Please help: probate advice required re. estate of estranged brother

chivas

Hi,

I am looking for some advice for a friend regarding estates and probate. (I hope this is the right board)

The current situation is as follows:

• He has recently discovered (via the treasury) that his brother died over two years ago, and that he is next of kin. (His brother lost touch with the family about 12 years ago.)
• There is no will.
• The letter from the treasury states that the estate includes two properties which may have large mortgages, and administration may be complicated.
• The treasury has asked if he would like to do the administration of the estate himself or instruct a solicitor.

He would prefer to not involve solicitors if possible as he doesn't have much money and is concerned about the cost.

Does anyone have any advice on how complicated it would be do the administration ourselves? Or whether he would be better to just go to a solicitor?? (And if so, any advice on how to keep solicitor costs down?!)

Many thanks

rambo1

I had the same problem when husband died and decided to get a lawyer involved. I found out later that it would have saved me a fortune doing it myself and just paying a layer to check it before handing it in.
I had already collected and itemised all information on what debits there where and what credits there where and had also written to banks and insurance's to collect the information of any money owing to late husband.
In otherewords I did all the donkey work and the lawyer charged me for sitting on his fat backside doing nothing. Get all the information you think you need and then go to a lawyer and he will tell you how to set it out and this way it wil save you a fortune as my lawyer chargede me over £2,000 for doing nothing and tried to uphold everythings for months

Mrs_P_Pincher

This could be very simple, or it could be a living nightmare.

If you are numerate, accustomed to filling in forms and dealing with paperwork and you can get hold of a DIY Probate Guide, then you could have a bash at doing it yourself, or at least getting far enough to find out whether it is simple or the aforementioned nightmare.

If you go all unnecessary at the thought of forms and complicated stuff, then involve a solicitor at this stage - go on recommendation, pick someone local so you can get to them easily - and the cost will be outweighed by the reduction of stress on you.

Selling two heavily mortgaged properties, possibly with mortgage arrears, in this economic climate, sounds like the beginning of a nightmare to me...

Cheers

Mrs P P

Oldernotwiser

Mrs_P_Pincher wrote: »

Selling two heavily mortgaged properties, possibly with mortgage arrears, in this economic climate, sounds like the beginning of a nightmare to me...

P

Agreed, but not a nightmare that'll be helped by employing solicitors!

notisis

As a previous poster said, if you are numerate, have plenty of time and understand the forms do have a go yourself. If not, shop around several solicitors get proper quotes for exactly the work they will do before instructing. You can also perhaps set them a limit eg when the costs get to x amount of pounds please inform me before proceeding to do any more work. You could of course start the ball rolling then when you realise it is likely to become complicated for certain issues only, ask a solicitor to deal with those particular issues at a fixed cost and you continue to deal with the remainder.

Unfortunately, I've known plenty of estates where hapless members of family have actually created more work and caused problems which then cost money to put right. eg one couple quoted £2500 to deal with an entire simplish but largish estate, got into difficulty with banks and messed up with capital taxes office and it ended up costing far more when they had to come back to have it sorted!

Best of luck.

frankie55

I handled the probate of my Mother's will myself, there are guides on the internet to help you and you can even download the forms. Get someone to check all the sums etc. However, if someone dies intestate, ie leaves no will, you need to get Letters of Administration, again help is on the internet. First of all, you need to scrutinise the deeds and mortgage papers of the property, any bank accounts, and any dealings with the Dept. of Work and Pensions.....have pension payment etc been paid into the bank after the person died?
Once you have as much of this information gathered as you can, sit down with someone you trust and check it all over and then make the decision wether to use a solicitor or not. We didn't use a solicitor for my Mother, but an Aunt who died a few years before, had her estate wound up by a solicitor and it took months and cost a lot of money. The treasary are offering to help, so make a start with them and see how you go. There are many books around which can help, and don't be scared of 'official sounding words' you are not alone!!
Good Luck for you and your friend

frankie55

If this does not get sorted, after a while there is a risk that the Government will declare the deceased as intestate and claim the money for themselvs