No will and my last parent has died - any key advice & great step by step guides I should follow?

beastman

My Dad died 5 years ago and My Mum passed last week and due to severe mental health issues she didn't, as far as I am aware make a will. There are 4 children and the only asset is my parents old terraced house which has unfortunately remained empty and unused for years and is in a right state. My Mum didn't even have her own bank account, again due to mental health issues along with her lack of mobility. Am I right to assume that as there is only 1 asset that needs dealing with,  applying to the the Probate Registry for a Grant of Letters of Administration should be straight forward? Are there any guides I should follow? Is there any other general advice to follow or things to avoid? Does anyone also know how long it would take for the house to be legally sellable?

thanks

elsien

If she didn’t have her own bank account, who was managing her money for her?

I am thinking that there may be outstanding bills or council tax or standing charges on utilities, things like that. Where was she living and how was that being funded? 

Just thinking that you probably need to be checking for any debts on the estate to make sure it’s not going to be insolvent before you start doing things. 

JGB1955

You need to start by finding out how your parents owned their house - Joint owners or Tenants in Common.  You can do a search of the Land Registry to find out.  Search for land and property information - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Marcon

JGB1955 said:

You need to start by finding out how your parents owned their house - Joint owners or Tenants in Common.  You can do a search of the Land Registry to find out.  Search for land and property information - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Not sure it would help much. If father left a will, what if anything did it say about the property? If he died intestate, then his widow will have inherited (from the sound of it the property isn't valuable enough to have pushed the estate over the level of the 'statutory legacy', but of course it depends if there were other assets which did).

Keep_pedalling

There might be other assets, who was handling her finances?

You are going to obtain to need to obtain letters of administration before you can sell the house , and that could several months but it seems to be rather random as to how long it takes. Applying on line seems to speed things up somewhat. 

BreakfastTea18

Were her finances being managed by the Local Authority if she lacked capacity to do herself ?

Was she residing in residential care or a hospital at the time of her death ? 
A call to the LA might be useful if thiscwas the case. 

beastman

thanks for the replys, perhaps should have said, My Mum was in a nursing home near to me, so I was managing her finances, such as they were. Her pension did go into my Dads bank account but of course that had to be closed when he died which left me in a right pickle as Mum was both mentally pretty much unable to set up her own bank account plus she couldn't even physically get into a bank to open an account. I ended up having to open an account in my name and her pension went in there. There wont be any utility bills left as the house was empty and eveything was disconnected I think. The council tax was made to a zero payment each year as the council knew the circumstances. Due to her mental health her nursing home fees were also covered, so there may be some random bill due for something, but I can't think what. 

When their mortage was paid off, we got lots of the old paperwork from the Buuilding Society and it includes the title deeds which shows both Mum and Dads name on it. As mentioned Dad didn't leave a will and neither did Mum.

kipsterno1

Has anyone been checking on the house? If the utilities have been completely disconnected that could effect the fabric of the building if it has remained unheated. If everything is just switched off there will still be standing charges. Is there building insurance in place?