Household bills and other expenses during Probate

Mrs_Tiggywinkle

Can anyone tell me whether we will be allowed access to my Mum’s money in her bank & savings accounts during probate in order to pay ongoing household bills, insurance & items such as skip hire/maintenance? Neither my brother or myself would have enough money to cover these bills ourselves, but they are going to need paying while the probate process is completed and until the property is sold. Will banks release funds to us before probate has been granted? 

JGB1955

Yes. Most banks will close the deceased's current accounts upon sight of the death certificate. They will then transfer the proceeds to yourselves without the need for probate. Each bank has an upper limit, but £50,000 isn't unusual. NS&I have a notably low limit of £5K. .

BooJewels

I'm currently going through the same process, but a bit further on.  There wasn't much money in accounts (well below bank's thresholds, as already posted above) and I just dealt with the bereavement team of the bank and they'd transferred the money out to an account I'd set up ready to manage the estate within a few days. 

I would suggest that it might be a good idea to open a bank account specifically for the estate, just to keep it separate, then use that money for the households expenses (you'll need to change any DDs etc. and get bills put in to an executor's name) and keep simple accounts of any estate expenditure.

We're similar, in that my sister and I are both executors and beneficiaries and there's just the 2 of us - no one else to answer to.  I send my sister a quick summary of the estate accounts at the end of each month and she otherwise leaves me to that and she does other tasks.

Shezzy1

 I’m so pleased you have asked this question. My mom in laws estate is going through probate but a family member is being very hostile and aggressive towards the executors. She is putting a caveat in place but also asking them to pay funeral costs and getting the stone back on the grave. We can’t afford this so we want to take money from moms accounts to pay for this. We are at the bank on Saturday. Hopefully we can withdraw money to pay for the outstanding expenses. 

p00hsticks

Shezzy1 said:

 I’m so pleased you have asked this question. My mom in laws estate is going through probate but a family member is being very hostile and aggressive towards the executors. She is putting a caveat in place but also asking them to pay funeral costs and getting the stone back on the grave. We can’t afford this so we want to take money from moms accounts to pay for this. We are at the bank on Saturday. Hopefully we can withdraw money to pay for the outstanding expenses. 

If you take the funeral director's bill with you to the bank then they should be able to give you a cheque made out directly to the funeral director to pay the funeral bill, even if you need to jump through additional hoops ot wait for probate to get the rest of the money in the account.

Shezzy1

Many thanks. We can certainly do this.