Advice on Probate and bank accounts

zelig

Hi I have a few questions that maybe someone could help me with?

My Mum died very recently and left a will which a copy of is with a Solicitor - This named me as Executor and sole beneficiary of will.The house was left to me but only her name is on the Title Deeds.

I have recently booked a quick appointment with the bank as they say they will honour the funeral invoice first then look to arranging a further appointment to close/sort her bank accounts.

I left my job and sold my house 3 years ago ( few 1000 equity which has now gone) and came to care for her - I only recieved £62 a week as an income for cares allowance.

Now - I now find myself wondering how long the whole probate process will take as I have absolutely no income or savings - My Mums estate is worth around - £150,000 which is made up by house £130,00
and bank accounts £20,000

1) Do I get a copy of the will from the solicitors and sort the probate out myself? - Or leave it in the hands of the solicitors - I guess their fee will come out of the estate?
2) Do I need a "Grant of Representation" for the next meeting with the bank?
3) Who will pay Utilities / Council Tax etc
4) Can the bank subsidise me from my mums accounts for anything?


My mums passing is still quite raw and I have delved into sorting all that needs to be sorted asap to keep me busy
I maybe overly thinking and worrying about things but any good advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks Zelig

Yorkshireman99

zelig wrote: »

Hi I have a few questions that maybe someone could help me with?

My Mum died very recently and left a will which a copy of is with a Solicitor - This named me as Executor and sole beneficiary of will.The house was left to me but only her name is on the Title Deeds.

I have recently booked a quick appointment with the bank as they say they will honour the funeral invoice first then look to arranging a further appointment to close/sort her bank accounts.

I left my job and sold my house 3 years ago ( few 1000 equity which has now gone) and came to care for her - I only recieved £62 a week as an income for cares allowance.

Now - I now find myself wondering how long the whole probate process will take as I have absolutely no income or savings - My Mums estate is worth around - £150,000 which is made up by house £130,00
and bank accounts £20,000

1) Do I get a copy of the will from the solicitors and sort the probate out myself? - Or leave it in the hands of the solicitors - I guess their fee will come out of the estate?
2) Do I need a "Grant of Representation" for the next meeting with the bank?
3) Who will pay Utilities / Council Tax etc
4) Can the bank subsidise me from my mums accounts for anything?


My mums passing is still quite raw and I have delved into sorting all that needs to be sorted asap to keep me busy
I maybe overly thinking and worrying about things but any good advice would be most appreciated.

Thanks Zelig

Dont panic! You should be able to deal with probate yourself. For this you need the original will and the death certificate. Some banks will release funds before probate so you need to ask. You will be responsible for paying the utilities and council tax but note that rebates on the latter. Read up on the stickies on this forum. Plenty of hnelp available here if needed.

Flugelhorn

I have found that the utilities have all been happy to wait until is probate is granted for payment - council tax said they will contact me again in 3 months, only thing that had to be paid was house insurance.

Bank have released money from main current account to the executors account they opened for me. - this took 10 days from me seeing them, I took the will and they made their own certified copy and the death certificate. I have an account with the same bank so did not need ID.

Tom99

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You will need probate in order to sell the house, that should take about 1 month.

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You can download all the forms you need here:

[/FONT] [FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/inheritance-tax-forms[/FONT]

Keep_pedalling

Which bank is the cash in? Most will release significant sums without obtaining probate. Barclays for instance will release holdings of up to £30k.

With your meeting with the bank, you need to take in the will, death certificate and proof of your identity.

You don!!!8217;t need to let a solicitor handle the probate, that will just eat into your inheritance.

As you are now the sole occupant you are responsible for the utility bills and council tax. You are no longer entitled to the carers allowance, so if you are capable of work you need to get yourself over to the job center to sign on so you can get job seekers allowance. Ask over on the benefits board about what you are entitled to.

zelig

Thanks all

Yorkshireman99 - I have a copy of the will and I suspect the original then is with the solicitors who originally witnessed it (will was made in 1991) - Can I just get the original and then say "Im dealing with probate myself" ?

