Probate? - deceased spouse

TheGardener

A relatives husband has passed away. They jointly (not tenants in common) own outright a property worth about £100K and there are no other holdings in excess of £10K just a small joint savings account and a current account. Does auntie need to apply for probate - or does it all just transfer to her? They both have wills leaving everything to each other.

TonyMMM

Probably not - the property and joint savings account will pass to the survivor automatically. So it depends if any other accounts or investments were in his sole name and then in which institutions the accounts are held. They each have different policies and amounts that they require probate for.

TheGardener

No - nothing other than the 2 joint accounts and the house. So won't need to apply for probate as I'm guessing there is nothing to sort?

TonyMMM

If there are no assets in his sole name then he leaves no estate and the will is irrelevant (and no probate required).

Apart from notifying the bank, who will want to see a death certificate, there is nothing else really to be done.

TheGardener

excellent - many thanks

Yorkshireman99

The only caveat is if there are any potentially unknown debts like credit card accounts. It is not unkown for people to have these and not tell their spouse.

TheGardener

Well if there were - the accounts are not at their home address. He's been in hospital for 2 months and there has been no unusual/unexpected post but always worth checking I guess.