Going Through Probate but There's a Question

Nero2016

We have a solicitor dealing with my late Father In-law's estate (Mother in-law passed away two years ago) and it was all going smoothly but something has arisen that we are struggling to deal with. The mortgage was paid off a few years ago but it looks as though there may have been a secured loan taken out at some point and it's showing against the house. The problem is that other than the name of the company, we can't find any other details in any paperwork and the company are alternating between ignoring the solicitor and saying they will only deal with the account holders!
The solicitor has decided to put in for probate anyway so that we can at least access some funds but has said that we cannot sell the house with this hanging over it. We are sure that whatever it was must have been paid off already as they would have been asking for payments by now (he died in July), but until they confirm that, we are stuck. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we might sort this out? Things have even got to the point that we have offered to take the account holders in to see them, but warned them that unless they can provide a medium the conversation might be a bit one-sided...:D

p00hsticks

Nero2016 wrote: »

We are sure that whatever it was must have been paid off already as they would have been asking for payments by now (he died in July),

If it was some sort of equity release loan they may not be expecting any payment until the house is sold ?

martinthebandit

I would be looking at bank statements to see when money was last paid to, or received from, them to give a clue as to what it is about.

Nero2016

There's nothing in the bank statements that we have found so far that shows anything. My in-laws were pretty good at keeping paperwork and the only thing we've found from the same company was a payment plan they got when the boiler was replaced ten years ago. It is possible that it was taken out in my mother in-law's name only as she was working and he wasn't, but when she became ill they paid everything up that was owing in her name because they knew that the outlook wasn't good. The company was G.E.Money.

Mojisola

Nero2016 wrote: »

the company are alternating between ignoring the solicitor and saying they will only deal with the account holders!

Some companies can be really difficult when dealing with probate issues. Sorting out my father's estate was delayed for months because one insurance company insisted that they could only to pay out to my mother, despite having been sent her death certificate.

To my mind, there's no excuse for companies not to have the mechanisms in place to manage things after a death.

lincroft1710

If it was equity release then GE Money are behaving very oddly as surely they would expect solicitors to contact them when GEM's clients have died and the property needs to be sold or transferred to them

Nero2016

I don't think that they took out any equity release plans because I'm pretty sure that they would have told us and that we would have found some paperwork about it. It's just so frustrating that G.E. are being so difficult over something that I suspect could be dealt with quite easily if they would just speak to us or the solicitor.

Yorkshireman99

Nero2016 wrote: »

We have a solicitor dealing with my late Father In-law's estate (Mother in-law passed away two years ago) and it was all going smoothly but something has arisen that we are struggling to deal with. The mortgage was paid off a few years ago but it looks as though there may have been a secured loan taken out at some point and it's showing against the house. The problem is that other than the name of the company, we can't find any other details in any paperwork and the company are alternating between ignoring the solicitor and saying they will only deal with the account holders!
The solicitor has decided to put in for probate anyway so that we can at least access some funds but has said that we cannot sell the house with this hanging over it. We are sure that whatever it was must have been paid off already as they would have been asking for payments by now (he died in July), but until they confirm that, we are stuck. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we might sort this out? Things have even got to the point that we have offered to take the account holders in to see them, but warned them that unless they can provide a medium the conversation might be a bit one-sided...:D

Surely the solicitor is employed to sort this out. What do they say is the next step?

Nero2016

Well, she's putting in for probate anyway so hopefully the bank account will be released. The bank won't talk to anybody until that has happened (really helpful - not). When it is, we might at least be able to check back through the records. Unfortunately, bank statements were the one bit of paperwork (apart from anything to do with this G.E. thing it seems) the in-laws didn't keep that well after you could get mini statements from the ATM . We've found things like a full service history for a car from 1976, but bank statements have been few and far between.

Yorkshireman99

The solicitor should be speaking to somebody more senior at the bank. It sounds like she is not doing the job she is paid for.

Nero2016

Well we're going to see her in the next few days so hopefully she can shed some light on exactly what is going on. This should have been really straightforward, it's upsetting that it is dragging and in the meantime we are trying to pay bills on two houses. The Gas and Electric aren't much, but it's extra going out that we could do without.