Probate Advice

foju2019

Hello,
I've learned a lot from this forum already so thank you. First time post though.

Currently applying for probate as executor for a family friend and looking for some reassurance that I'm doing the right thing(s).
The estate is over the IHT threshold but as he was widowed relatively recently and all of his wife's estate passed directly to him so her whole £325000 transfers to him to total £650000. No gifts given or anything like that. That then more than covers it all so should be no IHT to pay.

I have got an estate agents valuation for the house, and a valuation for the car which are the only 2 items of any value. He was a firm believer in not replacing anything until it was broken so in the contents of his house there is nothing worth any money. We have gone through everything and managed to estimate total contents to £655. That is generous. We will probably have to pay for someone to take it all away. Is this likely to be queried? We have made a record of everything regardless of value. There is no single item worth over £500.
I just feel nervous of that value being so low.

I along with the other joint exector have done everything ourselves without a solicitor. He had a will, his paperwork was very organised and meticulous and we feel like we have all of the information we need. Are there any pitfalls we should be aware of before we go ahead and apply online ourseives?

As I'm sure you'll tell we have not done this before.

Many thanks in advance.

Keep_pedalling

I certainly would not worry about the low value of contents as that is very common. I know of one estate valued at well over £1M and the house contents made up just £500 of the total.

Tom99

Since no IHT is involved a round sum of £500 would be fine.

nervousnovice

Currently doing something similar, and thought the some old dark wood/mahogany furniture, eg wardrobe/dressing table/bureau would be worth something. But reality it is worth very little, as its gone out of fashion.

Owain_Moneysaver

foju2019 wrote: »

We have gone through everything and managed to estimate total contents to £655. That is generous. We will probably have to pay for someone to take it all away. Is this likely to be queried? We have made a record of everything regardless of value.

Even if it were queried, you've got the answer to the query - your list of things and their estimated values.

A photo of each room can be useful too for your records.

Unless your total valuation is very close to £650k it's very unlikely to be queried.

Any house clearance fees are an expense due to the estate.

nervousnovice

When you apply for probate, anyone know what actually happens, ie how much contact time (ie the time someone is working on the application) is there, and what checks are made. We are at week 9/10, and getting a progress report is a challenge.

Hoof_Hearted

I have tried contacting Oxford Probate Office. They don't reply to emails. The phone has no queuing or ringback facility so you just get cut off and told to ring back. The service really is a disgrace. I tried 20 or 30 times today to no avail.