Dealing with parent's estate - should I use a solicitor?

System

This discussion was created from comments split from: Anyone here acted as an executor of a will?.

buel10

Hi. I’m just about to start this process but two differences;
1. The main asset, the house, is worth over £322,000
2. My Dad, despite all my prompts, never made a Will 
3. My mum wants to continue living in the house - I have two brothers.

I’m thinking the use of a solicitor here may be wise?

MSE_ForumTeam5

Hi @buel10 we've split your question into a thread of its own

bobster2

A few questions which will determine how simple this is...

Were your mum and dad married?

Did your mum and dad own the house together? If so, as joint tenants or tenants-in-commmon?

What's the value of your father's assets (aside from the house)?

Keep_pedalling

buel10 said:

RAS said:

Was the house held tenants in common, joint tenancy or sole tenancy in dad's name?
With respect to other assets, roughly how much is in joint accounts and accounts in dad's sole name?

Thank you for this. Mum thinks 90% in Dad’s name but where to check?
Almost nothing in bank accounts and no real assets other than a £4,000 Land Rover and the house…

Your first step should be to check the land registry (costs £7) . If the house is held as TiC there should be a section B restriction saying.

No disposition by a sole proprietor of the registered estate (except a trust corporation) under which capital money arises is to be registered unless authorised by an order of the Registrar or the court.

https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registry.

The LR do not hold records of what percentage is held by each owner. If there is an unequal split then your parents would have needed to make a deed of trust documenting this. If they don’t have such a document then it defaults to equal ownership. 

If there is no restriction then they are joint tenants and your mother is now the sole owner. Whatever the situation is you should not need a solicitor to sort out the estate (unless your father was the sole owner you probably don’t even need probate). What is the total value of the house?

You really should have opened a new thread rather than tacking your question on to another one so I have asked for this to be split from the original one