Dying intestate - obligations of next of kin?

Moose1960

Looking for advice for my elderly parents.

My mother has just been informed that her elder brother has died. Naturally she is upset but not really wracked with grief. They were not estranged but neither were they close - he lived a good distance away and the only contact for years has been the exchange of Christmas cards.

He lived and died alone and Mum has been contacted by the police as they found something in his flat naming her as next of kin. The cause will be determined by autopsy (unexplained death, but no suggestion of suspicious circumstances) and parents are awaiting a call from the coroner. We don't think that he'd made a will and doubt that he has a large estate (rented accommodation for all his life, no career to speak of).

Early days then, but parents' immediate concern is what obligations, if any, Mum may have as next of kin. Both are elderly themselves, not in the greatest health and ill equipped to be driving a long distance to the brother's home town and dealing with banks and all of the other administration that death unfortunately occasions.

Naturally I'll help them where I can and some or all of their questions may be answered anyway in the course of developments in the next few days.

I haven't tried Google yet and thought I would turn to the good people here first:

Does the next of kin have any obligations to take on the administration? If not, and they either do not want or are unable to get involved, what happens? Are there reputable professional service providers who will carry it out for a reasonable fee without fleecing the bereaved?

Keep_pedalling

If the estate is solvent, anything left after funeral expenses will be inherited by his siblings, so it would be down top them to administer the estate. The costs of a solisitor doing that would hammer a small estate, and with no property involves it should be easy enough for a non professional to do.

If the estate is insolvent then she should not get involved.

The first thing to establish therefore is whether the estate has any worthwhile assets, so someone needs to go through his paperwork.

Linton

As Keep Pedalling says.

There is no legal obligation on the next of kin to administer the estate, but if there are any assets it presumably would be sensible for the beneficiaries to sort it out. If Mum and any other people of her brother's generation arent really able to do the work you could apply to become the administrator, or could do the administration on behalf of your mother.

Margot123

There are no legal obligations for the next of kin to do anything, and in this circumstance it may be the best thing, even though that may appear uncaring.

You need to be aware that whoever arranges the deceased's funeral is liable for the cost, and that can't always be recovered (ie when there are insufficient funds in the estate).
Even if there is enough, the cost may have to be shouldered by the 'arranger' in the meantime, which could be years in the case of intestacy. Even a simple funeral can cost c.£3k.

The deceased may be entitled to a social fund payment if they were in receipt of certain benefits but I would let the relevant authorities sort that out.

Yorkshireman99

Margot123 wrote: »

There are no legal obligations for the next of kin to do anything, and in this circumstance it may be the best thing, even though that may appear uncaring.

You need to be aware that whoever arranges the deceased's funeral is liable for the cost, and that can't always be recovered (ie when there are insufficient funds in the estate).
Even if there is enough, the cost may have to be shouldered by the 'arranger' in the meantime, which could be years in the case of intestacy. Even a simple funeral can cost c.£3k.

The deceased may be entitled to a social fund payment if they were in receipt of certain benefits but I would let the relevant authorities sort that out.

If there are no funds the local authority HAS to pay and nobody can be forced to contribute. I fanyone arranges the funeral they are legally liable to pay so be careful. Next of kin is meaningless in most ways and implies no liability. If you know who his abk or building society is you myust notify them without delay.

getmore4less

There is no obligation to do anything.


One early decision to make is do you want to secure for safekeeping any paperwork or potentially sentimental items.

This may require a visit to the property as the landlord will be keen to progress vacancy.

Margot123

getmore4less wrote: »

There is no obligation to do anything.


One early decision to make is do you want to secure for safekeeping any paperwork or potentially sentimental items.

This may require a visit to the property as the landlord will be keen to progress vacancy.

Why would any next of kin in these people's situation have to do anything when there is no requirement?
For their own sake, they would be best to leave EVERYTHING to the authorities and not be involved in any way except perhaps attending the funeral.

Once they intermeddle with bank accounts etc, they could then be expected to do everything as they have accepted responsibility just by being kindly. It would open a can of (expensive and time consuming) worms for them.

getmore4less

Margot123 wrote: »

Why would any next of kin in these people's situation have to do anything when there is no requirement?
For their own sake, they would be best to leave EVERYTHING to the authorities and not be involved in any way except perhaps attending the funeral.

Once they intermeddle with bank accounts etc, they could then be expected to do everything as they have accepted responsibility just by being kindly. It would open a can of (expensive and time consuming) worms for them.

They don't have to do anything.

Securing property and making initial solvency enquiries is not committing anyone to anything.

Some people like to tidy things up

Keep_pedalling

Margot123 wrote: »

Why would any next of kin in these people's situation have to do anything when there is no requirement?
For their own sake, they would be best to leave EVERYTHING to the authorities and not be involved in any way except perhaps attending the funeral.

Once they intermeddle with bank accounts etc, they could then be expected to do everything as they have accepted responsibility just by being kindly. It would open a can of (expensive and time consuming) worms for them.

Checking the deceased paperwork and informing the bank of their demise does not count as intermeddling. If you can positively assess whether the estate is solvent or not, you can then make an informed decision what to do. I certainly would not simply leave this for others to deal with if I thought there was a chance that there was an inheritance to deal with, you never know how much even poorest looking individual has squirreled away in there lifetime.

Certainly don't look at organizing a funeral, unless you know there is enough in his estate to pay for it.

Moose1960

Thank you all for the useful replies so far.

Margot123 - yes, I did think that the suggestion of simply not getting involved might seem uncaring but realistically it is just an unfortunate fact of life (and death) - if there has been no contact or relationship for decades then blood ties shouldn't confer onerous obligations.

Coroner's office has called and confirmed that the autopsy will not be until next week.

I guess that as a minimum I'll arrange to drive parents to his home and spend the day sorting through his things. We've found today that he lived in sheltered accommodation and I don't know what obligations the housing association has with regard to retaining his stuff. I'll hopefully be speaking to them tomorrow, but does anyone here know?

Savvy_Sue

Moose1960 wrote: »

We've found today that he lived in sheltered accommodation and I don't know what obligations the housing association has with regard to retaining his stuff. I'll hopefully be speaking to them tomorrow, but does anyone here know?

They are likely to want the accommodation cleared ASAP to minimise the length of the vacancy, however they are also likely to charge the normal notice period for the tenancy. If you can phone them today, I would. If they just don't hear they may assume no-one's coming and do the clearout themselves.