Probate for sister with surviving husband

quinhart

Hello everyone, My sister passed away recently. I need help with next steps please. I am trying to sort out the financial affairs and finding it difficult to do certain things without a "letter of administration"

• She does not have a will
• She does not have any children
• She was married, but separated from her husband and living alone, not legally divorced.
• Our parents are not in the UK
• Her husband (my brother-in-law) does not want to do anything with the estate and prefer that I take over the responsibility

Here are my questions:

Is it possible for me or my Aunt to apply for a letter of administration when my sister's husband is alive?
Does he need to give up his right of inheritance because he is the main beneficiary as the spouse(Rules of Intestacy)? If so, how does he need to do that? 

Is this process easy to do it by myself? or do I need to engage a solicitor. Thank you for all the advice.

Silvertabby

My sympathies to you all.

Has your sister's husband stated his intention to give up his rights of inheritance?  

quinhart

Silvertabby said:

My sympathies to you all.

Has your sister's husband stated his intention to give up his rights of inheritance?  

Yes, he is willing to co-operate and give up his rights so that I can deal with the estate. Just now, I came across Form PA15 & PA16. I think he need to do one of that

Keep_pedalling

For the purposes of probate he needs to complete PA 16

As by intestacy rules her husband inherits her entire estate he also needs make a deed of variation so her estate can be distributed to alternative beneficiaries. You have 2 years from the date of death to do that. Apart from the distribution of assets the deed of variation prevents her estate being added to his for IHT purposes.

TBagpuss

There are two things he can give up -
(1) his right to apply for letters of administration, (allowing you to then deal with the estate) and
(2) his inheritance rights 

They are separate, and he could allow you to administer the estate but still claim his inheritance, although in those circumstances you might prefer to leave him to deal with the administration as well, otherwise you do all the work and he gets all the benefit. 

Assuming he is happy to give up any inheritance rights as well as not wanting to adminsiter the estate,  then he  would need to provide a written disclaimer,  and the estate would then pass as if he had pre-deceased her, so her parents would be the beneficiaries.

JGB1955

As a bit of an aside (and this may be of no relevance at all) if the husband is claiming benefits and gives up his inheritance rights, he will be assumed to have inherited anyway.....

Marcon

quinhart said:

Hello everyone, My sister passed away recently. I need help with next steps please. I am trying to sort out the financial affairs and finding it difficult to do certain things without a "letter of administration"

• She does not have a will
• She does not have any children
• She was married, but separated from her husband and living alone, not legally divorced.
• Our parents are not in the UK
• Her husband (my brother-in-law) does not want to do anything with the estate and prefer that I take over the responsibility

Here are my questions:

Is it possible for me or my Aunt to apply for a letter of administration when my sister's husband is alive?
Does he need to give up his right of inheritance because he is the main beneficiary as the spouse(Rules of Intestacy)? If so, how does he need to do that? 

Is this process easy to do it by myself? or do I need to engage a solicitor. Thank you for all the advice.

Depends what type of separation it is. If they simply went their separate ways, then they are still married and he is still entitled to inherit under the rules of intestacy.

On the other hand, if they are judicially separated (i.e. they have a court decree to that effect), her assets will be treated as if her husband has already died.