Help My Mum was seperated by still married and died without a will

Marcon

Lincs1sparky said:

Hi,

My mum recently passed away without being able to verify her will. She was separated but still married. They both had separate houses, bank accounts etc but never got round to divorcing despite being separated for 15 years. My mum didn't want anything going to her husband or his family. Will everything automatically go her husband? The value of her estate is very small, less than 20k. Her husband has Alzheimer's and would be unable to carry out probate himself, but I feel like I would be doing my mum disservice to do all the work of selling the property etc just for it to go his family against her wishes. Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

If your mum died intestate and wasn't 'judicially separated' (which would require a court decree), and the estate is of  such low value (£20K including the property??), then the whole amount would automatically pass to her husband under the laws of intestacy.

There is no legal reason at all why you should administer the estate. If you feel it is also morally wrong, or simply don't want to, then it is entirely up to you to let her husband's family know and leave them to sort everything out.

Flugelhorn

macman said:

Flugelhorn said:

The first person with the right to administer the estate would be her husband if they were still married - maybe someone is dealing with his affairs / has POA - would they do all the work instead?

There is a valid will, so the executor named in the will is the one in charge. OP needs to clarify who that is; could be husband, OP, solicitor etc.
If the OP is the executor, they can relinquish it if they wish, but that will not alter the situation, which is that the husband will inherit the estate.

there is no valid wil