Probate Interview

mdoran1974

Hi all, wondering if you could help.

My uncle recently passed away and left me and my mother the executors. I have completed the probate paperwork (hopefully correctly!) and am now about to send the forms off.

I just have two questions.

First one is, does it matter which probate office you request for an interview in regards to timescale? I live in Hertfordshire and we are able to get to 3 offices easily, Oxford, Ipswich and London. I think I read that applying to Ipswich would result in the paperwork being processed faster etc.

The second question is what type of questions do they ask in the interview and how long does an average one take? The estate is around £150,000 and no property is involved. I just need to prepare my mum as she gets nervous in these types of situations.

Many thanks for reading this.

Mike

TonyMMM

Yes you can apply to any office, and some arrange interviews elsewhere ( e.g. I applied to Oxford for a death that happened in Lancashire - the interview took place in Slough County Court offices).

The "interview" just really consists of reading an oath to lawfully execute the will and confirming the details on the form are correct - there was nothing deeper than that.

Your mother could also reserve her powers as executor and let you deal with it alone if she doesn't want the stress.

Hermia

I went to a probate office elsewhere as the queue was much shorter than in London. The 'interview' really only takes minutes and is nothing to worry about. They will send you details of what you need to take etc.

getmore4less

Consider using a local solicitor so swear the oath.

Could be cheaper than the fuel and parking to get to a Probate office.

Shelldean

We used a solicitor in the local high street cost fiver and we walked down so no parking or travel expenses.

nom_de_plume

Another vote for using a local solicitor. It was a very simple and painless process and certainly nothing to get nervous about.

mdoran1974

You can swear the oath in a local solicitors? Now I'm confused! lol Do you mean get the solicitor to complete the forms and do the oath or just do the oath at the solicitors?

I thought we completed all the forms, sent them off to the probate office, they checked everything and if everything was ok we would then be invited to complete the oath part of the process. Could it now be that I could send the forms off today and complete the oath this Saturday for example?

I pity the families that have a complicated estate to go through. Ours is very simple and thankfully no one is arguing over any part of the estate.

Many thanks for your time helping me and my family out.

Mike

LutonGirl

We too had a very simple estate to execute. I had to go to London to do my Dad's probate. (Wasn't told about the local option.) This was in 2012 and I saw there was an option to do it in Luton, but when I applied they told me that there's no call for it, so had to go to London.

The date of the appointment was about 4 weeks after submitting the paperwork. It was a very simple procedure - just rock up with two forms of ID.

nom_de_plume

mdoran1974 wrote: »

You can swear the oath in a local solicitors? Now I'm confused! lol Do you mean get the solicitor to complete the forms and do the oath or just do the oath at the solicitors?

I thought we completed all the forms, sent them off to the probate office, they checked everything and if everything was ok we would then be invited to complete the oath part of the process. Could it now be that I could send the forms off today and complete the oath this Saturday for example?

I pity the families that have a complicated estate to go through. Ours is very simple and thankfully no one is arguing over any part of the estate.

Many thanks for your time helping me and my family out.

Mike

Can't remember the procedure for requesting this option but a very quick search produced this result.....

On the first page in the ‘Interview venue’ box write ‘Solicitor’s Office’ and leave the ‘Dates to avoid” box blank.

(That would be at the top of form PA1)

Mattygroves2

mdoran1974 wrote: »

You can swear the oath in a local solicitors? Now I'm confused! lol Do you mean get the solicitor to complete the forms and do the oath or just do the oath at the solicitors?

I thought we completed all the forms, sent them off to the probate office, they checked everything and if everything was ok we would then be invited to complete the oath part of the process. Could it now be that I could send the forms off today and complete the oath this Saturday for example?

I pity the families that have a complicated estate to go through. Ours is very simple and thankfully no one is arguing over any part of the estate.

Many thanks for your time helping me and my family out.

Mike

You need to send the forms to the probate office who will then check everything, satisfy themselves that the taxman is happy and then send you the oath part back and offer you the opportunity to either go in or get it done at a local solicitors. If there are more than one of you you each need to do it. My OH and his sister used local solicitors (but different ones as they live 400 miles apart).

You won't be able to swear the oath on Saturday as the whole process will take a while. In my OH's case it took a month from submitting the forms to him sending the sworn oath back (having being sent round the country) and then about a week for the grant to come back.

Shelldean

mdoran1974, please note what non de plume has written about the form filling in.

It simple to do, we didn't even have an appointment at the solicitors. Just turned up, waited a few minutes. An available solicitor can took my OH ( who was dealing with everything) to side room. Oh just repeated some words after th solicitor along the lines of everything in the form.was accurate. In and out in under five minutes, cost £5.

Form then sent back to probate office, Grant came through shortly afterwards.