Will - original executors changed then cancelled.

Evergarden

After my mother-in-law died last month, I read up about probate and thought - yes, she was a widow, estate well under inheritance tax limit, next of kin are her adult son and daughter - straightforward, we can do this!

We find the will, great! but immediately there is problem.

So back in the 1980s she wrote the will naming her son & daughter as beneficiaries and executors. Later she worked for a bank who had a free probate service. So a codicil was added removing her son and daughter as executors in favour of the bank.

A few years later when the Bank decided to start charging for the service she removed them as executors. They confirmed this and sent her a form to create a new will which of course she never did. To be fair she did write a note on the envelope she received, saying she was revoking the bank and intending for her son and daughter to be reinstated as executors. She even signed the note, but didn't have it witnessed.

Obviously her son and daughter will still inherit either through the intention of the original will or simply as next of kin, but in terms of executors, did removing the bank simply negate the codicil and it reverts to the original will, or are there now no executors and we have to take the administrators route?

Or do we just hand a big bundle of paperwork to a solicitor and let them get on with it!

Thanks for any advice you can give.

Savvy_Sue

A further option: see if you can contact the bank and request that they relinquish the role of executor and allow you to act. I think that's a request they should not refuse. Indeed, it might be a service they no longer offer ... 

Evergarden

Thanks Sue for your reply, she did contact the bank back when they introduced the charge. We have a letter from them confirming the revoking of their role as executor.

However as a new will wasn't drawn up, I'm unclear whether as a result of the revocation it reverts back to the original executors (her son and daughter) or whether it leaves it without any executors.

If it only negates the later codicil and reverts back to  the executors named in the original will then we can go straight away down the probate route, but as I understand it if there are now deemed to be no executors named we will need to get letters of administration.

Thanks again.

RAS

You get letters of administration (with will) if the previous executors have renounced or died. This is a common practice but you'd need to check with the Probate Registry whether this can be done on-line or has to be a slower paper application. I suspect it has to be a paper application.

And check that the letter written by the bank is accepted as renunciation, rather than the normal form that executors now sign. Otherwise it means going back to the bank to get them to complete the form.

Either of both siblings can apply, possibly easier legally if the both do.

Keep_pedalling

As she effectively revoked the codicil, just destroy it and submit the original will. This may not be strictly correct, but the bank will no longer have any records of her will and nobody is going to challenge it. 

Jowwie

Keep_pedalling said:

As she effectively revoked the codicil, just destroy it and submit the original will. This may not be strictly correct, but the bank will no longer have any records of her will and nobody is going to challenge it. 

Was the codicil attached e.g stapled to the will? If so, you might want to keep hold of it just in case probate office query any marks on the will.

Keep_pedalling

Jowwie said:

Keep_pedalling said:

As she effectively revoked the codicil, just destroy it and submit the original will. This may not be strictly correct, but the bank will no longer have any records of her will and nobody is going to challenge it. 

Was the codicil attached e.g stapled to the will? If so, you might want to keep hold of it just in case probate office query any marks on the will.

Hopefully not, it certainly should not have been.

Savvy_Sue

Keep_pedalling said:

As she effectively revoked the codicil, just destroy it and submit the original will. This may not be strictly correct, but the bank will no longer have any records of her will and nobody is going to challenge it. 

That thought also crossed my mind ... 

Evergarden

Well that was a bit of a surprise! I asked the question expecting a cold, dry legal answer and ended up facing a moral dilemma!

100% my mother-in-law wanted her 2 adult children to be executors, so we could easily achieve that by "un-finding" the codicil. That would be the easy route and is very tempting.

However I know what my wife is like, and she would want everything done properly, above board, so I think the comment from RAS is probably the way we will proceed. Thanks to them as well for raising the question of the validity of the bank's revocation, which was something I hadn't considered.

Many thanks to everyone for your advice, it's been very helpful.