Delivery Oddities

JousterX

Hello,

I was going to post this tomorrow, but insomnia's go the better of me.

So after the recent death of my sister, I'm both an inheritor and executor of the will. As executor I'm taking a back seat, for the most/for now. What I am in charge of, is visiting her home, and also the collecting mail she still gets.

The problem is, the actual "active" executor of will that has sort of pushed themselves into the role, and has the death certificates, can be a bit, shall we say, "shifty", if you know what I mean.

So the death hasn't long happened, and we aren't in probate yet, and I've been told no bank accounts have been locked yet.

But the issue is, a strange thing seems to have started happening, the post to her house seems to be drying up. It's a little bit strange, as some things still seem to be still arriving (but not much), which has confused me, and made me think I was imagining it for a while, but I'm now pretty sure that two of her monthly bank account statements and at least one or two other things are very long overdue, now that I've looked into what she should be getting through the mail each month.

My concern is, of course, is someone is redirecting the mail, for what purpose is unclear, but worryingly I can imagine what might be possible. I've asked the pushy executor, but they've denied all knowledge.

The problem is, how do I find out if a postal redirection is occurring? I've looked on Royal Mail's website, and although it lets you apply for a postal redirection, it doesn't seem to be a way to check if a postal redirection at an address is taking place, nor can I find any telephone number to ring to check and inform someone that something dodgy might be afoot. I note on the website, it says a letter is sent to the previous address when a redirection is applied for, but I haven't seen anything in the mail. That said, the security around the letterbox wasn't that great (little outside the door, on the wall things), so it's possible it may have been taken before I had time to collect the mail on whatever day. I've managed to improve the security of this situation, so that shouldn't be possible now, but there's still little mail coming through, so I might have "bolted the door after horse has bolted".

It appears from Royal Mail's website, that only the person living at the house (she lived alone) can do a postal redirect, at least by the method on their website, but can an executor of a will with a death certificate actually bypass this route and use another process to set up a mail redirect of someone who's deceased, to another house? And iff it has been set up, as an executor, will I have the power to get the Royal Mail to tell me a redirect is occurring, and also reverse it? Will I also need a death certificate to do this? And most of all, of course, how can get in touch to find out?

Sorry for all the questions. Thank you.

Keep_pedalling

It would be quite normal for an executor to redirect mail but I would certainly expect the bank statements and service providers to stop as soon as the bank is advised of the death which probably explains why you are still getting some mail.

Time to sit down with the other executor and get up to speed with what is happening so far. 

JousterX

Keep_pedalling said:

It would be quite normal for an executor to redirect mail but I would certainly expect the bank statements and service providers to stop as soon as the bank is advised of the death which probably explains why you are still getting some mail.

Time to sit down with the other executor and get up to speed with what is happening so far. 

Well, that's just it. Getting much out of him is proving difficult, and I don't think the banks have been informed. But he does say he hasn't redirected the mail. How true that is, I don't know, but I guess if there is a redirection going on, it might not even be him. I'm not convinced he knows what he's doing, and I've never handled an estate before, either.

Should it be the case that the bank accounts are frozen as soon as possible, even before probate?

Anyone know how I contract Royal Mail to find out about a potential postal redirection?

Thank you.

p00hsticks

JousterX said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It would be quite normal for an executor to redirect mail but I would certainly expect the bank statements and service providers to stop as soon as the bank is advised of the death which probably explains why you are still getting some mail.

Time to sit down with the other executor and get up to speed with what is happening so far. 

Should it be the case that the bank accounts are frozen as soon as possible, even before probate?

Yes, banks (and other financial institutions, insurance companies, utility providers etc) should be notified of the death as soon as possible after it occurs. Depending on the amount of money involved, who informs them and the particular bank, they'll either transfer the outstanding money to an account nominated by the informer and then close that of the deceased or they'll freeze it until probate is obtained.

If there is no readily available money in the estate and the house is now empty, the executor may find they have to temporailru take on payment of essential bills such as insurance and heating until it can be reclaimed from the estate assets (house sale etc)

sammyjammy

You need to be very careful, as an executor your are as responsible for what happens as he is unless you formally refuse to act.  You need to sit down with him and find out what he has or hasn't done, maybe he is just not sure how to do or what to do

TBagpuss

As an executor, you an (and should) let the banks know of the death, even before probate.

You can (s executor) check with them whether they have been asked to change the address the letters are sent to.

You can, s an executor, get the post redirected (https://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/special-circumstances-redirection-application-form--april-2021.pdf )

JousterX

p00hsticks said:

JousterX said:

Keep_pedalling said:

It would be quite normal for an executor to redirect mail but I would certainly expect the bank statements and service providers to stop as soon as the bank is advised of the death which probably explains why you are still getting some mail.

Time to sit down with the other executor and get up to speed with what is happening so far. 

Should it be the case that the bank accounts are frozen as soon as possible, even before probate?

Yes, banks (and other financial institutions, insurance companies, utility providers etc) should be notified of the death as soon as possible after it occurs. Depending on the amount of money involved, who informs them and the particular bank, they'll either transfer the outstanding money to an account nominated by the informer and then close that of the deceased or they'll freeze it until probate is obtained.

If there is no readily available money in the estate and the house is now empty, the executor may find they have to temporailru take on payment of essential bills such as insurance and heating until it can be reclaimed from the estate assets (house sale etc)

Thanks for the replies. I'll get on to him and tell him to get his finger out or I'll get some death certificates and get it done myself.

I'm slightly nervous about the money going into one of his accounts, to be honest, though. Is there any way as also being an executor that I can demand they just get frozen until probate?

JousterX

TBagpuss said:

As an executor, you an (and should) let the banks know of the death, even before probate.

You can (s executor) check with them whether they have been asked to change the address the letters are sent to.

You can, s an executor, get the post redirected (http   s://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/special-circumstances-redirection-application-form--april-2021.pdf )

Ah, interesting, thanks. So it can be done a different way.

But I really want to know, is if it already has been done, but I don't know how to find out.

Marcon

JousterX said:

TBagpuss said:

As an executor, you an (and should) let the banks know of the death, even before probate.

You can (s executor) check with them whether they have been asked to change the address the letters are sent to.

You can, s an executor, get the post redirected (http   s://www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/special-circumstances-redirection-application-form--april-2021.pdf )

Ah, interesting, thanks. So it can be done a different way.

But I really want to know, is if it already has been done, but I don't know how to find out.

If some mail is still arriving (and you say in your first post it is), then assuming it is correctly addressed to her, you can safely assume it hasn't yet been redirected. Get on and make the application before anyone else does!

JousterX

Well that's just it, some's arriving, some is definitely missing. I'm just wondering if it was someone was making off with the mail from the mail box when the security was poor (external box, lock was broken, but I thought only I and my sister knew).

I'm still not ruling out someone's made a redirection, though, so I want to investigate.

RAS

Have you considered that the other executor may have informed some of the banks and they now have his address rather than deceased as the mail contact.

If you've got old correspondence and a copy of the will, just drop into the branch if they still have one, or ring and  ask the bereavement team. Given that the other executor is not being helpful?

And bear in mind that it has not been unknown on MSE for someone who is not an executor to go to a bank or BS and obtain the money just because they have a copy of the death certificate and sign a waiver.