is already in hand when a dispute surfaces
What happens next depends heavily on timing and how the original offer was structured — whether it's conditional, how far along the transaction is, and what the lawyer advises given the specific dispute. There's no universal answer here; it needs real-time legal input, not a general rule applied after the fact.
How long disputes typically take to resolve
It varies considerably. Some disputes resolve relatively quickly through negotiation or mediation between the parties; others, particularly if they proceed to a full court hearing, can take significantly longer. There's no reliable way to predict timing in advance — which is itself a reason to build some flexibility into any sale timeline once a dispute is known to be a possibility.
This page provides general information only and is not legal advice. Contested will situations are genuinely complex and fact-specific — please consult an estate litigation lawyer about your specific situation before taking any action on the property.