Grant of Confirmation help

GaryLG

Hello everyone :hello:

I've recently lost my father very unexpectedly and now need to start the Gramt of Conformation process. I have already found lots of useful advice from searching the forums but have a few questions, would be grateful if anyone has any advice or can share their experiences.

Background: seems like an easy estate no debts (other than an overpayment by private pension that unfortunately went into back account the day after death and they want it back), so just bank accounts, a small life insurance policy of 5k which was intended to cover funeral costs, and a modest house estimated at about £80k.

There is a will which lists myself and my brother as executors. It also lists my mother and other brother but unfortunately both have also passed. It's about 20 years old.

Since it is a smallish estate with no inheritance tax I was going to apply for the grant of confirmation myself but a few things have put me off.

1. Not sure if I can realistically start selling the house till I get grant of confirmation and seems like this will just elongate am alreeady painful process. Having just spent the best part of months clearing it out, just want it done as quickly as possible.
2. What to do if i submit to the sheriff and its returned, will I even be able to identify the errors I've made and resubmit and would that just end up taking longer and adding expense

Did anyone else feel this way? And if you did end up getting a solicitor to help, how much didn it cost? I have seem figures of up to 5k. I'm not used to feeling with solicitors and dknt know what is realistic but seems a lot for an estate of about 100k. I kkow oll have to pay of I want to save myself the hardship bit sont want to pay unrealistic price either or fall into any pitfalls.

Is there anything I should be asking a solicitor in terms of fees or timescales?

Any advice or experiences would be welcome, its such a difficult time as it is without this.

Also best wishes to anyone who is on this board and also grieving.

Owain_Moneysaver

1. AFAIK you can't sell the house until you get the Grant.

2. I've done the English process, which seems far more straightforward than the Scottish.

If you download the relevant forms, gather together all the paperwork, write to all the banks, utilities etc getting the closing balances including interest, then a solicitor should be able to give you a price for checking the application and doquetting the Will for you. I'd expect this to be much less than £5k which would be more typical for the whole executry process.

For the house, you need the postal address and the conveyancing description from the title deed for the house. In an old Sasine title the description will start with the words All and Whole. In a Land Register title where there is a Land Certificate you just need the postal address and the Title Number. It will be cheaper if you can search the registers yourself rather than paying the solicitor to do this.

https://www.scotcourts.gov.uk/taking-action/dealing-with-a-deceased's-estate-in-scotland/large-estates

Savvy_Sue

Getting a solicitor to take over completely is unlikely to speed the process up, but Owain's advice is sound.

chesky

Why are you doing this all on your own when your brother is also an executor - can't he help with it.

pollypenny

I used a solicitor my father's very simple estate, mainly because of one awkward sibling. I don't remember the exact cost, but it wasn't great and saved me a lot of time as well as stress.

TcpnT

Did anyone else feel this way? And if you did end up getting a solicitor to help, how much didn it cost? I have seem figures of up to 5k. I'm not used to feeling with solicitors and dknt know what is realistic but seems a lot for an estate of about 100k. I kkow oll have to pay of I want to save myself the hardship bit sont want to pay unrealistic price either or fall into any pitfalls.

I think that with a simple estate such as yours you should be able to do it all yourself without much difficulty. Plenty of previous posters on this board have managed it From what I hear, if the court does return the form for correction they usually give some indication of what changes need to be made.

However I have recently dealt with a larger estate and only employed a solicitor to actually complete, check and submit the confirmation application. This is compromise route and much cheaper than handing the whole administration to a solicitor. It will also be far quicker. I think the cost would be somehere around £1000.

In our case we did all the required estate administration and information collection to the point that we were able to complete a draft version of the C1 and C5 application forms. We then handed these drafts to the solicitor to tidy up and re-format as necessary to satisfy the local Sheriff's court. They then submitted the application and if it was returned any corrections would have been dealt with by them. The process took only a few weeks.

As for the house sale, you could put it on the market before getting Confirmation (I assume that this is allowed in Scotland) but it may well put off potential buyers because the sale will not be able to go through before confirmation is granted at some unknown time in the future.

Skiddaw1

I was the executor for a close friend who lived & died in Scotland and I came to the conclusion that I was never going to get through the process without a solicitor. Admittedly her estate was more complicated than your father's but even so, I found the confirmation process significantly more complex than the English system. I did most of the leg-work (and administered the estate once confirmation had been granted) but decided I wasn't confident enough to complete all the relevant paperwork unassisted. I think the solicitor fees could be money well spent THB.


Sorry for your loss....

MCT56

Looking for some help please.
I'm trying to assist an elderly relative fill in the Confirmation Form C1 and Form C5 (2006).
We understand the Declaration wording for C1 and what needs to be stated to docket the will. This is thanks to reading other posters on this forum.
However it's the interpretation of what figures we need to need to put in the various boxes we are unsure about. 
If anyone has completed the process I'd really appreciate their input.

xylophone

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4965475/grant-of-confirmation/p7
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/profile/TcpnT