Bank accounts

Jamiecork

My mother died recently and I'd welcome some advice please on handling her banks.  She was a widow and owned her own home - mortgage free.  The house will be passed to me and my sister after probate (which may take several months) but in the meantime we want all utilities and home insurance to continue - possibly for a couple of years, until we will probably sell it.  
The current account from which all monthly bills are paid has several thousand pounds in it - more than enough to cover  couple of years of (now very small) utility bills.  What I'd ideally want is for the existing SOs and DDs to just continue to be paid, but I'm not sure if that is possible.  Obviously I need to inform all her banks, and provide a copy of the death certificate, but I don't want to completely freeze the accounts.  I don't want any access to her funds myself - I just want the utilities and house insurance to continue to be paid in the meantime.
All and any advice gratefully received
Thanks
PS.  First post!

Keep_pedalling

No that is not possible, you must inform the banks of her death and from that point the accounts will be frozen. You and your sister should  open a joint account to cover estate expenses. You should be able to arrange with the bank to pay funeral costs directly to the FD but nothing else can be payed from those accounts. 

Banks also have quite high limits on how much they will pay pity without probate, so there should not be a problem in getting them to pay out before you obtain probate. Ask her bank if they would set up an executors account for you and your sister.

Why would you delay the sale for 2 years? Managing an empty house is a pain and insuring it is likely to be expensive. You will also face up to 2x council tax once 6 months have passed since obtaining probate.

madcrowd

We executors are about to tell the bank about mum's very recent death, and open an executor's account.  But there are still a bunch of regular payments that need to come out for the running of the house.  Keep_pedalling said nothing other than Funeral Director costs can be paid from the estate/executor account.  How does one usually keep on paying for house running while probate is being settled?  There has been a relative staying there for the last year but was not responsible for any bills.

Linton

madcrowd said:

We executors are about to tell the bank about mum's very recent death, and open an executor's account.  But there are still a bunch of regular payments that need to come out for the running of the house.  Keep_pedalling said nothing other than Funeral Director costs can be paid from the estate/executor account.  How does one usually keep on paying for house running while probate is being settled?  There has been a relative staying there for the last year but was not responsible for any bills.

Nothing other than funeral costs can be paid from a bank account whilst it is contolled by the bank.  Provided the account is not more than a few £10Ks most (all?) banks will pay the money to the executor without the need for probate. Once the bank has released the money to the executor, he/she can use it to pay estate costs.  I found it easiest to put the insurance and utility costs in my name and then make documented expense claims against the estate.

Jamiecork

Thanks so much for quick and helpful replies. My sister and I are the sole executors and beneficiaries so there should be no problems there. 
Thanks again to all