Will advice please - solicitor executor no longer practising

Dizzy_Ditzy

Hi 

I will try and keep this as brief as I can! My gran passed away a couple of weeks ago. We found a will which was signed and witnessed but she’d scribbled all over the front of it that she’d made a new one, one which we are unable to find any evidence of. The solicitor is named as executor and trustee but he is retired and no longer practising. The company he worked with was taken over and taken over until the SRA shut them down. 

The estate is worth very little, around the £5K mark. Most of this will be taken up by funeral expenses. 

Given the lack of executor, how do we proceed from here? Do we need to apply for letters of Administration? We would rather avoid having to appoint a new solicitor as we can’t really afford their fees! Do we follow the instructions of the will that we found? We have tried to locate a successional will without success. 

Her estate is relatively simple. No property involved. This is in England. 

I would be really grateful for any advice anyone could give please 

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/applying-for-probate

When probate is not needed

You may not need probate if the person who died:

• had jointly owned land, property, shares or money - these will automatically pass to the surviving owners
• only had savings or premium bonds

Contact each asset holder (for example a bank or mortgage company) to find out if you’ll need probate to get access to their assets. Every organisation has its own rules.

The only will you have has been defaced and you cannot locate another.

The estate is very small.

A bank would release  funds to the funeral director before probate even where probate was required.

I don't think you have a problem - the money in the account will just about cover the funeral and that's that?

Dizzy_Ditzy

Thank you - so far the banks and council all want a will and contact from executor/administrators before they’ll do anything other than take information from me. Her bank have already confirmed that they’ll cover her funeral so that’s one less thing to worry about. We just want to make sure that we are doing everything right 

edit - I’ve just double checked and she’s defaced the draft copy but not the certified copy. The original is nowhere to be found without getting the SRA involved. She had scribbled all over the front of the envelope we found the certified copy in and written on the draft, unsigned copy. I hope that makes sense. She never did like to do things the easy way! 

Robert_McGeddon

Dizzy_Ditzy said:

Thank you - so far the banks and council all want a will and contact from executor/administrators before they’ll do anything other than take information from me.

Why are a council interested?

Dizzy_Ditzy

Robert_McGeddon said:

Dizzy_Ditzy said:

Thank you - so far the banks and council all want a will and contact from executor/administrators before they’ll do anything other than take information from me.

Why are a council interested?

She was a council tenant 

getmore4less

Be careful some councils can be a problem they will ask YOU to pay rent,  clearing etc.
You have no obligation to pay anything
When there is no/small  estate often best to get every you want out of the property(for safe keeping) and leave the council to it.
Repeat regularly no one is administering the estate.
organise the funeral and have the bank pay the bill.
Then see if it is worth any hassle to do anything for what is left
Who are the beneficiaries with the will and intestate?
ultimately it will be up to them to chase for whats left.

Shelldean

getmore4less said:

Be careful some councils can be a problem they will ask YOU to pay rent,  clearing etc.
You have no obligation to pay anything
When there is no/small  estate often best to get every you want out of the property(for safe keeping) and leave the council to it.
Repeat regularly no one is administering the estate.
organise the funeral and have the bank pay the bill.
Then see if it is worth any hassle to do anything for what is left
Who are the beneficiaries with the will and intestate?
ultimately it will be up to them to chase for whats left.

This I totally agree with!!!
When my Nan died, who was also a council tenant, they wanted the keys back the day we informed them! She'd only lived there over 80yrs and we hadn't even registered the death yet!
Afterwards they tried to tell me ( as I dealt with everything) that I was liable for her three weeks rent and clearest to clear the few heavy items we'd not managed to clear. Due to no funds or transport!
Basically told them Foxtrot Oscar!!! Told them I had no contract with them and that there was no money left once funeral had been paid for!
They called a couple more times trying to guilt me in to paying. Just repeated there was NO funds remaining. 

Dizzy_Ditzy

With the will the main beneficiaries are my mum, me, my living brother and deceased brother. Charities are named but pretty sure there won’t be anything left for them once the funeral expenses and utilities are finalised. Intestate it would be my mum alone