No probate record after 3 months+

VBW

A member of the family is the executor of his brother's will and has made it clear he intends to ignore the laws of probate and take more than his entitlement. However, he is the only one in the family with a copy of the will.

I did a search online on the HMCS site to get a copy of the will, but it returned zero results. I sent the search request form to the probate registry in Leeds and paid the £10. They replied that the will was not registered.

It is at least 3 months since the executor told us probate had been granted. The executor is using a solicitor, so everything should be in order. But it is suspect that the probate registry does not have a record.

Gingernutty

Do you know the name of the solicitor?

If he has handed the will to the solicitor, then the will must be adhered to regardless of what your relative wants.

The solicitor is duty bound to follow the terms of the will and the will should be/should soon become public record.

However, if your relative has dishonestly told the solicitor that there is no will, then intestacy rules apply.

Can you contact the solicitor to ascertain what's going on?

VBW

That's the problem. The executor has kept everything secret. We only know what has been allocated by verbal communication. None of us has seen the will and no-one even knows the name of the solicitor.

GaleSF63

It does seem to me that in spite of all the fuss about making sure a will is legal and done properly it is still a very hit and miss affair, and very dependent on who has possession of or has seen the will. I was my mother's executor and also sole beneficiary, but if there had been half a dozen other beneficiaries, how would any of them know unless I told them? Once I had the grant of probate every organisation involved sent any money due, to me; there seems to be no one to check up whether I did things honestly and correctly. It's all done including the tax return, but I still have this feeling that I should be justifying it to someone.

And having done it all quite recently, so I do remember the process quite clearly, I don't see how the executor in your case will get very far without a grant of probate, unless there was very little money involved.

Is the estate likely to be big enough for probate?

Are you sure a solicitor is involved or could that be a lie?

And is it in England/Wales? If it was in Scotland I expect you would have to contact a different organisation about the will.

Crabapple

If there's no record at the Probate Registry then no Grant has been issued.

As mentioned by GaleSF it is possible that there are not many assets and a Grant has not been required.

The Executor may only be saying that he has instructed a Solicitor, or perhaps they have but only to get a Grant out. It's quite common for people to get a bit worried by the legal paperwork and pay a set fee for getting the document, then go off and collect and distribute themselves.

If you're entitled to a share of the Estate you are also entitled to see an account of all monies recieved and debts settled and how all shares have been calculated.

It sounds like either this is a very small Estate, or the Executor has not yet done anything.

Possibly the only way you have to ensure things are done correctly is to speak to a Solicitor yourself, and perhaps enter a caveat. The size of the Estate is a big factor in any decision about that - it could get eaten up in legal fees.