Confirmation In Scotland - Time Limit?

TCA

Savvy_Sue said:

No idea, but does she have a bus pass? Mine has my photo on.

Thanks Sue. She does indeed have a bus pass with her photo on it. I had this in mind as backup. I think it was issued by the council but it's a government-controlled scheme, so might well be ok, despite not being listed on the sheriff court website. I was just wondering whether photo I.D. was necessary at all. 

Savvy_Sue

TCA said:

Savvy_Sue said:

No idea, but does she have a bus pass? Mine has my photo on.

Thanks Sue. She does indeed have a bus pass with her photo on it. I had this in mind as backup. I think it was issued by the council but it's a government-controlled scheme, so might well be ok, despite not being listed on the sheriff court website. I was just wondering whether photo I.D. was necessary at all. 

And that basic question I can't help you with, but I can confirm that a sibling without a passport or photo driving licence was able to open a bank account with bus pass as photo ID!

TCA

Heading to the sheriff court tomorrow to submit the application and just one last question.

I see you can pay for certificates. Are these referring to certificates of confirmation for individual assets? As opposed to the general confirmation certificate?

With the confirmation for my aunt in 2016 (with my dad as sole executor and sole beneficiary), I'm 99% sure we didn't buy any certificates and were able to close my aunt's bank account and sell her property (as far as I'm aware without any transfer into my dad's name first). All we had was a stamped version of the application and 1 page granting my dad the power to sell assets and the solicitor attached to the estate agent did the rest. 

With regard to the submission for my dad, the joint account is already in my mum's name only, the car is now registered in her name and that only leaves the family home, which is in dad's name.

There doesn't appear to be any great need to transfer the property into my mum's name (not sure of the process or the cost) but given how we sold my aunt's house without an individual certificate, do we need one this time for any reason for when the property is eventually sold?

buddy9

A certificate of confirmation is a supplementary document certifying that confirmation has been issued and includes a single item specified in the certificate. A certificate has the same legal effect as the confirmation itself.

The confirmation document can be used for house conveyancing but it  would likely not be returned. So the benefit of using a certificate might be that the confirmation document can be retained for future reference.

TCA

buddy9 said:

A certificate of confirmation is a supplementary document certifying that confirmation has been issued and includes a single item specified in the certificate. A certificate has the same legal effect as the confirmation itself.

The confirmation document can be used for house conveyancing but it  would likely not be returned. So the benefit of using a certificate might be that the confirmation document can be retained for future reference.

Thanks. Application submitted today at the sheriff court and I requested a certificate of confirmation for the property.

Regarding my earlier question of photo I.D, they were keen to have some, but weren't interested in a bus pass or out of date passport. Not that I'd brought either with me.

A photo of an in-date UK driving licence (before sent back to the DVLA) of course wasn't acceptable either. I'd also brought original birth and marriage certificates along with 4 other docs listed on their website, so the guy was hopeful this would be enough.

Although this particular staff member had collected paperwork for C1 applications before, the person who does it now wasn't in the office and he had to keep asking a more senior colleague. Who I think did little more than check their website. Which I pointed out doesn't explicitly say you need I.D from both sections, although he was sure it did say that somewhere.

I'm sure there are plenty octogenarians with no current passport or driving licence, so I'd hope there are no issues. 

He reckoned I'd hear in 1-2 weeks and made a point of telling me if I'd made any errors then they wouldn't be able to help me because it's a large estate. I was aware of this but would hope for a clue at least.

Anyway, hopefully it doesn't come to that, so fingers crossed and now we wait.

TCA

I called the sheriff court today having heard nothing for 5 weeks. A couple of amendments are required to the form. Rather than contact me by the phone or email details that I left, they sent something by post a month ago to my elderly mum (as executor), who forgot to mention it. 

Anyhow, I'll see what the letter says tomorrow but the lady from sheriff court said on the phone that the only change seems to be to include monies owed from HMRC and DWP under England and Wales (although she didn't have access to the letter). I'd gone with Scotland because a previous application at the same sheriff court accepted DWP under that heading.

So an easy fix and I'm happy if that's all there is.

Am I right in thinking that the heading should be Personal Estate in England and Wales as opposed to Moveable Estate in England and Wales?    

buddy9

That's correct - personal estate in England and Wales.

TCA

buddy9 said:

That's correct - personal estate in England and Wales.

Thanks. I'll update the thread if any other changes have been requested in their letter.

TCA

So the wording of the letter from the sheriff court said to check head office addresses for DWP and HMRC as these 'may' be England and Wales. Not a very clear instruction. Granted the DWP address was Wolverhampton so I was taking a gamble with my initial submission. The HMRC address the refund came from is termed "an artificial, non-geographic postcode used exclusively by HMRC" and although not apparently associated with a physical location, it appears to be a mail handling facility in Bexley, Kent. Whether mail goes to Scottish HMRC offices from there I have no idea. Perhaps I was lucky to get away with including it under Scotland in my aunt's application in 2016.

Anyhow, I just changed both to England and Wales and delighted and relieved to report that confirmation was granted yesterday. I handed in the revised C1 in the morning and the nice lady at the sheriff court managed to get it re-checked and paperwork issued yesterday afternoon.

Regarding the C1 form, the only other bit of potential concern was the property description. Because the disposition was granted in favour of the lender and I didn't want to falsely state it was in my dad's favour, I completely avoided any mention of the entry in the sasine register and went with the simple description "dwelling house at (address)". This was duly accepted without question. 

Re the lack of photo I.D, an original birth certificate and marriage certificate were obviously sufficient when supplied with several other items of non-photo I.D. I gave them 4 other original documents from the list on their website - council tax statement, bank statement, electricity bill and state pension letter. They normally ask for 3 pieces of evidence if the applicant is not attending the court in person (2 if in person). The website does not specifically ask for photo I.D, merely gives a list of what's acceptable, so it's not very clear what they want.

I mentioned previously that I found out the standard security on the property hadn't been discharged when the mortgage was paid off. With help from elsewhere on here I created a discharge deed for the property which was returned signed and sealed by the lender. There doesn't appear to be any benefit in registering the deed right now with Registers of Scotland or for that matter updating the title in my mum's name, so those can wait until such times as the property is sold (unless anyone can think of a compelling reason to get it done now). I was however advised to prepare a transfer docket for the property, showing my mum as executor transferring the property to herself as beneficiary. Just needs signed and witnessed and can be attached to the certificate of confirmation for the house. From what I understand that's required to show link in title but doesn't require registration.

buddy9

I agree with your comments about getting a docket transfer signed now by your mother as executor.

The style is contained in schedule 1 of the Succession (Scotland) Act 1964. The example below is probably reflective of your circumstances.