Halifax and Probate

oldsmokie

I've just received the grant of probate for my late father's estate plus the six copies I requested.

The majority of my father's savings are in a Halifax sharedealing account. The t&cs of this account seem to require that I send them either original grant of probate or one of the copies certified by a solicitor of a JP.

I'm reluctant to send the original grant for obvious reasons but can Halifax really insist on a certified copy rather than accept the court embossed copy that I've received?

Has anyone had experience of dealing with Halifax in this situation?

LardyCake

Surely the court embossed copy is a "certified copy" (the embossing being the certificate from the court that it is a genuine copy).

So they should be fine with that.

oldsmokie

I'll give it a go but the t&cs refer to a copy certified by a solicitor, notary or JP. I'll give them a ring to check.

noh

What they are referring to is a photocopy.
Its usual when a solicitor is dealing with the probate for them to photocopy the the certificate and then certify it as a true copy.
The extra certificates you have from the court are as good as the original.

CLAPTON

the 'original' of the grant of probate in the entry held by the state : what you think of as the 'original' is only a copy anyway (just like birth and death certificates)


so as noh has said your official 'copies' are sufficient for the financial institutions

Jim431

When I had to do this I took the GOP into my local branch and they copied it and certified the copy was genuine and posted it with the forms to their Probate debt using their in-house post system.

Can't remember which Bank/Building Soc it was - but you can ask.

Sophie-1

I've handled two estates and the original grants of probate were acceptable by all the financial institutions I dealt with.

oldsmokie

Thanks for the advice.

Well it's good news and irritating news.

Halifax accepted all of the documents I sent them and asked me to complete a couple of forms to arrange for the transfer of the cash and shareholdings to my sharedealing account as sole beneficiary under the will. They asked me to send them a cheque for £42 to cover the costs of the transfer.

These forms arrived a couple of weeks after my last post and shortly after I went overseas for a month.

I returned three weeks ago and sent the forms and cheque. Nothing has happened. I spoke to Halifax today and they told me that they are still processing the forms. They also told me that they would be issuing a cheque for the cash balance and that there shouldn't have been a charge for the share transfers!

When I asked why it was taking a while they told me that all of this had to be "authorised". Given that probate is effectively a high court order, I'm not sure that authorisation really comes into it but as the amounts are quite large and I suppose they need to tick their boxes.

I think I'll give them another couple of weeks after which their feet dragging will become unacceptable.

oldsmokie

Does anyone have a view on how long this process should take?