Probate

Nickyno

My Father in Law passed away on 28/3/23, he left a will and this is at the solicitors. Both his son & daughter are both the executors and beneficiaries.  Due to him having a post mortem we have not been able to register his death and therefore don't as yet have a death certificate.  Is there anything we can do in the meantime? will we have to wait till we register his death, before applying for probate?  Does both his son and daughter apply for probate jointly? Is there any drawbacks to just one applying for probate?

First time we have been through this and I'm trying to find out as much as I can to help.  

Thankyou in advance x

poppystar

First thing to look at is if probate is necessary. Is there a property involved? Is the estate likely to be liable for IHT? 

A lot of things may have to go on hold If there is no death certificate. If it goes to inquest I believe you can get an interim certificate, if it is just waiting a few days for a post mortem then it should only be a short delay. 

There is plenty of time. No need to rush as you have a lot to take in.

kuratowski

Did FIL live alone?  If there is a vacant property, make sure it's secure and any valuables are kept safe.  Same goes for any car.

Starting on the paperwork, and arranging a funeral, will both have to wait until you have a death certificate (or interim certificate, as above).

If the son and daughter have good communications between them, only one needs to apply for probate (if it is needed) and fill out IHT forms (if they are needed).  But equally, working on it all together might be something they find helpful, as having defined tasks to do can be helpful from an emotional standpoint.

Bonniepurple

You will be told a lot when you go to register the death.  From experience, the hospital bereavement office can be quite tricky to get hold of, and, certainly in our case, couldn’t cope with the fact that I had a different surname to my Dad!  Being addressed by my maiden name for the first time in 19 years was disconcerting.

You can’t really do anything until the hospital have decided on a cause of death.  Even when my Dad died in hospital, it took them 5 days to agree the cause- and that was ringing for updates.  With my Mum, it took much longer due to the need to wait for toxicology reports and so we ended up with an interim death certificate.

There will be plenty of times when you want to do stuff but can’t because you need to wait for official cogs.  It is frustrating, but you will get there.

Flugelhorn

kuratowski said:

Did FIL live alone?  If there is a vacant property, make sure it's secure and any valuables are kept safe.  Same goes for any car.

also ensure that the property is insured

re probate, it will depend on what is in the estate and who is named as an executor (hopefully not the solictors and this can delay matters and cost £££)

Dave_5150

You can notify his utility companies and banks before you have the death certificate if required. It's definitely worth finding the contact details for their bereavement teams rather than calling customer servies.

You can also contact DWP and the Council Tax team at his local council too.

Loll10

I’m dealing with a similar estate so can give you a bit of information of what’s happened so far as it’s all been new to me too.

Registering the death - with a post mortem the coroner will telephone the family contact they have on record. They will tell you the cause of death, answer any questions and digitally send the medical document to the registrar for the county where the person died. Our registration was 25 days after the date of death.

You then make an online appointment with the registrar and pay for the number of death certificates you require at this time. Two or three copies should be more than enough at a cost of £11 each. The certificates will be printed during this appointment and you’ll be given a reference number for the Tell Us Once service if it’s available in your area. 

You can then arrange a funeral and collect the will from the solicitor. We needed to provide a letter giving the solicitor permission to release the will, provide photo ID and the death certificate. It sounds a lot but we did all three organisations in one afternoon and each part was straight forward.

You then need to value the estate. This is a key part and helps you decide the next steps to take.

If you need probate because the person owned property or the bank limit requires it etc, then you can do this online yourselves. If there is more than one executor then one person completes the online form as the lead applicant and enters the others' details. You can take your time, go backwards, change the information and print a draft to check everything. Each executor must have a different email address. The application isn’t complete until all the other executors respond to an email which acts as a digital signature. 

Our Probate was approved by email 7.5 weeks after the application was first confirmed and the actual certificate/s will arrive in the post within 10 days after this.

The online forms will guide you through the processes. There will be several times where you need to send original documents to organisations using signed for post at £6 - £7 a time. They will often reply by post or require you to phone them.

There is plenty to do whilst waiting for the official stages to start or complete. I checked straight away that the property was secure and took all the obvious paperwork and ID documents back home to deal with. I also set up lever arch files with subject dividers to keep track of all the paperwork alongside an excel sheet for recording the estate value of assets and debts. There will be personal belongings and household contents to sort too which will take some time. 

Nickyno

Thankyou for all the responses.   My FIL didn't own a property ( lived with his daughter and her family).  He has some shares and maybe a bit of money in bank accounts.

We have been informed that there will be an inquest into his death in August.  My SIL has received an email from the coroner office and a pdf attachment showing the interim certificate ( we will only receive his death certicate and be able to register his death after the inquest. 

Will we receive a call or some form of contact telling us what we need to do next?
Receive the official interim death certificate?
How many copies will we need?
 
Thankyou in advance x

RAS

Given the value of the shares, you probably need probate.