Transfering property after death

Hackneyboy

Hi all. My mother passed away earlier this year. As hers was a 'simple' estate with a mortgage-free property and bank accounts, and I was the only beneficiary, I did the probate myself, aided by the probate and inheritance tax helplines and their guidance forms.

Probate has now been granted and I'm tasked with transferring my late mother's house into my name. I've spoken to my local Land Registry office who tell me that some people in my position choose to fill in forms AP1 and AS1 themselves, while others use a professional conveyancer. Obviously they can't instruct me either way.

Has anyone experience of doing themselves? Are the forms easy enough and is there anything I should look out for? Is there anything other than filling out the forms that I need to do?

Richard_Webster

Are you going to keep the house or sell it? If you are going to sell there's little point in going to the trouble and incurring a Land Registry fee unnecesssarily - you just produce the probate with the land registry entries showing the deceased's name still and the buyer's solicitors do the registration after their clients have completed their purchase.

If you are keeping the property then you need to complete an AS1 and and AP1 and you will also need the proof of identity forms.

mwahaha

Is the house registered? It sounds like it hasn't changed hands in a while and so might not be registered at the land registry. That's FR1 I think, but if it does require first registration you should use a solictor/conveyancer to avoid costly mistakes.

Hackneyboy

Thank you both for your answers.

Richard Webster: I haven't completely made up my mind but I'm veering towards keeping the house and moving there. As you say, if I do decide to keep the house, I would need to fill in AP1, AS1 and the proof of identity forms. In the unlikely event that I decided to sell the property, is there a time limit on how long it can be held as part of my late mother's estate? (Obviously, it has to remain unoccupied and I am liable for Council Tax six months after the date of probate.)

Mwahaha: Land Registry sent my mother a Completion of Registration letter and a copy of the register while she was still alive. I presume this means that the property is registered and one less potential headache?

If I chose not to attempt the forms myself, how much do you think a solicitor would charge for the conveyancing and how long does it take?

Thank you again.

00ec25

I have done exactly what you describe action for action and left my father's house in the estate name for a considerable time. For various reasons I decided to regulalarise the position in July this year and it cost £100 +Vat +LR Fee for the solicitor to transfer to my name (sole beneficiary). I will not be selling.

I have no idea what your IHT position was on the estate, but do remember that if you sell it sometime after probate has been granted then you may have to restate the value used in the probate declaration to actual sales value rather than the probate value you previously used, this may mean you have a (further?) tax bill to pay if the estate is then over the nil rate band. Furthermore if the sale is >6 months from probate then you will incur an interest charge from HMRC for the extr tax due - assuming of course that you have to pay tax in the first place

Richard_Webster

Richard Webster: I haven't completely made up my mind but I'm veering towards keeping the house and moving there. As you say, if I do decide to keep the house, I would need to fill in AP1, AS1 and the proof of identity forms. In the unlikely event that I decided to sell the property, is there a time limit on how long it can be held as part of my late mother's estate? (Obviously, it has to remain unoccupied and I am liable for Council Tax six months after the date of probate.)

I don't think there is any rule about it. My mother died last year and I have deliberately not transferred the flat into my own name to avoid paying the freeholder an extortionate fee for registering that transfer! Council tax and other issues are unrelated to title, so I don't see a problem with you occupying it - Council don't go and look at Land Registry title!. It is only e.g if you want to obtain a mortgage on it that you would have to do the transfer.

Mwahaha: Land Registry sent my mother a Completion of Registration letter and a copy of the register while she was still alive. I presume this means that the property is registered and one less potential headache?

Your name "Hackneyboy" suggests the property might be in Hackney. Inner London has been an area of compulsory registration for over a hundred years so would have been very unlikely that the title would not be registered. However if it wasn't registered then the hassle of a first registration and the higher Land Registry Fees involved would be something to weigh in the balance - I think most lay people would feel that was something they could not attempt.

00ec25

Richard_Webster wrote: »

I don't think there is any rule about it.

just to supplement Richards response, when i said I did not transfer it for a considerable time, my father died in Jan 2003, I had it transfered it to me in July 2009.
I got a solicitor to do it then mainly because with the impending LR fee increase I did not want to risk making a mistake with the clock ticking down. (That was the only legal fee I paid during probate, sadly Dad had not planned well so I dealt with HMRC myself when paying the IHT)

Neither the solicitor nor the LR have queried the delay. I have been paying CT in my name since December 2003 (end of class F exemption) without any council query either

Hackneyboy

Thanks again for the answers. Knowing that house is already registered is one less headache but I must admit to feeling a little daunted by some of the terms used on the AP1/AS1 forms. I guess that the helpline could talk me through each box.

A solicitor I used for a previous house purchase has quoted me £150 + VAT for the conveyancing. I guess there will be a LR fee too.

Hackneyboy

Another quick question... Obviously I informed my mother's bank a couple of days after she died and they froze the accounts, less funeral expenses. These were the figures I used for the probate forms. A few months on, with probate granted and a copy shown to them, they have closed the account, transferred the funds, and sent me the closing statement.

On the closing statement there is a small amount of interest earned (and tax paid on that interest) from the date of my mother's death until the date of the account being closed. They've also sent me a tax certificate relating to this.

As I'm self-employed do I need to make sure that I send the tax certificate to my accountant when he does my 2009-2010 return, in the same way that I currently send him my own bank account tax certificate?

Presumably I don't have to inform the Inheritance Tax office because a) the interest was earned/tax paid after my mother's death but before probate was granted and b) the small amount (pounds and pence) doesn't take me over the excepted estate limit?

00ec25

strictly speaking you are now responsible for preparing an income tax return for all monies collected by the Estate until such time as the estate is fully discharged/dispensed to the benficiaries.
as that is you alone, then that income is now included in your own tax return - so this is a long winded way of saying:

a) yes , it is part of the executor account not the estate's IHT return - so is your own income in your case as you are both executor and sole beneficiary; and

b) if you say so, then so be it

Hackneyboy

Thanks, that's what I thought. I just wanted to check because obviously while interest on inheritance tax (where payable) is charged within six months of death irrespective of probate, income tax returns are backdated to the previous year. So I'll be sending those tax certificates to my accountant for my 2009-2010 return.

One thing I wasn't expecting, was for my mother's insurance companies to end the policies so quickly. Her car insurance was cancelled the moment that probate was granted, and the house insurance scheduled for two weeks later, simply because I hadn't made a decision whether to sell it (in which case they would continue insuring it) or transfer it into my name (in which case they wouldn't.)