Funeral for an estranged relative - advice please?

annie-c

My mother was called by the police last week to say that her elderly brother had been found dead at home. He had been reclusive and had refused contact with us for many years.

I want to help her to arrange a funeral but am confused about how to handle matters. We live 4 hours away and will need to plan things from a distance, except for some help from a cousin who lives locally to the uncle, who can help with registering the death and collecting the certificate for us.

We do not think that he would have any estate or any funeral plan from what we know of him, but we are limited in time/available cash and so cannot visit his former home (a housing association property) until the day before the funeral.

My mother is on low income and needs to apply for a Funeral Payment, for which she is eligible. However she is worried because the paperwork says that the payment will have to be paid back from the estate. As far as we know there is no will and no estate. We do not have the resources to appoint ourselves administrators.

Is there a way that my mother can get the funeral grant, without then having to take on administration of his estate in order to 'prove' that there is nothing left.

We will be getting the coroner's report after the post mortem today and so I am assuming we have to act quickly, but don't really know what to do.

(As far as accessing his house is concerned, the housing association are willing to let us have a key to access the property. They seem to be assuming that we will be administrating his estate too, but that is something I am unable to take on).

getmore4less

It would be a good idea if someone established if there is a will or an estate worth dealing with, which makes handling ongoing costs a bit more urgent.
(the main one being clearing the property, the HA usualy still want rent for the notice period)

As the cousin is local they could do an initial seach of the property for wills, accounts, assets and talk to the neibours to establish if an estate exists.

First step will be getting the cause of death certificate and then registering the death to get the green form and the death certificate so a funeral can be arranged.

It is not expensive to admin an estate and can be done remotely but it will be important to establish early(before getting too involved) that the estate is not insolvent.

Assume the uncle had no children since they should be dealing with this.

RAS

Hi

It may be that it is better if mum declines the responsibility and they ask the local Council to organise a funeral as mum does not have the money to do it. There ia a basic funeral that costs about £800 which family members could attend.

hardpressed

Whatever you do don't arrange the funeral unless you can afford to pay for it. Whoever arranges the funeral is resposible for paying for it. Just let the council deal with and pay for it.

sleepless_saver

annie-c wrote: »

My mother was called by the police last week to say that her elderly brother had been found dead at home. He had been reclusive and had refused contact with us for many years.

...

My mother is on low income and needs to apply for a Funeral Payment, for which she is eligible.

.

Because of the estrangement, she may not be eligible for funeral payment even though she is a close relative on a low income -
DWP guidance says "Where you claim as a parent, son, daughter, close relative or close friend, we also have to decide whether it was reasonable for you to have accepted responsibility for the funeral expenses. We do this by considering the nature and extent of your contact with the person who has died. "

Also, you may find that the amount of the funeral payment does not cover the full costs and she would be left responsible for the shortfall.

I agree with RAS and hardpressed. Let the local authority arrange the funeral.

securityguy

getmore4less wrote: »

It would be a good idea if someone established if there is a will or an estate worth dealing with, which makes handling ongoing costs a bit more urgent.
(the main one being clearing the property, the HA usualy still want rent for the notice period).

They can want rent all they like, but the only place it's coming from is the dead person or their estate. It's nothing to do with relatives, estranged or otherwise, unless they decide to become executors, even then it's only their responsibility to pay it from the estate, not from their own resources. If, as sounds likely, there are no assets, the HA won't get a penny.

It is not expensive to admin an estate and can be done remotely but it will be important to establish early(before getting too involved) that the estate is not insolvent.

There's no particular reason for the OP, or their mother, to do anything, remotely or not.