Probate: Grant of Admin..

Zippy10

Evening,

My father passed away recently without a valid will in place. I am now looking at applying for a grant of administration to deal with the estate that would be split equally between myself and my sister.

I notice on the forms it asks for the value and also the debts of the estate. I have no recent information relating to debts, I am aware that debt does exist from letters dating back to 2012-2013 and I am making the assumption that these are still outstanding.

I have tried to contact credit reporting agency's but they are unwilling to help until i have administration powers.

How accurate does these need to be and how much evidence do I need to supply in order to gain probate?

The value of the estate is not expected to exceed £100k. So IHT will not come into play for this.

Yorkshireman99

Given the estate value you can forget them as far as the LOA application is concerned.

Keep_pedalling

Where you have evidence of outstanding debt over the last 6 years prior to death (anything over that should be time barred and cannot be enforced) you need to write to the companies concerned explaining the death and requesting details of any amount outstanding together with proof of the debt.

Once you have LOA you also need to place a notice in the London Gazette, and, assuming property is involved in a local paper as well.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/wills-and-probate/place-a-deceased-estates-notice.

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/wills-and-probate/place-a-deceased-estates-notice

Yorkshireman99

The OP needs to be careful that he does not acknowledge the debts that are over six old as this can reactivate the liability. Also note that the fact a debt is statute barred does not mean it is still not owed, simply that the debtor cannot enforce it. Technically it is still owed unless, and until, the creditor writes it off.