Probate - No Will timescales

baggins_22

Hi, 

I wondered if anyone on her had any experience in the probate process with no will + the timescales and process?

My father passed away about a month and a half ago, due to the nature of his death there will be a non attended inquest (this process is currently held up due to hospital tests not being complete and some police reports pending) although we were granted an interim death certificate and advised that probate could be requested.

My father was not married and was pretty clear to us over the last few years how he would like his estate divided, so the family are all content with how this should be split once probate has completed. The value of the estate is over 325 but as the proceeds will go to his children it doesnt breach the residence nil rate band. 

There was no will left that could be found prior to applying for probate, we thought he had one, but there was no sign of it in his house or with any solicitor we have know him to use over the years. 

Probate was applied for at the beginning of May (paying the fee) by the eldest child- so far we have only received one letter from the probate, which appears to be in error, sending back the copy of the interim death certificate - but asking us to send a copy of the interim death certificate to the same address (so they sent the certificate they were asking for back to us, asking us to send it to them again )

We found a link to an online chat on here and used it to contact the probate team to see if we were missing any forms or anything that may hold up the proceedings,  they advised that its 10-12 weeks before they will assign someone to the case to examine it, only then will any additional info be requested. We queried the timescale as the website advised 8 weeks, they said that its 8 weeks with a will and 10-12 if one isn't present as there are more checks needed - this seems at odds with what we were advised though as they seem to imply that nothing would be done until the 10-12 weeks ?

Anyways - now that I have rambled on, I wondered if anyone else had been through a similar process without a will etc

Thanks for reading of you got this far!

SeniorSam

A difficult time for your family.

You have already done all you can. It may be that they will wait for the official Death Certificate before issuing the letters of administration. Did you raise that with them when you made contact?  Unfortunately these matters do take time, but will eventually come through.

baggins_22

@SeniorSam
thank you - no we didn't think to mention that part- perhaps we can ask that and pass it on to the coroner if it is holding things up. They haven't reached out to anyone to chase anything as yet despite them advising they would have expected to have had some results by now from the police etc

baggins_22

I wonder if anyone else has had a probate with just an interim death certificate?

gettingtheresometime

Slightly different in my husband's case as whilst he had to have a post-mortem, there was no need for an inquest,

I applied for the letters of administration at the end of February and it was granted at the beginning of May. I didn't receive any communication from them other than the returning of the death certificate and then the actual certificates themselves save emails giving me advance warning of the above.

bobster2

You say "My father was not married and was pretty clear to us over the last few years how he would like his estate divided, so the family are all content with how this should be split once probate has completed."

In the absence of a will - if you are planning to divide the estate in a manner that deviates from the rules of intestacy - then you should complete a "deed of variation" to formalise this.

You also wrote "There was no will left that could be found prior to applying for probate, we thought he had one, but there was no sign of it in his house or with any solicitor we have know him to use over the years."

Given that you thought there was one - you should try searching Will registers - e.g. National Will Register - and even calling round other local solicitors. You should not distribute anything until you've carried out a more extensive search.  

baggins_22

gettingtheresometime said:

Slightly different in my husband's case as whilst he had to have a post-mortem, there was no need for an inquest,

I applied for the letters of administration at the end of February and it was granted at the beginning of May. I didn't receive any communication from them other than the returning of the death certificate and then the actual certificates themselves save emails giving me advance warning of the above.

Thanks that's useful to know, the hard part is waiting and having no contact from them during, what seems, is going to be a three month wait where nothing happens, then further delays could crop up.

baggins_22

bobster2 said:

In the absence of a will - if you are planning to divide the estate in a manner that deviates from the rules of intestacy - then you should complete a "deed of variation" to formalise this.

As per my fathers conversations with each of his children, the estate will be split between them, so no need for a deed of variation.

Given that you thought there was one - you should try searching Will registers - e.g. National Will Register - and even calling round other local solicitors. You should not distribute anything until you've carried out a more extensive search.  

As mentioned, we called all the solicitors he had dealings with in the past 20 years, including any of his banks that might provide a will service. This was quite a lengthy process, but all advised that there was no will. 

Mojisola

baggins_22 said:

bobster2 said:

In the absence of a will - if you are planning to divide the estate in a manner that deviates from the rules of intestacy - then you should complete a "deed of variation" to formalise this.

As per my fathers conversations with each of his children, the estate will be split between them, so no need for a deed of variation.

The administrator of an intestate estate has to follow the law - if they don't, they can become financially responsible.

At the moment, the beneficiaries are in agreement - if things change, the administrator could find themself paying out to a beneficiary to received less than the intestate rules laid out.

A deed of variation would protect the administrator from this happening.

baggins_22

The administrator of an intestate estate has to follow the law - if they don't, they can become financially responsible.

At the moment, the beneficiaries are in agreement - if things change, the administrator could find themself paying out to a beneficiary to received less than the intestate rules laid out.

A deed of variation would protect the administrator from this happening.

I am not sure which part of this you are suggesting doesn't follow the law? 

Mojisola

baggins_22 said:

The value of the estate is over 325 but as the proceeds will go to his children it doesnt breach the residence nil rate band.

My father was not married and was pretty clear to us over the last few years how he would like his estate divided, so the family are all content with how this should be split once probate has completed.

baggins_22 said:

The administrator of an intestate estate has to follow the law - if they don't, they can become financially responsible.

At the moment, the beneficiaries are in agreement - if things change, the administrator could find themself paying out to a beneficiary to received less than the intestate rules laid out.

A deed of variation would protect the administrator from this happening.

I am not sure which part of this you are suggesting doesn't follow the law? 

If the split between the children matches the intestacy rules, that's fine.

If the way he would like his estate divided doesn't match the rules, there could be problems for the administrator.