What to include in spouse's probate application

Downthedrain

I'm planning for my own death and want to leave my Wife as much information as possible. I am leaving everything to her in my will and our house is Joint Tenancy. The question I have is regarding application for probate, which will be needed to close some bank accounts solely in my name;

1. When valuing my estate, does the house form part of the valuation?

2. What about chattels?

Basically, I need to know what needs to be included in the valuation and what can legitimately be left out.

Keep_pedalling

If your only sole assets are cash then you probably don’t need probate, unless you have far too much cash in those accounts. 

Downthedrain

Not cash, but investment accounts. The regular day-to-day accounts are joint.

Savvy_Sue

Yes, your (share of) the house forms part of the value of your estate.

Chattels: unless you have a rare old master or a valuable collection of nicknacks, its usual to put a notional value on the chattels.

Keep_pedalling

Downthedrain said:

Not cash, but investment accounts. The regular day-to-day accounts are joint.

Thanks for the clarification, yes even though the estate is an exempt one, the house needs to be included in the estate valuation, as do half your joint accounts. I would not worry too much about chattels unless you own a Picasso or two. A nominal value should be fine.

ahfat41

Interested to know the value to put regarding chattels.  Looking at my own will need to pay somebody to get rid of all the accumulated stuffs & clear the house.  There will nothing of value.  Can one put 0 value?

Keep_pedalling

ahfat41 said:

Interested to know the value to put regarding chattels.  Looking at my own will need to pay somebody to get rid of all the accumulated stuffs & clear the house.  There will nothing of value.  Can one put 0 value?

You can do but most would put a nominal value of something like £500. You only need to be worried about being accurate if your estate is in or near to IHT territory. 

xylophone

The regular day-to-day accounts are joint.

For these your wife would need only to advise the bank of your death and exhibit the death certificate - the bank would remove your name from the account but otherwise the conduct of the account would continue as usual.

For investment accounts in your sole name (unless the sums involved are very modest in which case Registrars do have a "small estates" procedure), it is likely that a Grant will be required.

Downthedrain

Thanks for the replies. I'm now much clearer on the savings and house.

With chattels, would all the household items be considered jointly owned? We also have a general workshop and my musical instruments (none singly worth more than £800). Presumably the tools and instruments would be 'mine' for probate, though I've always considered everything as being jointly owned.

Savvy_Sue

Generally chattels are considered jointly owned, but a) clearly some things may be more yours than hers, and vice versa and b) unless you are over or near IHT territory, no-one will care. 

I think I'd look at what your wife is likely to keep after your death. Presumably all the furniture, but if she's likely to pass on the musical instruments or sell them, then I'd include them in 'your' estate. 

I presume you are look at this jointly, and considering 'what if' she were to die before you. 

Downthedrain

We're looking at this jointly, but my main priority is to make sure my wife has all the documents she needs should I die first. Right now we're putting everything together and dry-running through filling out the relevant  probate forms and providing the correct information so that when necessary she has a feel for the process. This has been a really useful exercise because it's raised a lot of queries that are better answered now while I'm still around.