Probate/Confirmation if intestate?

MEL1981

Hello everyone. 

I'm looking for some advice. Apologies for this but I can't find any threads that covers probate/confirmation without a Will.

My father passed away intestate and my mother is still around. 

We want to give my mother probate/Confirmation to deal with his estate. It should be a simple one as all they have is a house together that my mum will keep that they both lived in and some cash assets he had in his name. We are thinking as a family to pass on his cash into his kids name too with agreement from our mum.

Is it as simple as filling in a C1 form and sending it to the local sheriff court? 

As there was no Will I believe my mother will automatically be granted probate/confirmation but is anyone aware if we can put one of the children on as a named person on the C1 form who can also do the probate?

Kind Regard
Mel

bobster2

I will leave others to comment on the administration/confirmation process in Scotland (where I assume you are based).

However, on distribution - if your parents owned this house as joint tenants - then your mother would become the owner automatically. This would not be passed through your father's estate.

In terms of assets that fall within his estate - these should pass according to the rules of intestacy (https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/103535). To deviate from this would requite a formal deed of variation.

Assuming your parents were married - and that your mother would be getting a large portion of his estate through the rules of intestacy - depending on her age, signing a deed of variation to direct this to children instead could be seen as "deprivation of assets". 

buddy9

Its Confirmation in Scotland. For intestacy there is a step before applying for Confirmation - someone needs to be appointed executor dative.

But do you need a Grant of Confirmation?

If the house is co-owned by mum and dad and there is a survivorship clause in the title (shown in the proprietorship section of the title) then the house has automatically passed to mum outside of the estate and without the need for Confirmation for the house.

Have any fund holders asked for Confirmation before they will release funds?

If Confirmation is required then you need to determine the size of the estate because if the estate for Confirmation is less than mum’s prior rights entitlement, then only mum can apply to be appointed executor (provided she has capacity).