Applying for probate while moving house

WARBURI

Hello all

My grandmother sadly passed away on 28 July. I was named as executor in her will and am in the process of applying for a grant of representation and filling out inheritance tax forms (I am not doing this via a solicitor).

To make things more complicated (and stressful) we are also in the process of moving house and have an anticipated completion date of 28 August. I am in a little bit of a quandary over what address I should be supplying on the probate form - my existing one or my new one? There doesn't seem to be any space for informing of an impending change of address.

I am a little anxious that the Royal Mail forwarding service is not 100% reliable and if I supply my new address now and they do checks they will see I have nothing registered at that address.

Would it be advisable to wait until we have moved? Any advice would be appreciated.

FreeBear

There is generally no rush to apply for probate. If the estate is valued at more than £325,000 (inheritance tax threshold) you have six months to get the paperwork in before HMRC levy penalties. If below the IHT threshold, take your time. There is currently a delay of six to eight weeks between sending the forms off and probate being granted - On that basis alone, if you sent the forms of today, you'd have moved by the time the grants come back.

It won't hurt to wait until after you have moved - Use the time to identify and value all the assets and notify the bodies that need to be made aware of the passing of your grandmother. DWP, banks, local council, etc.

As for Royal Mail forwarding post, there are some mail that they can not forward by law - Mainly stuff from the DWP & council, especially if it is marked "Do Not Redirect".

WARBURI

Many thanks for your response. I will at least make a start on the forms and then can arrange to submit the probate application form along with inheritance tax form (the form where inheritance tax is not required to be paid) once I have moved and updated my address with my own financial institutions, DVLA etc.

WARBURI

FreeBear wrote: »

As for Royal Mail forwarding post, there are some mail that they can not forward by law - Mainly stuff from the DWP & council, especially if it is marked "Do Not Redirect".

This is something I did not realise. If you receive this type of mail, would Royal Mail advise you that this type of mail has been sent to your old address?

getmore4less

The problem is your enquiries(sending of death cert and request for info) now will be at the old address where you may want the replies to go to the new one.

The probate application can definitely wait.

Savvy_Sue

I'd second waiting until you have moved. You've only got an anticipated completion date. I've two situations in mind:

our own move 15+ years ago where we were gazumped a few weeks before the planned exchange - it took my own brother several years to get his address book correct as I'd given him the anticipated new address.

selling my late mother's house: after making an offer in January, the buyers were pressing for completion by the end of March. We finally exchanged and completed on the same day in late June.

As has already been said, the only 'issue' with this is if IHT is due. However, it wouldn't surprise me if HMRC had a mechanism for paying it before probate had been completed, should that be necessary.

wwl

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

As has already been said, the only 'issue' with this is if IHT is due. However, it wouldn't surprise me if HMRC had a mechanism for paying it before probate had been completed, should that be necessary.

I sent off forms for probate & IHT a couple of weeks ago.
IHT is auto-calculated if you fill in the PDF forms, and there is a form (423 I think) you can send to the bank at the same time instructing them to pay the calculated IHT direct to HMRC.
Obviously there may be some adjustment later, but I'm sure it's not beyond the capability of HMRC (or Probate office) to deal with being notified of a change of address at some point in the process.