Can i cope with applying for probate on my own?

Errata

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

Don't - he was just another variety of a jobsworth; not his fault, it's the way they train 'em (excepting those who manage to lose £2billion in the blink of an eye).

Pollycat

zaksmum wrote: »

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.

zaksmum, I find that shocking! :eek:

clemmatis

I'm really sorry to hear about that, zaksmum, also very angry.

pollycat, my mum went to Lloyds to transfer the joint account to her name (or whatever); but I went to make the appointment for her and told them she was really still very distressed and would find it difficult; and they assured me everything would be all right. Then I went with her. When I gave her name, she was taken care of very well and sensitively. They didn't even mention probate.

I suppose that's old-fashioned bank service at work: my parents had no money really but had been customers for at least forty years.

otoh after my mother died, when I rang the registry office to make an appointment to register her death, the snippy young woman said I'd need a birth certificate (there isn't one, she was born outside the UK, she never had one). I forgot a birth certificate wasn't required and just said I hadn't got one, she was born in the US, I had the death certificate and marriage certificate and NI card. She said

"then we can't register the death"

so I said

"you give me an appointment or I'll have my mother's body delivered to your ******* door"

and I got my appointment... .

pollycat some of these jobsworths need to be told what their own rules are and be sent on "sensitivity" training courses.

Biggles

Hi Pollycat.

My Mum also had no passport or driving licence, so opening accounts was always difficult when I was her Attorney.

As far as your Mum is concerned, there is no question of Probate, as there are no funds in your Dad's estate - what was in joint ownership is now already hers in law.

It might be simplest at the moment to get her to agree to let the bank change the name on the old joint account, then you can get everything done and dusted. You can talk to the bank about an extra/new account later on, it's only going to confuse their tiny minds right now, it's best to keep it as simple as possible.

blossomhill_2

I did everythng myself for my Dad's estate and it was very simple, I was given a booklet at the the register office that led me through it all methodically. Mum, an overseas relative and I were actually named as joint executor but she asked for me to act on their behalfs and that was simple to arrange too

However when my grandad died a solicitor acted as executor and when we went for the final meeting Mum asked where the house deeds were and the solicitor said "what house, oh is there a house?" so had to seach for the deeds (which were at the bank as they had always been) and start all over again

I sympathise with anyone who is going through this but I found it almost theraputic to have the admin to deal with, as it seemed the least I could do

Pollycat

blossomhill
the more I hear about solicitors, the more I trust myself to do anything that can possibly be done without legal assistance (or should I say 'legal incompetence?).

blossomhill wrote: »

I sympathise with anyone who is going through this but I found it almost theraputic to have the admin to deal with, as it seemed the least I could do

How weird is that?

This is what I said on a different thread yesterday:

Pollycat wrote: »

I do have a 'Things to do' list which I'm ticking off bit by bit.
I even rang TV Licensing yesterday and changed the licence into Mum's name.
I'm retired so do have a lot of time to do stuff and, to be honest, I find it therapeutic (or do I mean 'cathartic'?) to get things 'done'.

It's been easier for me as I've had my finger on the pulse of Mum & Dad's finances for quite a few years so I did know everything that was coming in and going out so I knew who needed to be contacted.

It was the getting to grips with funding for care homes and dealing with DWP, county councils and local councils about their savings that I found hard to start with when Dad first became ill.

Savvy_Sue

Pollycat wrote: »

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

Pollycat, there are many reasons why you do not need to feel bad about giving anyone like this a hard time, but I'd say the two main ones are:

you are bereaved so you're all over the place;

they're often incompetent, and need to know it!

zaksmum wrote: »

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!!!!

At which point I think I'd have said "well if that's your professional response, we'll have the forms back and finish the job ourselves!"

I thought - and it's a while since I did the forms so I could be wrong - that you had to give as much information as you had, but if you didn't have it you could put as much as you did know and leave blanks.

:rotfl: at clemmatis's threat! Again, what I remember from registering Dad's death was that there was a whole lot of information required, and evidence requested, but if we hadn't had it all we could have said so and it wouldn't have been a problem.

After all, you can't just not register a death because you can't find a birth certificate!

It is cathartic to work through it all IMO.

blossomhill_2

Dealing with care home funding - tell me about it!

I can think of better forms of therapy but think I did Dad proud not wasting his money on a solicitor

Also Dad had his money (very little money) in 24 accounts - he wasn't well off at all, just enjoyed managing it and spread it around in an attempt to "carpetbag"

Out of all of them, Abb** were a nightmare - specialiast team said deal with the branch, branch said to come in, so I did, for them just to say deal with the specialist team. Asked them to close the acct and send a cheque in my name, they lost it! It turned out they had paid it into my Mum's Abb** account, so to the wrong person and in the wrong way!

It was all 6 years ago now - last admin I still have to deal with is the scam letters addressed to him; even had one this week about some "unclaimed inheritance" in Hong Kong!

dzug1

Mojisola wrote: »

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.

Not necessarily - in some circumstances a will can be proved by a copy. The difficulty is demonstrating to the Probate Office that the loss/destruction was accidental and not deliberate.

Pollycat

OK, following on from my post #30 about my dissatisfaction with Natwest, I have to say I'm bloody furious with our local council.

I rang them the day after Dad died (6/9) to let them know.

I wrote them a letter on 12/9 formally advising them, enclosing a copy of the death certificate and asking them to amend the account (rent and council tax) into Mum's name.
This was hand delivered to the council offices so they could take a copy of the d/c and we could then take it home.

Mum has had a letter dated 28/9 (so 2 weeks since they've had official confirmation) addressed to both her and Dad saying "Following your request to pay your rent by Direct Debit, here is your payment schedule".

It's confused and distressed Mum, she's saying 'When did me and your Dad request that?'.

The truth is that Mum received guarantee pension credit and therefore housing benefit & council tax benefit for the brief period that Dad was in a care home.

Prior to that, they were paying full rent and full council tax by Direct Debit.

All this letter means is that they are reinstating the DD now Mum isn't entitled to CTB & HB.

They (my Dad and Mum) haven't bloody suddenly 'requested' to pay by DD at all.

Why oh why haven't they bothered to change the name on the account?
Surely in cases like this, it's something that would (should!) be done very quickly to avoid any more distress.
Bereavement must be up there as one of the worst things that can happen.

Am I justified in tearing somebody's bloody head off at the council?

It's made me so angry (as if you can't tell). :mad: