Allowable expenses for probate

lewiskei

Hi Folks,

I am sorting out my deceased parent's estate but the house is 100 miles away from where I live. My brother lives locally but does not want anything to do with sorting things out, he only wants the money at he end of it all. Mum was a compulsive buyer and hoarder so the house was jam packed to the rafters of all sorts of things, and dad lived with my brother for the last 4 years of his life. Therefore, trying to sort out the massively overgrown garden and full house was a huge task. A lot of my family, who also do not live locally, chipped in and helped me to clear everything up.
My question is am I legally allowed to compensate them out of the estate for their expenses (e.g. travel expenses), and am I allowed to treat them (e.g. a meal out) for their time and effort? These would, of course, be reflected in the probate accounts so would all be visible and above board. I just need to know whether I can actually do this or not.

Thanks

Yorkshireman99

lewiskei wrote: »

Hi Folks,

I am sorting out my deceased parent's estate but the house is 100 miles away from where I live. My brother lives locally but does not want anything to do with sorting things out, he only wants the money at he end of it all. Mum was a compulsive buyer and hoarder so the house was jam packed to the rafters of all sorts of things, and dad lived with my brother for the last 4 years of his life. Therefore, trying to sort out the massively overgrown garden and full house was a huge task. A lot of my family, who also do not live locally, chipped in and helped me to clear everything up.
My question is am I legally allowed to compensate them out of the estate for their expenses (e.g. travel expenses), and am I allowed to treat them (e.g. a meal out) for their time and effort? These would, of course, be reflected in the probate accounts so would all be visible and above board. I just need to know whether I can actually do this or not.

Thanks

Only genuine expenses incurred are permissible. Anything else is not. The HMR&C rate of 45p per mile is very generous IMHO.

Malthusian

If it was me I would just suggest to my brother that the two of us treat everyone who has helped out of our own inheritance money, and if/when he demurs, pay for it myself. I was planning on paying half the cost anyway (assuming that the estate is being divided between the two brothers equally, ignoring Inheritance Tax, then half of any expenses paid by the estate come out of my inheritance) so paying the other half is not going to hurt much when it's coming out of the windfall of an inheritance.

That avoids any potential legal issues and the cost to me - of not being able to foist half of the cost of the meal unwillingly onto my brother - is IMO not worth worrying about.

Obviously this assumes the OP is a beneficiary and there is a significant amount to inherit.

lewiskei

Thanks for the replies, so just to be 100% clear in my head, are you saying that I could legally pay them their travelling expenses out of the estate as they were actually incurred, but treating them to a meal is not a genuine expense and would have to be paid by myself?

walwyn1978

lewiskei wrote: »

Thanks for the replies, so just to be 100% clear in my head, are you saying that I could legally pay them their travelling expenses out of the estate as they were actually incurred, but treating them to a meal is not a genuine expense and would have to be paid by myself?

Yes, that's right.

getmore4less

you ned to be careful executors expenses are for your reasonable expenses.

helpers are not executors so their expenses need to be identfied seperately.

getmore4less

Should have added

As they are not expenses that effect any tax HMRC won't care, the only people that need to be happy they are "reasonable" are the beneficiaries.

Although you can't claim for your time you can engage people to do work for you. (solicitors, accountants, house clearance etc.)

Something like paying for their travel, subsitances, feeding them during the day or at the end berore they traveled home or went to overnight accomodation paid if needed if they were doing 2 days would be OK if the beneficiaries agreed.

here is an example of where a beneficiary was a charity.....

http://boards.fool.co.uk/dear-wirtz-ill-try-to-answer-your-queries-ie-7032296.aspx

I did deal with an estate where the executor did not live in the same town as the deceased and so had to travel there and stay in a B&B while they arranged the funeral and house clearance. She put in a claim for all her expenses including meals with wine, for herself and her husband - I got about half of the full sum agreed by the other beneficiaries of the estate who were charities. Somehow they didn't think it was reasonable for the estate to pay for her wine!

as has been said already agree with your brother sitable compensation for their efforts.

Maybe he won't even bother to ask for the "inventory and account" where any expenses would be itemised(how detailed would be up to you) and just be happy when £XXX appears in his account.