Flugelhorn - I have a meeting with the bank in 2 weeks and have all the rellevant docs now

Tom99 - I am living in the house and have no intention of selling? I hope I can still remain there? Thanks for the link

Keep pedalling- The bank is Lloyds she has 2 accounts there a) current (£9600 and b) savings £13.00 - I have rellevant docs already for my meeting and have already been to DWP who say my options are Job Seekers Allowanc (Im 62 now so not to wait for pension !) and ESA for which Im guessing I will need a drs note? - I am scheduled in to the hospital for an operation shortly !!

Many thanks All
Zelig

zelig

Quick note - I read the Lloyds Bank Bereavement FAQ's and it states

"*For accounts, products and services held with us in the sole name of the person who died, we will only need to see the Grant of Probate if the value of the accounts is more than £50,000."

Thats one less worry !

SevenOfNine

Zelig, we did this 2 weeks ago, it took longer to make an appointment with the bereavement person in Lloyds than it did for them to hand over almost £15k.

All you will need is a certified death cert & some ID (usually photo ID & a utility bill, unless you bank with them, in which case just your C/C or D/C will suffice). Took about 15 mins & it was transferred into husband's a/c (as we also bank with Lloyds), otherwise they'll give you a cheque. You'll be asked to sign a form or two, one of which is a disclaimer to protect themselves.

We collected the original Will from the solicitor holding it, he was not named as executor so we just called to say we were coming to get it, they also took a copy of the certified death cert then gave it back. Absolutely no fuss or problems.

I absolutely believe that people underestimate themselves & are more than capable of dealing with the probate & tax forms for a simple estate such as your mums. You have to give a solicitor all the information required to complete the forms anyway & for filling it into the boxes they'll likely A) take longer & charge you in the region of £800.

If you really can't be asked, & happy to kiss goodbye to their fee, then by all means leave it in their hands. But you'll get all the help you need on the probate form itself, & though the tax form may look daunting, it isn't. There is help on it, & also an accompanying 30+ pages to go with it. We didn't print that lot off but just sat with it on screen in case we got stuck. Completed a hard copy of it, then once happy we did an on-line version purely because it looked neater. The probate form I did straight on-line because it was that simple!

You can ask on here about any sections you're unsure about. I think you may surprise yourself.

Land registry will have to wait for probate, so leave that for now, one step/thing at a time.

Bills, afraid you live there so they will be down to you. You will have to change the accounts to your own name. You'll have to call all suppliers of your mum eg energy & water, phone, Sky etc, as it may be that these would be settled from your mum's estate prior to switching them over to you & it's likely you'd have a short 'grace' period for that. Always ask for the bereavement customer services/team to save you going through half of it twice!

As YM has said, council tax first to get your 25% single person discount on.

There will be either payments to make or refunds to process - don't panic. Organise your paperwork & make a list.

Have you used the 'tell us once' service? Doesn't cover that much but at least DWP & local authority will be notified (& passport/driving licence etc - though those weren't high on our list of massively relevant).

badmemory

The carers allowance should run for 8 weeks after your bereavement which should give you a small breathing space before "signing on". Did you use "Tell us once" when registering her death, that should prevent any overpayment escalating which will need repaying?

If you are the executor there is no point in leaving the will with them, in fact as the will is staightforward, why throw money away? Don't let them talk you into letting them deal with it, this is why they like to retain the original of a will after they have written it. You can't do anything without the original so they like to try to have you over a barrel.

zelig

Thanks again - well things have moved quite fast this morning as the bank paid the funeral invoice straight away and as he said "I have some extra time free" the also froze the account , took my bank details and said to me all I would like is to view the original will (which I,m collecting early next week) and once I have given back the cards,cheque books etc then they will pay everything by BACS into my account . Yes I heard that the Carers Allowance carrys on for a few weeks
I got good info from HMRC this morning and they are sending me the relevant forms to fill in for me to apply for probate myself as I only need that for the house.
Yes I have managed to change all utilites etc over to me !! made it easy as I was always a 3rd party account holder !!

So once again many thanks to all who replied - I feel a lot less stressed

Zelig

so thanks again all

Tom99

zelig wrote: »

I got good info from HMRC this morning and they are sending me the relevant forms to fill in for me to apply for probate myself as I only need that for the house.

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Its easier to download the .pdf version of the forms and fill them in on your computer. That way any additions and carry forward figures are automatically populated. You also then had a file copy.[/FONT]