Appointed Executor in Will of Disorganised Estate

getmore4less

One trick is don't get distracted by details, 

first step is sort only,  don't throw anything out except the absolute obvious junk like a menu.

Once you have the piles or boxes or folders you can go through each in turn sorting.

make notes at the front of each batch 

a spreadsheet can be helpful for time line note as well.

then you will ave a list of places to notify and make enquiries.

Sea_Shell

Also check to see if anyone locally is selling any small filling cabinets, lever-arch or ring binder folders or storage/archive boxes etc on FB etc.   If you don't already have any.

That could be a legitimate executor expense?

Savvy_Sue

BooJewels said:

Thank goodness for 'instructed to be ruthless' house clearance companies, or we'd still be at it - they earned every damn penny.  I can only assume they employed some sort of witchcraft - as in 2 working days they cleared the place entirely and even swept the floor.  My sister opened the garage door the day they finished and stood there blinking, thinking she was hallucinating!  She sent me a photo and said "are you seeing what I'm seeing" - we hadn't seen the floor since 1968!  

Oh my goodness YES, house clearance company once you've done the initial trawls, worth every single penny of their large fee. 

Ours did a first clear to stage the house for sale, hard to recognise the place. Never saw it empty as they phoned to say they were going to be very busy, it was either empty now or nothing for 3 weeks. House had been under offer for ages but no firm date for exchange. So glad I said NOW as the next call was solicitor with a date for same day exchange and completion!

RAS

You probably won't have the issue we had clearing grandma's house. Paper money squirrelled everywhere; open a teapot, lift a pile of napkins etc. The better clearance companies are very good at this, and jewellery, and will have a clause agreeing what happens.

Personally, I found an important legal document under a mattress, and a whole box of holiday brochures also held one file, detailing a whole life insurance policy. Glad I hadn't cancelled the £4 DD.

Start by clearing the dross. Clear a space and just put everything in neat piles, one for each provider. You can sort later, although if there's a very recent document, keep that on top.

BooJewels

RAS said:

You probably won't have the issue we had clearing grandma's house. Paper money squirrelled everywhere; open a teapot, lift a pile of napkins etc. The better clearance companies are very good at this, and jewellery, and will have a clause agreeing what happens.

You see, my Mum was a squirreller and we felt sure we'd find money in odd places and looked very, very carefully.  We found one purse that Dad must have missed and a ten shilling and a couple of old pound notes in books, but nothing else folding.  We put significant effort into looking and it was most disappointing - even lifted carpets, took drawers out etc.  By the time we brought in the house clearance people it was already very well sorted - just boxes of thousands of books (every one flicked through and shaken) and furniture we didn't know what to do with - some decent antique stuff we hadn't manged to sell.  We found oddments of change in pockets throughout and put it all away and recently had a huge chunk of cake and pot of coffee in a nice cafe on holiday with it.

The house clearance chap said he found £1.87 in change down the sofa and put it towards his lunch.  If he put his hand down there, he was truly welcome to it!

poppystar

BooJewels said:

I'll have to look that up, I don't know it @Sea_Shell - it's still too close in memory for me to have shaken it fully yet - I periodically wake in the night in a sweat thinking that I'm still not done with it and I have to try and remember if we actually cleared and sold the house yet.  Paperwork was one thing (I brought boxes and boxes home to do here - I shredded 60 years of bank statements) and the general clutter and gubbins was another. 

Oh, that waking in the night - I thought it was just me! I often dream I’m still there looking for stuff and then the new owners come home so I panic that I’m not supposed to be there as well  My father had shredded a lot though - nothing still existed finance wise from before my mother’s death - probably too much. I never found out what he had been living on for years as there was only one cash withdrawl in that time. Another nightmare has me panicking there was ‘treasure’ I missed and it’s somewhere at the clearance company. I think from death until the house was cleared I was on some sort of autopilot and didn’t stop to really think or process. All these actions and decisions and HMRC/probate hurdles we have to jump when also dealing with a death.

Sorry for interrupting here OP! Good luck

BooJewels

@poppystar - I was talking to my sister earlier and she had a similar dream this week - that we'd all moved back into the downstairs of the house and were trying to be quiet, as the new owners were working upstairs, putting in a new bathroom. 

We decided that it just proves that psychologically you haven't yet fully processed it all and your mind needs time to sort it all out.  As you say, when you're actually going through it, you don't even have time to think, then when you're done, your mind needs time to file everything away.  We also agreed that these dreams are getting less frequent, so clearly with time, your mind gradually processes it and puts it away.

I hope the OP won't mind the slight diversion, they've had good advice already and it's perhaps important that people going through these difficult processes know that others understand and have been through it and that it's a complicated and emotionally difficult process.  I tried to explain this to HMRC, when it's already been over 6 months waiting for our CGT bill - it's the last thing I need to do to finalise the estate and I can't close the door on it until that's done.  I asked if he'd therefore be okay if I took 6 months to pay it.

Pennylane

Just me, but I would rather do this myself because I feel I would do it more thoroughly than someone not directly involved.  Just take a deep breath and do it methodically.  Start with piles ….. bank accounts, life insurances, shares, premium bonds, property details etc.  then go on to actually sorting each pile.  Shred anything unnecessary.  I used big clear plastic boxes to organise stuff and labelled each section. It is actually quite satisfying sorting stuff out.

getmore4less

Don't dispose of anything too soon even very old things like bank statements.

They don't take up a lot of space once sorted.

You never know what you might need to refer back to as you uncover things especially as you have lots of un opend mail and uncashed cheques

I also did a MSmoney back for a few years to make sure the income tax situation was up to date.

getmore4less

All residual beneficiaries are the first to lose out if you appoint solicitors get them to put some time in.