Death notices in local paper

mattsaze

My father passed away in August 2020 and for various reasons I have only just received letters of administration (probate where there was no will) for my late father’s estate. My question is that I now need to place a death notice in the Press Gazette, but placing a death notice in local paper some years later will look odd (we didn’t do it at time of death), but it seems it is required. Does anyone have any advice for such a situation? 

Also Press Gazette offers to place an ad in local paper for around £200, but this seems an expensive way to do it. 

TonyMMM

You don't have to do either, there is no legal requirement,  it is just an option for the executor/administrator to do that provides certain protection against unknown creditors coming forward later .....but if he died in 2020, I would expect any such creditors would have become apparent by now ?

I've been an executor twice and didn't bother with any notices on either occasion ( although I was confident in both cases that there were no outstanding debts.).... 

Marcon

mattsaze said:

My father passed away in August 2020 and for various reasons I have only just received letters of administration (probate where there was no will) for my late father’s estate. My question is that I now need to place a death notice in the Press Gazette, but placing a death notice in local paper some years later will look odd (we didn’t do it at time of death), but it seems it is required. Does anyone have any advice for such a situation? 

Also Press Gazette offers to place an ad in local paper for around £200, but this seems an expensive way to do it. 

Not required, but 'recommended'.

If you choose to do so, suggest you put a notice in the London Gazette: https://www.thegazette.co.uk/wills-and-probate/place-a-deceased-estates-notice

and then arrange your own notice in a paper local to where your father lived. It probably feels odd doing that, but there are lots of such notices - the wording should be about who to contact if you have any claims on the estate, rather than giving details of the death, funeral etc as would be the case if placed immediately after the death.

bobster2

Whether it's worth doing depends partly on who the beneficiaries are. Placing a notice can protect an executor from being personally liable if creditors come forward after the estate has been distributed. But creditors could then still pursue the beneficiaries. So if you're the executor and sole beneficiary - placing a notice doesn't really provide any protection.

user1977

I would say in the vast majority of cases it's completely pointless, as very few people kick the bucket with "surprise" creditors left behind. If it's, say, somebody who was self-employed and who died suddenly leaving behind chaotic finances then I could maybe see the point.

And if you're the sole beneficiary then the worst-case scenario is having to pay back a creditor from whatever you inherited. It's only really an issue where it's an executor who wants to cover their behind from potential claims by beneficiaries.

But in any event, what creditors wouldn't already have chased up a debit in the past 3+ years?

mattsaze

Thanks for the helpful comments, much appreciated.