Probate and house sale query

welshpins62

My mother died last week and I am both executor and sole beneficiary being her only child so her will is fairly straightforward.

About 3 months before she died, she sold her house and moved to live with myself and family; none of us realised she would live such a short time. When the sale went through as she had failing eyesight and we also had an enduring power of attorney in place she had the proceeds from her house transferred to myself as she then became dependent on us for her needs etc and all was legally actioned as part of the conveyancing by her solicitor.

Given this was legally done and she did not expect to die so soon afterward do I need to declare this on the probate documentation as was effectively completed months ago. The proceeds plus her savings are below the IHT thresholds.

Thanks

TonyMMM

Are you the sole beneficiary of the will, or are their others involved who may object to the assets being moved out of the estate ?

If it's just you and there is no question of avoidance of IHT there shouldn't be any problem.

Was this scenario raised or discussed with the solictor at the time ? ... you could always check with them if still unsure.

welshpins62

I am the sole beneficary as only child. Not raised at the time as we did not expect Mum to die to soon; we used the power of attorney at the time as she could not see to sign the documents.

getmore4less

Was there a will or is this intestate?

If you need to do probate/admin for other assets then you need to account for all funds on the PA1 and IHT forms. This can go back 7 years for PETs.

if you can manage the estate without probate and there is no IHT it becomes potentialy optional.

Tuesday_Tenor

getmore4less wrote: »

Was there a will or is this intestate?

First line of OP:
>>> so her will is fairly straightforward

Tuesday_Tenor

How the proceeds are treated on the probate form depends whether they were legally
(a) a gift from your mother to you (in which case they are are declared as such on the form)
or
(b) still part of her assets, just rather oddly held in your account.
(in which case they could just be declared as cash savings).

I would think that fewer questions will be asked if they are deemed to still be part of her estate. I would think gifting £xxx,xxx away from the Estate three months before death would raise questions. If it comes out that the gift was to the attorney, that raises even more questions about the actions of the attorney. On the other hand, it doesn't really matter as (i) you have the legal rationale/explanation/backing for the transfer of funds and (ii) you are, anyway, the only beneficiary and (iii) there are no IHT implications as total is below threshold.

I must say I'm surprised (as a sensible layperson) by the legality of the original transfer: >>> we also had an enduring power of attorney in place she had the proceeds from her house transferred to myself as she then became dependent on us for her needs etc and all was legally actioned as part of the conveyancing by her solicitor.

I'm very surprised that a solicitor allowed someone's cash assets to be transferred to a Power of Attorney's own account.
As the Attorney, you need to have been keeping clear accounts of your mother's assets and how they were being used to meet her needs. This would have been best done using a separate bank account NOT mixed up with your own finances.

Equally, I personally find it hard to believe that the proceeds could be deemed a gift to the Attorney.

The obvious thing to do is to go back to the solicitor who transferred the funds, knowing it was a PoA situation. They should be able to explain the legal standing of the proceeds/cash asset. I'm not a lawyer.

getmore4less

What other assets require probate?

You might want to do it anyway for completeness.


if you treat all her assets as hers even those you hold in your accounts she was still the benifitial owner, it should be straightforward.