What to do when someone dies - new guide feedback

p00hsticks

midgetsmum wrote: »

Has anyone else had experience getting a refund for an airline ticket that can't be used due to death of the passenger? The only information I can find is about a passenger getting a refund because they can't travel due to bereavement, and then it only seems to be a goodwill gesture from the airlines. This is causing my cousin no end of stress and sleepless nights, when she's already got enough on her plate, plus the expense of calling Opodo from Australia.

No experience, but my thought would be that the most likely source of a refund would be via the travel insurance that the passenger (hopefully) took out at the same time as purchasing the tickets.

JJA80

I have been told that a private agreement for a license to occupy can be made. I understand it doesn’t guarantee either the purchase or the sale but can be used to stop a chain collapsing because of delays waiting for probate to be granted. Can anyone tell me more about this or if they’ve used it?

Yorkshireman99

JJA80 wrote: »

I have been told that a private agreement for a license to occupy can be made. I understand it doesn’t guarantee either the purchase or the sale but can be used to stop a chain collapsing because of delays waiting for probate to be granted. Can anyone tell me more about this or if they’ve used it?

There are various using a solicitor that costs. Few potential buyers would agree.

supermum4

hi my brother has suddenly passed away he never married and has no children, i am his only sibling and mum is 80 and has said she wants me to deal with everything. so i've registered his death and got some certificates, arranged the funeral and applied for power of attorney over mum so i can sort his bank accounts out, question is he has a property so do i apply for letters of administration? so i can sort everything out as probate will need to be sorted aswell. and i'm a little lost at the moment i've looked on the gov website but it say's only spouse and children can apply for administration but maybe i'm reading that wrong any help would be greatly appreciated

Keep_pedalling

You will need to apply for letters of administration. If there was a spouse or adult child they would be first in line to apply, but as there isn’t then it is fine for you to do so.

Although getting a LPA in place for you mother is a good thing, I don’t see why you need it to deal with your brother’s accounts. Once you have letters of administration you will have all the authority you need to deal with them.

As you mother will inherit the estate, assuming your father is no longer alive, does this potentially leave her estate with an IHT issue when she dies?

supermum4

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

You will need to apply for letters of administration. If there was a spouse or adult child they would be first in line to apply, but as there isn’t then it is fine for you to do so.

Although getting a LPA in place for you mother is a good thing, I don’t see why you need it to deal with your brother’s accounts. Once you have letters of administration you will have all the authority you need to deal with them.

As you mother will inherit the estate, assuming your father is no longer alive, does this potentially leave her estate with an IHT issue when she dies?

thank you i will apply for the letters of administration today, father is no longer with us so just mum and myself, not sure about any IHT issues but don't think so. also brother is paying for a vehicle storage in france and i've just found a french bank book in his belongings so looks like this is going to get even more complecate than i first thought

cmboakridge

Hello. this guide is excellent.
Having just gone through the probate application following my mother's death in January, there is one thing I found would be useful to add:
Most estates will not be liable to inheritance tax but you will probably still need to apply for probate. In which case it is easy to do yourself on-line, as has been said.  But, once you have collected all the information about the assets, start with the simpler form IHT 205 and guide IHT 206 from the HMRC site.  If your affairs are straightforward it is very easy.  However if the estate is more complex, checks in the form will advise you if you need to submit the longer version , starting with IHT400

JSLUCK

Could someone give me some advice please. My friend's husband sadly died 2 weeks ago. They have separate bank accounts, he was the main breadwinner and the mortgage and a few other bills were paid from his account. The rest of the monies they used to live on - daily expenses and grocery shopping etc - the excess went into a savings account also in his name only which has circa £20k in it. My friend (his wife) has a part time job and her account is used to pay the majority of other household bills. Now that he has died, his accounts have been frozen. He also had a credit card balance with the same bank of circa £5k. The bank (Santander) have said that they will take the total credit card balance from his savings account. My friend is really concerned about how she will cope financially now. The mortgage is joint so she is liable to pay it (£700 per month) which would leave her unable to cover all her other bills.
My questions are: 
1. Does the bank have the right to take the credit card money in total out of his account without her agreement?
2. Does my friend have any right over the monies in his accounts given they were in effect joint monies used for both of their benefits?
3. If she is not entitled to the monies - can she stipulate to the bank that they should use the savings monies to pay towards her husband's "share" of the mortgage which is circa £75k. Or is she now liable for all of it?

Savvy_Sue

I am so sorry, this must be an incredibly difficult situation. 

Did he leave a will? If he did, what does it say? Who is / are the executor(s)?

If he did not leave a will, were there children? If there were, then £270,000 of his estate passes to her, but the rest passes to his children. See the laws of intestacy.

Did he have any insurance which might pay the mortgage off? Did he have a pension or death-in-service benefit through his employer? 

You're not necessarily asking the right questions: the ones I've posed are of key importance, but leaving that aside, for No. 1, the answer is Yes, the bank can do this. For No. 2 and 3, in the absence of a will, it's Yes but not necessarily all of it and No but she IS entitled to it. 

RonnieTh

A really useful guide - Thank you!
My dear Dad passed away on 24th March and I am still having great trouble getting everything transferred to my mother. In fact, it's been nothing short of a nightmare. Many of the organisations have in fact reduced the number of staff manning bereavement helplines. One particular bank is still struggling to transfer Dad's assets that even today that process is still ongoing and we are still being asked to complete forms (previously completed) or to go via web links that then fail for ID checks despite having banked with them for 30+ years and re-sending all the latest ID requirements!. The amount of stress this has caused my elderly mother is unbelievable and unacceptable! I have had to resort to sending a complaint to this particular bank's CEO and still, we are awaiting final resolution.
My main advice is preparing everything you need in advance and to obtain a number of death certificates.
I have tried to use the time constructively and read many of the websites offering guidance on what to do when someone dies. MSE's article has been one of the best. In this time, I decided to use all the experience I learned to create a dedicated website called NowTheAdmin.co.uk to help others going through the painful death notification process. I have listed links to organisation bereavement team webpages as well as for bereavement team telephone numbers. I hope the information I have gathered proves useful for others going through such a difficult process. It has taken a lot of time getting all the contact details so hope it saves others time.
I would love MSE and Martin Lewis help support me in lobbying the many UK organisations to automate the death notification process! See the Now The Admin website for details. MSE, feel free to link to it if you find it to be a useful resource for your readers.