Applying for probate myself

KateMc1989

Hi all,
 
hopefully this is written in the right place. 

My mum left a will when she passed although this wasnt signed by 2 witnesses therefore isn’t legal 

I have been instructed by NHS pensions I need to apply for probate or letter of administration before they can issue the lump sum to my and my brother 

This is all new to me and feel clueless 
I have made an account on GOV site and attempting to fill it in using the help booklet, could anyone provide me with any guidance? 

her estate wasn’t worth a lot but she had 2 pensions , she owned a house with my dad (her ex husband) who is still alive 

would I have to include this on the form? 

There is also no options to add pensions, is that classed as her assets/ estate?
 

I have contacted solicitors but of course they want £1000+ to do the process for me?
 

Any advise would be greatly appreciated 

thank you 
Kate

RAS

Kate, sorry for your loss. You should be able to do this yourselves but it's pretty annoying that the pension companies require probate.

A couple of points:

1. You need to know exactly your mum owned the house with your dad; as joint tenants or tenants in common. Because that affects who inherits her interest and the value of the estate. Start here HM Land Registry - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) and it costs £3 to get the details. Avoid fakename companies who charge 10 times as much and come back here for help interpreting the document.

2. Pensions payments are routinely outside the estate; have the pensions providers indicated if mum nominated anyone? Did she have any other assets?

shiraz99

Sorry for your loss. As you describe there is no valid will so you will have to apply for letters of administration rather than probate. Also, what is the status of the marriage with her ex?

Flugelhorn

@RAS is quite right re checking the status of the house on the land registry - filling in the forms is fairly straightforward if you have all the bits in place re assets 

Might be worth having a chat with the NHS pensions again as they may be able to give a bit more guidance, mum may have made a nomination on the form - was she still working or recently retired?

KateMc1989

Thank you all for your responses. 

So mum and dad are divorced. But still jointly own the home so both of their names are still on the house (no mortgage). 

yes I will need the letters of administration 

nhs pension, my dad may well be the nominee as it was ‘back in the day’ lol 

she was working yes, for a different employer, recently started that job. 

So I will have to add the home, as the estate. And pensions won’t have to be mentioned? It’s a bloody minefield for a dummy 😂😭

shiraz99

KateMc1989 said:

Thank you all for your responses. 

So mum and dad are divorced. But still jointly own the home so both of their names are still on the house (no mortgage). 

yes I will need the letters of administration 

nhs pension, my dad may well be the nominee as it was ‘back in the day’ lol 

she was working yes, for a different employer, recently started that job. 

So I will have to add the home, as the estate. And pensions won’t have to be mentioned? It’s a bloody minefield for a dummy 😂😭

You need to be sure how the property was owned by looking at the land registry, if registered. Even if they are divorced if the property is still held as Joint Tenants, rather than Tenants in Common, then your dad will now own the property himself, under the rules of Survivorship, and it won't form part of your late mum's estate.

handful

shiraz99 said:

KateMc1989 said:

Thank you all for your responses. 

So mum and dad are divorced. But still jointly own the home so both of their names are still on the house (no mortgage). 

yes I will need the letters of administration 

nhs pension, my dad may well be the nominee as it was ‘back in the day’ lol 

she was working yes, for a different employer, recently started that job. 

So I will have to add the home, as the estate. And pensions won’t have to be mentioned? It’s a bloody minefield for a dummy 😂😭

You need to be sure how the property was owned by looking at the land registry, if registered. Even if they are divorced if the property is still held as Joint Tenants, rather than Tenants in Common, then your dad will now own the property himself, under the rules of Survivorship, and it won't form part of your late mum's estate.

Very true and my OH learnt this many years ago when her dad died unexpectedly (aged 54), soon after splitting up with his fairly short term partner who they had bought a house together with. He had just started the process of buying her out when he died and the property went to her automatically as joint beneficial tenant. It caused a lot of stress and heartache I can tell you!

getmore4less

shiraz99 said:

KateMc1989 said:

Thank you all for your responses. 

So mum and dad are divorced. But still jointly own the home so both of their names are still on the house (no mortgage). 

yes I will need the letters of administration 

nhs pension, my dad may well be the nominee as it was ‘back in the day’ lol 

she was working yes, for a different employer, recently started that job. 

So I will have to add the home, as the estate. And pensions won’t have to be mentioned? It’s a bloody minefield for a dummy 😂😭

You need to be sure how the property was owned by looking at the land registry, if registered. Even if they are divorced if the property is still held as Joint Tenants, rather than Tenants in Common, then your dad will now own the property himself, under the rules of Survivorship, and it won't form part of your late mum's estate.

The share still forms part of the taxable estate.

shiraz99

getmore4less said:

shiraz99 said:

KateMc1989 said:

Thank you all for your responses. 

So mum and dad are divorced. But still jointly own the home so both of their names are still on the house (no mortgage). 

yes I will need the letters of administration 

nhs pension, my dad may well be the nominee as it was ‘back in the day’ lol 

she was working yes, for a different employer, recently started that job. 

So I will have to add the home, as the estate. And pensions won’t have to be mentioned? It’s a bloody minefield for a dummy 😂😭

You need to be sure how the property was owned by looking at the land registry, if registered. Even if they are divorced if the property is still held as Joint Tenants, rather than Tenants in Common, then your dad will now own the property himself, under the rules of Survivorship, and it won't form part of your late mum's estate.

The share still forms part of the taxable estate.

There is no share in the property.

poppystar

shiraz99 said:

getmore4less said:

shiraz99 said:

KateMc1989 said:

Thank you all for your responses. 

So mum and dad are divorced. But still jointly own the home so both of their names are still on the house (no mortgage). 

yes I will need the letters of administration 

nhs pension, my dad may well be the nominee as it was ‘back in the day’ lol 

she was working yes, for a different employer, recently started that job. 

So I will have to add the home, as the estate. And pensions won’t have to be mentioned? It’s a bloody minefield for a dummy 😂😭

You need to be sure how the property was owned by looking at the land registry, if registered. Even if they are divorced if the property is still held as Joint Tenants, rather than Tenants in Common, then your dad will now own the property himself, under the rules of Survivorship, and it won't form part of your late mum's estate.

The share still forms part of the taxable estate.

There is no share in the property.

Surely there is a share in the same way as part of a joint account belongs to the estate. 

 The BJT indicates how onwnership will pass in the same way the fact an account is joint indicates who the money in it will pass to - neither becoming part of the estate for distribution under a Will or intestacy but the shares of both are part of the estate for tax calculation purposes. 

shiraz99

Apologies I forgot that they were no longer married and therefore the spousal exemption for IHT doesn't apply. What I do mean by the term "share" is that property when owned by Joint Tenants cannot be divided into shares, either party has 100% right to the ownership of the property, however it is true that when an unmarried JT dies half the value of the property is used to calculate their IHT liability I believe.