How to claim money owed from an estate?

John_Pierpoint

We are assuming that this estate is in England ?!

I am reasonably close to central London, so I can call in and check if the will has been "proved" and probate granted. The central probate office used to print off a copy within (say) an hour or so on the basis of come back after lunch and pick up your "admon"; however last time I needed to get a copy of a will and its grant of probate/letters of administration, I discovered that this administration had been moved into the law courts in The Strand and they are not as cooperative and it became a case of "pay us to send you a copy by post or call back to collect it in three day's time".

I don't know if the regional probate offices offer a similar service, but the advantage is that if you search yourself you can be reasonably sure you have found the right death [I always remember getting one of the clerks to help me search and she triumphantly found the correct name and initials and even roughly the right part of the country BUT the value of the estate was about £10,000 not the six figure sum I was expecting - so we carried on and about an hour later found the correct will. OK this was before computerisation, but it does not work like Google and make helpful suggestions about near misses.]

Now tell , me your client's name is "Smith".:eek:

Someone has already suggested searching the London Gazette;
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/

However death and bankruptcy work much the same way, and a next of kin or executor can grab he money and do a runner, without bothering with the 2 month notice. - a bit more difficult if there is real estate involved.

Have a read of this, it will give you a feel of just how complicated the "simple" income tax can get, never mind the other taxes such as VAT and Inheritance Tax, when someone dies.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/sammanual/sam90010.htm

Even HMRC gets twitchy about missing a "Section 27" notice.
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/manuals/tsemmanual/tsem7256.htm

https://www.probatewizard.co.uk/guides/section-27-notice-to-creditors.html

If it is any consolation 97% of estates get sorted out from the tax man's perspective within 2 years.

It can be a stressful time, it has happened to me in the sum of £1,500; but eventually a cheque with nothing but a compliments slip came through the post.