Probate Required?

Catswhiska

Dad passed away 10 months ago. Mum in care home. Dad left his share of the house to us. House is now up for sale to eventually fund mums care. I now expect Mum to pass away in the next few months. Will probate be required again? Savings less than £20000, house valued at £200,000.
Many thanks

Yorkshireman99

Has your mother got mental capacity?

Catswhiska

We have LPA for her

Brighty

Forgetting about the house for the moment. You may need get probate just for the savings. all depends what bank(s) it's with and what their limit is on releasing funds without probate, the limit varies from bank to bank.

Regarding the house, i would think you would need probate again if a house sale was not completeted before mum passes. Even then, where would her half the sale proceeds sit? If in a bank account in her name, then see my first paragraph.

Yorkshireman99

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Has your mother got mental capacity?

You probably can't sell the house using the POA. If she dies then you will need probate.

Brighty

Some good info here on POA selling houses
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-3721671/Can-use-Power-Attorney-sell-95-year-old-mum-s-house.html

Yorkshireman99

Brighty wrote: »

Some good info here on POA selling houses
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/pensions/article-3721671/Can-use-Power-Attorney-sell-95-year-old-mum-s-house.html

Thanks for that link Attornies really ne paid for professional advice in such circumstances.

Keep_pedalling

One of the reasons we have set up LPAs is to allow our attorneys to sell the house in such circumstances as these. You don't need specialist advice to do the selling bit, but would be wise to do so if the donor was going to depend on those funds for a considerable amount of time. Where the donor has little time left, I would do no more than make sure the money is safe.

If the house is sold before mother dies then probate could be avoided by placing the cash across a number of banks to keep the sums below what each bank will release without probate, e.g. £3k Barclays, £50k Lloyds.

The big difficulty I see is if your mother dies before the house is sold, The LPA will cease immediately and the house could not be sold until probate was obtained for her estate, which would almost certainly scupper any sale that was in progress. As there is a very high risk of that happening it might be better to hold fire on the sale for the time being, even consider renting the place out for the short term.

Catswhiska

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

One of the reasons we have set up LPAs is to allow our attorneys to sell the house in such circumstances as these. You don't need specialist advice to do the selling bit, but would be wise to do so if the donor was going to depend on those funds for a considerable amount of time. Where the donor has little time left, I would do no more than make sure the money is safe.

If the house is sold before mother dies then probate could be avoided by placing the cash across a number of banks to keep the sums below what each bank will release without probate, e.g. £3k Barclays, £50k Lloyds.

The big difficulty I see is if your mother dies before the house is sold, The LPA will cease immediately and the house could not be sold until probate was obtained for her estate, which would almost certainly scupper any sale that was in progress. As there is a very high risk of that happening it might be better to hold fire on the sale for the time being, even consider renting the place out for the short term.

Thanks for that. When we did probate for Dad it only took 3 weeks so that doesn’t concern me too much. Her assets are very simple, just savings in one account and half the value of her home. Better to start the selling process before the house starts to feel unloved and a bit musty

badmemory

Catswhiska wrote: »

Thanks for that. When we did probate for Dad it only took 3 weeks so that doesn’t concern me too much. Her assets are very simple, just savings in one account and half the value of her home. Better to start the selling process before the house starts to feel unloved and a bit musty

As long as there is no possibility of her going back to the house, then the sooner the better. We sold as soon as Mum stopped asking how her house was (heartbreaking) but it was only 3 months of answering its fine we check it every week no problems. It was just a drain on the money available for her care. The care home expected her to last for 10 years so it was an issue, as her heart etc was very strong. With care it would almost have lasted. All you can do is the best you can in their interests, but houses do deteriorate remarkably quickly when unoccupied.

Catswhiska

badmemory wrote: »

As long as there is no possibility of her going back to the house, then the sooner the better. We sold as soon as Mum stopped asking how her house was (heartbreaking) but it was only 3 months of answering its fine we check it every week no problems. It was just a drain on the money available for her care. The care home expected her to last for 10 years so it was an issue, as her heart etc was very strong. With care it would almost have lasted. All you can do is the best you can in their interests, but houses do deteriorate remarkably quickly when unoccupied.

No chance she will return home. It has given us time to slowly empty it but it is a drain on her money, although water and council tax are nil. We have another year of her savings left but time to move forward now I think.