Using a solicitor for probate

wilkko73

I've got a meeting with a solicitor to get help with probate which is a fixed fee( £1200 plus vat) thing. I assume I will be doing the leg work to keep costs down obviously they wont be doing the whole thing for that price with solicitors fees.I can borrow that money to pay that but I'm wondering if any other fees come along such as the transter of house and any valuations etc etc,do all those expenses have to be paid up front by me as I'm assuming funds from my late mum's account can't be used to pay the legal fees as those sums wont be released until after probate.I live in the family home.I'm short of money after caring for many years.

SiliconChip

How complicated is the Will, are you the sole beneficiary or are there others who are due to receive part of the estate? Is the house left to you? 

If it's just you then you really don't need a solicitor for probate, as you say it's likely you'll be doing the leg work anyway so why pay them £1440 for doing the paperwork when it's pretty easy to do yourself? If you get stuck at any point there are plenty of people on here who have done it themselves and can help out.

wilkko73

I just stuggle with things like this,I haven't signed u to it yet though

Savvy_Sue

wilkko73 said:

I just stuggle with things like this,I haven't signed u to it yet though

Well, there's no strict deadline for applying for probate, so you can take your time. Answer SiliconChip's questions:

SiliconChip said:

How complicated is the Will, are you the sole beneficiary or are there others who are due to receive part of the estate? Is the house left to you? 

And if we spot any red flags (eg "I have 15 siblings and only 8 of them are mentioned in the will, I know at least one of the other 7 will kick off"), we'll let you know.

But if the will says "I leave everything to willko73", and you have no siblings, and your mother was widowed or divorced (or never married), then it should not present any problems.

Hopefully the answer is close to the latter ...

Savvy_Sue

BTW, we are presuming the will names you as sole executor: if you're not, do say who else is named.

wilkko73

Hi SiliconChip said:

How complicated is the Will, are you the sole beneficiary or are there others who are due to receive part of the estate? Is the house left to you? 

If it's just you then you really don't need a solicitor for probate, as you say it's likely you'll be doing the leg work anyway so why pay them £1440 for doing the paperwork when it's pretty easy to do yourself? If you get stuck at any point there are plenty of people on here who have done it themselves and can help out.

Hi I'm the sole beneficiary

wilkko73

Savvy_Sue said:

BTW, we are presuming the will names you as sole executor: if you're not, do say who else is named.

Hi I was named as executor with the solicitor but became very worried about them being an executor handling the whole estate so I asked them if they could renounce and they said yes,nothing signed yet though

Savvy_Sue

In that case, take your time, be methodical, ditch the solicitor. 

If your hope is to stay in the house until you die, you could even not worry about transferring the house into your own name, BUT it would be a kindness to whoever sorts out your estate to do so, because it will make them selling it So Much Easier. And if you want to move, you'll need to have obtained probate before you can do so. 

I don't know how recently mum died, but you certainly don't need to be doing anything before the funeral. 

wilkko73

Hi thank you @Savvy_Sue ,mum passed less than a fortnight ago,it's been really hard to concentrate.If I do use the solicitor for any help or for transferring the home do you know if I can take those funds out from the estate to pay them before probate is finalised,as I don't want to borrow a lot of money from family?
Also another thing that is bothering me is that I had to lend £2000 off a friend to pay 50% of the funeral as they wanted the money to give me a funeral date.I know that funeral invoices presented by an undertaker can be paid by the bank but that was just me paying it via online banking after a friend paid money in to my account.
Another thing I'm not sure how easy it is going to be for me to open another online account to pay the money in to when the bank releases mum's funds as I'm not working after being a carer for all those years and feeling ill after years of pressure and I thought a bank would have to have a salary or maybe even direct debits leaving it.I'm with Barclays and so is mum.

Savvy_Sue

And breathe. 

Since the money is going to you, and only you, and no-one is going to argue with you about it, you can just put any money into your account, or ask to have it transferred to you. 

I presume you didn't have a joint account with mum? If you did, that would automatically be turned into an account in your name only, and all the money would be yours. Standing orders and Direct Debits would continue to be paid out, and any money coming in would still arrive - so you'd just need to check that there wasn't anything incoming which shouldn't be. 

If Mum has less than £50,000 in her account, Barclays will close the account and send all the money to you, once you've done a few simple things, but without you needing to get probate. 

Take a look at https://www.barclays.co.uk/what-to-do-when-someone-dies/ - I suspect you have dealt with everything in the 'First Steps' link so then it's working through 'Letting us know'. It may look a bit long and complicated, but that's because they are covering all eventualities. First you start with the ways in which you can tell them, then it moves on to what they do with each 'product' - so that's definitely 'Current and Savings Accounts' for you, and maybe a Barclaycard, an ISA, whatever, you just check. Then they tell you what they'll need in order to close the account, and how they do it. 

Come back if you have any questions. Barclays do talk about emotional and financial support after bereavement: I do hope you have someone you can talk to about all this. I don't know where in the country you are, but if you're feeling isolated (which can very easily happen when you're caring for someone), you could always look for a Warm Welcome space - there's a map here to help you find one. (Disclaimer: I help out with one, we'd be hugely supportive of you, some may be very 'busy' and noisy but just ask if you want to talk privately to someone and I'm sure they'll find a corner.)

wilkko73

Savvy_Sue said:

And breathe. 

Since the money is going to you, and only you, and no-one is going to argue with you about it, you can just put any money into your account, or ask to have it transferred to you. 

I presume you didn't have a joint account with mum? If you did, that would automatically be turned into an account in your name only, and all the money would be yours. Standing orders and Direct Debits would continue to be paid out, and any money coming in would still arrive - so you'd just need to check that there wasn't anything incoming which shouldn't be. 

If Mum has less than £50,000 in her account, Barclays will close the account and send all the money to you, once you've done a few simple things, but without you needing to get probate. 

Take a look at https://www.barclays.co.uk/what-to-do-when-someone-dies/ - I suspect you have dealt with everything in the 'First Steps' link so then it's working through 'Letting us know'. It may look a bit long and complicated, but that's because they are covering all eventualities. First you start with the ways in which you can tell them, then it moves on to what they do with each 'product' - so that's definitely 'Current and Savings Accounts' for you, and maybe a Barclaycard, an ISA, whatever, you just check. Then they tell you what they'll need in order to close the account, and how they do it. 

Come back if you have any questions. Barclays do talk about emotional and financial support after bereavement: I do hope you have someone you can talk to about all this. I don't know where in the country you are, but if you're feeling isolated (which can very easily happen when you're caring for someone), you could always look for a Warm Welcome space - there's a map here to help you find one. (Disclaimer: I help out with one, we'd be hugely supportive of you, some may be very 'busy' and noisy but just ask if you want to talk privately to someone and I'm sure they'll find a corner.)

Thank you for your help.It's always good to talk.I have just looked at the map and there is a Warm Welcome Space at a church a few minutes from me.I'm going to pop along.