Probate not applied for after 10 months

RedTCat

km1500 said:

do you know for certain who is / are the executor(s)?

No! I'm told that his wife is executor - didn't know you could be executor and beneficiary...

RAS

Absolutely normal for the executor to be a beneficiary. Why would anyone not professional do the job otherwise? 

You can't witness a will if you are a beneficiary. You'll lose your inheritance.

frayedknot

Theres a few red flags for me. They refused to let you see the will is one. They lied about probate application. They blindsided you w ith the funeral.

 If you are in the will and set to inherit half the house where's his new wife going to live? Any solicitor would see the problems in this and advise accordingly ,maybe his wife retains a lifetime interest in the house.

If the will is as you say why would his wife seek probate to a will that leaves her homeless. Maybe the wife is better off under the intestacy rules and the will becomes mysteriously lost. Maybe the wife will challenge the will as it does not adequately provide for her. There's a lot of ifs and buts and the early signs are not encouraging.

Sorry I couldn't be more positive.

bobster2

RedTCat said:

I'm being deliberately vague about details to avoid identifying anyone. 
Dad died Dec 2023, I am his only living blood relative. His wife - who is not my mother - has not yet applied for probate. She has a large extended family - her granddaughters are supposed to be helping her. They organised funeral etc, without consulting me. The have refused to let me see the will. I was told in Jan 2024 probate had been applied for. I checked on the gov.uk probate web site, but *still* probate has not been applied for.
Is there a time limit to apply - are they breaking the law?
I would assume I have been left half of the house, therefore I'm losing interest on anything I would have invested. Am I entitled to claim against the Estate?

EDIT: Please help with answers to the two questions above, fixating over *if* I'm in the will etc, is not helpful.

As others have said - checking the gov.uk website will only tell you whether probate has been granted - not whether it has been applied for.

It is confusing that on the one hand you say you are certain that you are a beneficiary of the will - but yet you are complaining that you haven't been shown the will. You can only know the former for sure if you've seen the will.

The timescales don't sound that unusual at the moment - and it doesn't sound like any laws have been broken. Traditionally there is the "executor's year" - for 12 months following a death, executors are under no obligation to start distributing funds following a death. And even then many estates take quite a bit longer to deal with.

You are not personally entitled to receive interest - but during the administration period the value of an estates assets may increase (e.g. due to interest receipts, or a property gaining value). So if you're a residual beneficiary - you would get a portion of that increase when the final distributions are made.

Keep_pedalling

If your father has left you his share of the house and he had a professionally drawn up will, it is almost certain that he did it via an immediate post death interest trust, which would mean that currently his widow is now the beneficial owner and legal ownership sits within the trust and you would not inherit until her death.

It is also possible that probate may never be applied for, it is not required for the house and unless he held other assets that would need probate for them to be released.

You can check with the land registry for the current situation regarding ownership, and it would be worth signing up for a property alert to alert you to any changes that occur.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/property-alert

Unfortunately all you have at the moment is speculation as you father failed to inform you of his attentions were while he was still alive. 

mattojgb

Keep_pedalling said:

If your father has left you his share of the house and he had a professionally drawn up will, it is almost certain that he did it via an immediate post death interest trust, which would mean that currently his widow is now the beneficial owner and legal ownership sits within the trust and you would not inherit until her death.

It is also possible that probate may never be applied for, it is not required for the house and unless he held other assets that would need probate for them to be released.

Legal and beneficial ownership is the other way round I think. Presuming the property was jointly owned then the widow will become legal owner on death of husband. Husband's name will simply be removed from the register (if land registry are informed of death). Part A restriction will nevertheless remain if owned as tenants in common. I'm not sure anything significant will show up via an alert. No need for probate.

Edit to add - it would still be worthwhile checking current ownership to see if it was owned as tenants in common or joint tenants.

swingaloo

Would you dad have left a will making his wife homeless so you could inherit?

Keep_pedalling

mattojgb said:y

Keep_pedalling said:

If your father has left you his share of the house and he had a professionally drawn up will, it is almost certain that he did it via an immediate post death interest trust, which would mean that currently his widow is now the beneficial owner and legal ownership sits within the trust and you would not inherit until her death.

It is also possible that probate may never be applied for, it is not required for the house and unless he held other assets that would need probate for them to be released.

Legal and beneficial ownership is the other way round I think. Presuming the property was jointly owned then the widow will become legal owner on death of husband. Husband's name will simply be removed from the register (if land registry are informed of death). Part A restriction will nevertheless remain if owned as tenants in common. I'm not sure anything significant will show up via an alert. No need for probate.

Edit to add - it would still be worthwhile checking current ownership to see if it was owned as tenants in common or joint tenants.

No, if the property was owned as tenants in common and a IPDIT was created by his will then I definitely have it the right way round. If it was held as Joint Tenants then she is now both legal and beneficial owner of the whole house.

Kim_13

It also depends when he made his will - if he married afterwards, it would be null and void and in the absence of a new will, dealt with under the intestacy rules.

Not applying for probate is odd though - the only logical explanation for that is to give more time to prepare an empty property for sale before the 6 months from probate Council Tax exemption is up, given it must be a struggle to complete in 6 months even if you get an offer from a problem free buyer straight away. As the house isn’t empty, that wouldn’t apply.

RedTCat

frayedknot said:

Theres a few red flags for me. They refused to let you see the will is one. They lied about probate application. They blindsided you w ith the funeral.

 If you are in the will and set to inherit half the house where's his new wife going to live? Any solicitor would see the problems in this and advise accordingly ,maybe his wife retains a lifetime interest in the house.

If the will is as you say why would his wife seek probate to a will that leaves her homeless. Maybe the wife is better off under the intestacy rules and the will becomes mysteriously lost. Maybe the wife will challenge the will as it does not adequately provide for her. There's a lot of ifs and buts and the early signs are not encouraging.

Sorry I couldn't be more positive.

That is interesting - if not "positive"! His wife is very old - and really they should both have moved to a smaller property 10 or more years ago. Selling the house would provide her enough to pay for a nursing home place for the rest of her life - based on her age now.