Guide discussion: Probate: How to do it yourself

topsy73

I applied for probate in mid April for my husbands estate...thankfully he left a will and although all left to me in my maiden name everything was straightforward - I had been quoted approx £1080 by my solicitor but approx 2 hrs of my time filling in the IHT form and the probate form costing me only £222.  I received an email yesterday to advise it had been granted and considering these difficult times I am really pleased with the turnaround.  I was given a few pointers by a friend which helped....if you go through a solicitor I have been advised it can take months as many will also get an official valuation of any property whereas a Zoopla estimate is just enough

Mojisola

topsy73 said:

if you go through a solicitor I have been advised it can take months as many will also get an official valuation of any property whereas a Zoopla estimate is just enough

It depends - if you employ the solicitor to do the work but stay as executor, these decisions are down to you.  For example, our solicitor advised me to put an advert in the Gazette but, because I'd been managing Mum and Dad's finances for years and knew there were no unknown debts, I didn't bother.  (He made a note in the records to cover his back if anything did turn up.)

jasper65

I have completed IHT400 and the supplementary forms to the best of my ability. Has anyone asked a solicitor to look at the forms and back up before i send them off to make sure they look reasonable ? Does anyone know a solicitor that will do this ? I was quoted £4k plus VAT so thought I would have a go myself using a diy probate service and I think I have done everything right, just want that litte bit of comfort.

badger09

jasper65 said:

I have completed IHT400 and the supplementary forms to the best of my ability. Has anyone asked a solicitor to look at the forms and back up before i send them off to make sure they look reasonable ? Does anyone know a solicitor that will do this ? I was quoted £4k plus VAT so thought I would have a go myself using a diy probate service and I think I have done everything right, just want that litte bit of comfort.

I doubt any solicitor would be willing to do this on an informal basis.

Is there any IHT payable? If the estate is over the IHT limit or close to it, you need to be careful with any estimated values.  Several of us have dealt with relatively complicated estates involving IHT 400 & multiple schedules. Feel free to post here any figures or calcs that you're not sure about.   

jasper65

Thank you for the reply . The estate is over the limit at 370kish but there is scope to do a deed of variation transferring some quoted shares to the Spouse which will then be treated as an exempt transfer, I am planning to get it down to 315-320K so have a bit of a buffer.The only estimated value will be a memorial as we are unable to book a burial plot at the moment due to Covid. If I can start off with IHT 403 Box 20 Gifts out of Income, annual gifts were always made in January or February year after the fiscal year in which the calculations were made, so the last distribution was made in Feb 2019 out of the surplus income from the tax year ending April 2018....i have put the numbers in for the YE April 2018 as the first Tax Year on the form ...is this right...?  
I have had the house valued by the people who are selling new homes on the same site, do I need another valuation as this is a Spouse exempt transfer ?  
Also there is a SIPP that the Managers have said will be now distributed to the beneficiaries, is there anywhere on the IHT 409 where I should out this or is it completely outside the scope and can be ignored ?
Thanks in advance if you can help....

wizzywilc

"I have completed IHT400 and the supplementary forms to the best of my ability. Has anyone asked a solicitor to look at the forms and back up before i send them off to make sure they look reasonable ? Does anyone know a solicitor that will do this ?"
Yes, I did just this, and it was worth doing, as the solicitor spotted an allowance carry forward that I'd missed, so it the exercise saved us money. It was quite a large estate with IHT to pay.
The work was done alongside a Deed of Variation and the total cost for both was £648 including VAT. We used a local firm and the work was done by a STEP qualified solicitor. I'd asked the solicitor to "Check the IHT 400 forms before submission to ensure that they comply with HMRC requirements. We do not require you to look at the paperwork behind this, which is mostly correspondence from financial institutions giving valuations at date of death".   
Obviously fees would be much higher if you need the solicitor to look at the background paperwork too. You might consider asking a trusted person to check that you haven't made any transcription errors, or just ask the solicitor to check any sections you're not sure about. I didn't have any such queries, because if ever I was unsure I rang the HMRC helpline, who were always helpful.

CR27

I've just started applying for Probate and notice that there is no mention of the need for an IHT Ref No which takes 15 days in the post, probably more at the moment, and its needed on the IHT400 form before you send this off. 
And, after a phone call with the very helpful IHT Govt Helpline person today, he was clear I needed to do a IHT421 form too with the IHT400 form. Have I misunderstood something or is the information not up to date???
  

summertime08

Hi my disabled son passed away his dad and I cared for him for 35yrs he had no dependents and no property as he always lived at home he didn’t have a will.
I filled out C1 and C5 forms and they have been sent back stating I need a bond of caution and should consult a solicitor. 
I phoned a solicitor and she said that I need to apply to be executor dative before I can apply for confirmation she said to get a bond of caution I need to let the solicitor deal with everything and they charge £200+hourly rate I thought I was able to do this myself but now I’m worrying that I might have to pay all this money to a solicitor

Savvy_Sue

summertime08 said:

Hi my disabled son passed away his dad and I cared for him for 35yrs he had no dependents and no property as he always lived at home he didn’t have a will.
I filled out C1 and C5 forms and they have been sent back stating I need a bond of caution and should consult a solicitor. 
I phoned a solicitor and she said that I need to apply to be executor dative before I can apply for confirmation she said to get a bond of caution I need to let the solicitor deal with everything and they charge £200+hourly rate I thought I was able to do this myself but now I’m worrying that I might have to pay all this money to a solicitor

By the sound of it, you're in Scotland, so with the caution that the law may be different up there, do you actually need to do anything? What does his estate consist of? 

Breynia

Not sure if this is the right place to post this but I’m in desperate need of help. 

My mother died in September after being coerced (I believe) by my gambling and cocaine addicted son, into changing her will. Not particularly bothered by this but she left myself, two daughters and said son as executors. On getting hold of her banks statements, I find out that my son had transferred 17k from her Barclays account and 75k from her Lloyd’s account in the three months preceding her death, to himself,  He had previously persuaded her to do online banking so had all her passwords. He was very clever, as by transferring the money in blocks of around 2/3k at a time from her current accounts, into her savings accounts, then into his account, the banks didn’t flag it up as unusual activity (big loophole in bank security there, so beware)
he is now refusing to sign anything even tho my mother bought a flat for him and his kids and had left it to them in her will. My problem is, can I go ahead and apply for probate and sort the tax out, without his signature? I also need to find out how to remove him as an executor without spending an arm and a leg on solicitors. I’ve involved the police but they are powerless because my mother is now dead (even though one transfer was done whilst she lay dying in hospital)