Who can probate the estate?

Billy2020

Hello advice needed please, my dad passed away 2 years ago in India, his Indian wife provided me with the death and marriage certificate a few months after his death.

I placed these both into one of our local solicitors in the high street with a list of bank accounts, car registration documents, share information, contact details, passport copy of my dads wife

The solicitor said as his will was written before his marriage it was not valid, I questioned the foreign certificates and was told they would not hold things up.

About 18 months ago, I went to a meeting given a tax form & probate application to sign.  I was told that in order for the solicitor to proceed they were going to write to the wife and ask her to sign a form to give me authority to probate the estate in my name so then the solicitor can close things up 

The wife has not heard anything at all & seems to think they we are holding things up, I have sent several emails, the last reply was the the solicitor was not able to get in touch with the wife so everything was waiting on the wife's signature, I did do a search on the probate register and nothing is listed in Dad's names

Any suggestions or do you think I am wasting my time on this? Thanks Billy

RAS

I'd suggest that you retrieve all the documents from the solicitors and start again. No doubt they'll bill you and you may have pay to get the documents but I'd then make a complaint.

Any will written before your father's marriage is irrelevant. The rules of intestacy apply, so it depends on the value of the estate; do you know what that is?  Read Intestacy - who inherits if someone dies without a will? - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

What does his widow want to happen? Legally she's the one who has first right to administer the estate, but may not want to.  Most banks will release some money just with a copy of the death certificate, up to a certain value. But you'll probably need probate to sell shares.

getmore4less

Did any of the institutions need a grant?

You were joint owner of the house so not needed for that.

Was the property joint tenants or tenants in common,

Death domiciled outside UK usually needs the estate administration locally, may be both.

Billy2020

Thanks for the advice , they all require a grant to release the funds.

 if I was to get the documents would another solicitor allow me to probate the estate or would I have the same trouble, I was looking on google the only thing I found was strict order of priority ie the wife, the child, the granparents, can I not apply as the child?

xylophone

With regard to the property you occupy, did you and your father own it as joint tenants or as tenants in common?

if I was to get the documents would another solicitor allow me to probate the estate

The wife has not heard anything at all & seems to think they we are holding things up, 

You are in contact with your father's widow - why not ask her to confirm to you in writing that she does not want to apply for Letters of Administration (it appears that the estate needs to be dealt with as an intestacy as marriage invalidated your father's only will) - then you can proceed to apply?

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

Billy2020

Thanks you for the information, if I ask my dads wife to fill in form pa12, I can apply for probate . Maybe that is what the local solicitor has or has not asked her to do. Many thanks