Can i cope with applying for probate on my own?

Mojisola

Pollycat wrote: »

I will ring them and tell them I'll be asking for a copy of the will.

The original is definitely lost, I've been through every bit of paperwork they have.

This is unusual. It's far more common for the solicitor to keep the signed original will and give the client a copy.

If the signed original will has been lost, your father died intestate and you will have to follow those rules - as described by John_Pierpoint.

As soon as you can, get your mother to make a new will.

Pollycat

Thanks, Mojisola.

It may be that Mum & Dad just had a copy and the solicitors kept the original.

If I'd known about it, I'd have offered to keep it in my safe.

Just spoken to the Probate Service, they say in the circumstances I describe (!!!!!! - forgot to say that the will might (or might not) have been lost) we'd only have to apply for Probate if someone (pension providers, Bank, Building Society) insisted on it.

I won't know if it's the original or a copy that exists until I go to the solicitors on Thursday.

John - yes, Mum & Dad live in council-owned warden-controlled senior citizen accommodation.

Savvy_Sue

Polly, I'm so sorry for your loss. One thing I'd say is not to worry that you're normally very organised and together - this isn't normal, none of us really know what to do until we have to, and TBH mostly it doesn't matter if things don't happen very fast!

I agree that you may well find that the solicitor has the original of the will rather than a copy. I think we have the original of ours, which is just as well as we're now 100 miles from the solicitor's where we made them, but Mum and Dad only had a copy and the original was lodged with the solicitor.

If your mum's happy, you can do the work and she can just check and sign, which sounds as if that's the way you're going. It doesn't sound complicated, I jointly did probate for my dad and it was a case of just doing each step as we had time / energy for it.

pollypenny

Hi, Polly,

I can confirm that it's quite straight forward to deal with your dad's affairs. Just work through the stages.

Pol

John_Pierpoint

I don't know who owns this web site, but it gives a simple summary of your situation:

http://www.defaqto.com/guides/dealing-bereavement

Pollycat

Thanks everybody for your replies and to Savvy Sue for your condolences.

The Solicitors do have the original wills (for both Mum & Dad), so it was copies that have been lost.

They've confirmed that Dad left everything to Mum and named her as executor.

They say that they'll hang onto the will unless I need it for probate.
Santander haven't asked for probate (I went in with Mum to ask what they needed and they didn't mention probate - just the death certificate so if they do ask for probate, I'll be pretty miffed) and I hope that Natwest will be fine with just seeing the d/c too.

So, I think we're well on the way to being sorted.

clemmatis

Polly, I didn't apply for probate when my father died (my mother was named executor, but I handled everything). He'd left everything to my mother, and the estate was well below the Inheritance Tax threshold.

I didn't have any problems at all.

When my mother died I did apply for probate. It wasn't difficult to do, at all, but it did take me ages... !

Errata

Polly - Natwest have a Bereavment Team, so if you have any problems with the branch ask for the phone number (sorry, I didn't hang on to it) of the Team - they're very much au fait, which not everyone in a branch is.

Pollycat

Errata wrote: »

Polly - Natwest have a Bereavment Team, so if you have any problems with the branch ask for the phone number (sorry, I didn't hang on to it) of the Team - they're very much au fait, which not everyone in a branch is.

Thanks for that, Errata.

I wasn't very happy with NatWest the other day as I'd rung and explained that my Dad had died and Mum wanted to open a new bank account with them in her name (she didn't want to just have Dad's name taken off the account - don't ask me why).

I explained the circumstances very clearly, told them that Mum didn't have any ID as such (no passport, no driving licence) and that she wasn't very good on the phone.

They told me it would be easier to apply by phone than in person so I did that, this woman went through some security questions with Mum then put her on hold.
After a few minutes, Mum handed back the phone to me (as nobody was speaking on the other end) and a bit later a chap came on and said 'can I help?' which was a bit of a surprise as I'd explained fully (i.e. Dad's death, new account for Mum) to the woman before handing the phone to Mum for the security bit.

Anyway, I then told him Mum wanted to open a new current account and he said he needed to speak to Mum so I put her back on.
I could see something was wrong so I took the phone back.

Apparently, he was going through the terms and conditions with her which he said he had to do, she had to listen and confirm she understood and agreed.

I told him that I'd told them that Mum was not good on the phone (she has difficulty with accents when she can't see people talking) and I'd been assured that it would be OK.

Then I mentioned the joint current account and he said 'No, you have to get Probate and we'll take your Dad's name off the account'.

Well, that just about did it for me.

I said 'Are you telling me that my Mum can't apply for a new account in her name?'.
He stuttered and mentioned having to get Probate again.

I told him that he didn't know whether Dad had left a will or not and if he hadn't, I wouldn't need probate, it would be Letters of Administration.
I also told him that Dad had left a will, leaving everything to Mum and as everything - including the current account with them - was joint I'd been advised by the Probate Office that unless someone needed to see Probate we wouldn't have to apply for it.

I added that I was sure that the Probate Office knew more about it than he did.

He then offered to make an appointment for us in our local branch to open a new account.
By this time, I'd had enough and ended with 'I really don't see the point in you making an appointment for us when we can walk down the road in 10 minutes and sort it out ourselves at a time that suits us'.

I did feel a bit bad about giving him a hard time but it was upsetting for Mum.

zaksmum

When my dad passed away we tried to deal with the probate ourselves, and would have been quite at ease with it, had it not been for the part that asks if there are any adopted close relatives.

My dad's brother had adopted his two kids in the 1940s, but we didn't know the dates etc. that the probate form required.

So reluctantly we coughed up £675 to the solicitor to deal with it.

We'd already completed most of the form and he laughed and said we'd done well, but he'd have to start from scratch.

We mentioned the adoptions, and he just said not to worry about that, he'd just say no to the question of whether there were any adopted close relations!!!!

So yes, you CAN deal with it yourself.