Paying utilities on deceased's empty house

pattycake

My father passed away yesterday. My brother and I are executors and sole beneficiaries of his will.

We have been to the building society and informed them of his death and his accounts are now frozen until we have probate.

What happens to the direct debits which are set up to pay utilities on his house? We will want to sell the property eventually but we do not want the services to be cut off in the mean time.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hermia

I have just had to do this for my mum's house. Just ring up each of the utility companies and explain what happened. They all have a department for dealing with probate situations. I found each company was different. British Gas just put the account in my name and send the bill to my address. The electricity company set up an account for the "executors of Mrs ..." and I can just pay the bill with my card online. Have you set up an executor's bank account (I didn't bother as there was no need) or is one of you happy to be the named person on the bills?

Tuesday_Tenor

Sorry for your loss, and for all you have to think about at the moment. Hope the following helps:

Exactly as Hermia says - contact all the utilities individually.

Also the Council re Council Tax - this will be waived for 6 months after death, but you will have to start paying again in 6 months if the house hasn't been sold by then. Also the House/Contents insurance company - they need to know about the death, and you need to make sure you keep the house insured.. They asked us a few questions about whether the house was occupied/furnished etc, but it didn't actually make any difference to the premium in our case, which still had about 8 months to run.

We set up an Executors bank account and in theory wanted to pay everyhing from there but it wasn't quite so simple in practice. Each utility company has a different procedure, and a different pace of dealing with things; the most exacting insisted on having their account called 'estate of Mr XYZ....' before probate , and then changing it to 'executors of Mr XYZ....' after probate. This was technically absolutely correct, but none of the others bothered!

Although some utility bills went through the executors account, and certainly would have done if the house had been on the market for longer, for the first few months it was a bit of a mish-mash of arrangements.
Sister and I, like you, were also sole executors and sole beneficiaries.
In practice we two executors ended up with some monies being paid from our own accounts AND some refunds coming into our own accounts:
E.g. Sister paid probate fee, photocopies of death certs, some utilites, but also recieved some cash from sale of jewellry.
I paid some utilites, received the council tax refund and pension refund, received cheque in my name for sale of stairlift, etc etc

So it's important to keep records of all these, which are all transactions to do with the estate. Rather than doing constant or monthly 'executor claims' on the Exec Account, we found it simpler to set up a spreadsheet with all the +'s and -'s for each of us, which we called 'Estate Petty Cash'. (Couldn't think of a better phrase). When we were finally distributing the estate it was easy to see what we'd each paid/already received. My sister was slightly 'out-of-pocket' and I'd gained by receiving more of the refunds. The 50:50 split of the estate was easily adjusted to take account of the 'Petty cash' figures.

Might be helpful for you? It's a difficult time and process, so anything that makes it simpler ...

jellie

+1 for both of the above replies.

When my brother and I were Executors of our Mum's will, we each sometimes paid bills out of our own accounts. As we had set up a cheque account to receive the monies into the Estate, we just reimbursed ourselves as necessary.

The best thing to do is make sure you each keep records of outgoings and incomings, along with receipts for everything.

My condolences to you.

pattycake

Thank you all so much. Really helpful. My dad had been ill for the last couple of months and we knew the end was coming but it still feels like a dreadful shock.

There is so much to think about. When my mother died just over 3 years ago, we used a solicitor to handle the will. They took a year over it and charged £4000! It was not a massive estate to justify such a figure.

This time around, we are going to have a go at getting probate ourselves. I expect I will be back with more questions in due course.

getmore4less

It's not that hard to do is you are methodical and take your time.

read all the notes for the PA1 and IHT forms gather all the information and give yourselves thinking time.

Council tax is usualy 6 months after probate grant so you can take a bit of time

One thing you can do to manage the time is use a solicitor to swear the oath saves going to the probate office on their shedule.

Just ask as many quastions as you want there are plenty of us that have gone through this and will have come across most thing between us.

Just expect things like letter to banks etc to take time to turnaround.

Hermia

pattycake wrote: »

This time around, we are going to have a go at getting probate ourselves. I expect I will be back with more questions in due course.

Go for it. It's really not that difficult and I got my probate interview through in a few weeks. My mum died at the beginning of August and the house will be going on the market this week and I have done everything on my own. As getmore4less says be methodical and keep notes of everything you do. I actually bought a cheap diary and wrote down what I did each day. Re: the utility companies - I was expecting hassle when I dealt with them, but they were all brilliant. If you don't live in the house remember you need to deal with the house insurance. My mum was with with Swinton and they were able to attach my name to the policy until probate was granted. As soon as probate was granted I had to take out a new policy under my name.

PennyForThem_2

Let me endorse that utilities and other companies have 'death' departments and the people that man them are brilliant.

It is not just the utilities but most big companies have people that can help you through this difficult time. They are available for you and will answer and help you through the process of re-attributing direct debits, bill payments, etc.

Banks, too, have dedicated people within branches. I had to go back to a bank a year after death of my husband and I was treated with courtesy and quickly and in private to deal with my concern. Just mention 'died' and it opens up (usually, in my experience) a helpful and listening aspect of whatever company you want to deal with.

pattycake

Thank you all once again. I have divided the tasks between my brother and I and we can hopefully sort out the immediate stuff this week.

The funeral is more or less arranged and will take place on 22 October.

I am going to have my dad's car. It is stored at the moment in his garage at the house. I know I have to get in touch with the insurers and I will do so but I am wondering how I change the documents to make myself the registered keeper. Can this not be done until after probate is granted? What happens about insurance in the meantime. Clearly it is not being driven but I do want to protect it against fire and theft.

I have my own car and insurance at the moment but will be selling my car when I take possession of dad's. I already have a buyer waiting in the wings!

Hermia

pattycake wrote: »

I am going to have my dad's car. It is stored at the moment in his garage at the house. I know I have to get in touch with the insurers and I will do so but I am wondering how I change the documents to make myself the registered keeper. Can this not be done until after probate is granted? What happens about insurance in the meantime. Clearly it is not being driven but I do want to protect it against fire and theft.

The info is all here:
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Motoring/DriverLicensing/DG_4022493

I found the DVLA very helpful. You need to cancel the old insurance and insure it in your name. Just do exactly what you would do if you were buying a car. My mum had AA membership and they were happy to just transfer the membership over to me.

pattycake

Thank you so much, Hermia. I had searched the DVLA site for this information but drew a blank. My brain has turned to mush. This is exactly what I needed to know so that I can now change the car into my name.

I have got all the relevant documents so I will do it now!