Estate - intestate

Tom99

Mtong wrote: »

Hello Tom, thank you for your response. In summary:
- Father and mother married with one son and one daughter.
- Father passed away unexpectedly with no will. Mother no will either.
- Two properties valued at £425k each: first, residence joint with father and mother. Second, rental property, jointly owned by father and brother.
- Bank account with less than £500 in cash.
- No gifts outside of his £3000 allowance in the last 7 years.
- And travel air miles of the value of approximately £200.
- I have refunded the pension and completed the tell-us-once service.

As I'm unsure of what documents, I just wanted to check that we have done everything correctly and not missed anything? I have completed the following forms (but yet to submit):
a) Form PA1A: Probate application form or would it be a Letter of administration?
b) Form IHT205: Return of estate form
c) Self-assessment return for 2018/2019
d) Form IHT402: Claim to transfer unused nil rate band
e) HM Land registry application to remove from the register the name of a deceased joint proprietor.

Query
a) The residence, from previous reading, this automatically transfers to mother?
b) The rental property was joint with my father and brother. How does this work? Is the 50% my brother and 50% mother, or the 100% to brother?
But I am unsure if there is any IHT to pay.
Would there / is there any IHT to pay?
What else do I need to do / or if I have missed things / or misinterpreted incorrectly the understanding.
c) Going forward, a will need to put in place for mother.
d) Can I process these all myself or to have an accountant and solicitor. (I have spoken to an accountant who has asked me to speak to a solicitor, likewise having done so, solicitor says to speak to an accountant. So am passed around at the moment. Is this what happens in general?)

Any help would be much appreciated as just want to make sure we have done everything by the book.

Thank you

Since your mother is still alive? you don't need form IHT402 the transfer of the unused NRB is claimed on the 2nd death ie your mother's and using IHT217 if you are using IHT205.
You need to check whether each house was held as joint tenants of tenants in common since above you have referred to both joint tenants and joint owners.
Download both property titles for £3 each from here:
https://eservices.landregistry.gov.uk/eservices/FindAProperty/view/QuickEnquiryInit.do
Look at Part B The Proprietorship Register. Is there a restriction listed along the following lines:
RESTRICTION: No disposition by a sole proprietor of the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the court.
If that restriction is present that the property was held as Tenants in Common and will pass according to the intestate rules.
If the restriction is not there then that normally means the property was held as Joint Tenants and passes to the surviving owner automatically.
Depending on those two answers will depend how the rental property is split.

getmore4less

The rental property beneficial interest question(post #7) has not been answered.

due to the values involved the IHT return(even if not sent to HMRC) is going to be the way to establish what is left of the nil rate bands.

Sea_Shell

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

If your mother also does not currently have a will, she needs to put one in place now. This is particularly important if she wants to give more to her daughter to make up for her receiving nothing from her father, while her brother received over £200k.

Unless the Daughter has done something unforgivable to her parents, I hope that she doesn't get forgotten all this, and that some equality is eventually forthcoming. £200k v. £0 seems just a tad unfair.

Obviously we don't know the family dynamics, and whether she's had other money in the past, but i'm sure most would agree under normal circumstances that's a pretty big imbalance on the fair chart!