What is visible when people request copies of wills/probate from the Probate office

madbadrob

BooBoo77 said:

 "I was hoping that I could deal with it via a solicitor so having my address as executor on the probate and freely available in the will feels a bit uncomfortable.  I understand how the contents of a will should be freely available but names and addresses feel like they should have more privacy."

As executor you are responsible for paying all debts associated to the estate.  Your address as to be on the grant of probate to allow any creditors the point of contact for the claiming of any outstanding debts.  You would also be required to provide your name and address in two papers (assuming you wanted to avoid any creditors coming to you for debts in say 6 years time) the local newspaper to the deceased and the paper of record ie the gazette.

If you dont want your address linked to you then I would suggest you ask to be removed as an executor or employ at your own expense a solicitor to act for you.

Rob

BooBoo77

Thanks Rob. I do realise I need to do all this and I am doing it to make sure that all creditors are aware and can contact me so I can sort that side of things.  I just didn't realise that my address would be publicly available and I wouldn't have a chance to use a PO Box or something like that.  I do now and am going to do the thing about listing in local newspaper and gazette as required as well as searching for all correspondence I can find.  Thanks again for the clarification from yourself and others.  It's just all rather overwhelming at what's such an awful time in any case, but hey that's the nature of it isn't it?

msb1234

BooBoo77 said:

Thanks all so my full address as executor will be visible as it will be on the will too. That is a bit worrying. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now. Good idea to pick one at random to get a copy. I’ll do that. 

Yes, the will is scanned in and anyone can download a full copy. It will not be redacted. 

Keep_pedalling

madbadrob said:

BooBoo77 said:

 "I was hoping that I could deal with it via a solicitor so having my address as executor on the probate and freely available in the will feels a bit uncomfortable.  I understand how the contents of a will should be freely available but names and addresses feel like they should have more privacy."

As executor you are responsible for paying all debts associated to the estate.  Your address as to be on the grant of probate to allow any creditors the point of contact for the claiming of any outstanding debts.  You would also be required to provide your name and address in two papers (assuming you wanted to avoid any creditors coming to you for debts in say 6 years time) the local newspaper to the deceased and the paper of record ie the gazette.

If you dont want your address linked to you then I would suggest you ask to be removed as an executor or employ at your own expense a solicitor to act for you.

Rob

I don’t think this is strictly correct. We recently had a thread on here where the executors had used a solicitor to complete the probate application, but two charities failed to get their bequests. The charities were pursuing the solicitors to get the addresses of the executors, so it looks like where you get a solicitor to do the work the solicitors address could end up being used not the actual addresses of the executors. 

poppystar

Keep_pedalling said:

madbadrob said:

BooBoo77 said:

 "I was hoping that I could deal with it via a solicitor so having my address as executor on the probate and freely available in the will feels a bit uncomfortable.  I understand how the contents of a will should be freely available but names and addresses feel like they should have more privacy."

As executor you are responsible for paying all debts associated to the estate.  Your address as to be on the grant of probate to allow any creditors the point of contact for the claiming of any outstanding debts.  You would also be required to provide your name and address in two papers (assuming you wanted to avoid any creditors coming to you for debts in say 6 years time) the local newspaper to the deceased and the paper of record ie the gazette.

If you dont want your address linked to you then I would suggest you ask to be removed as an executor or employ at your own expense a solicitor to act for you.

Rob

I don’t think this is strictly correct. We recently had a thread on here where the executors had used a solicitor to complete the probate application, but two charities failed to get their bequests. The charities were pursuing the solicitors to get the addresses of the executors, so it looks like where you get a solicitor to do the work the solicitors address could end up being used not the actual addresses of the executors. 

In that instance the executors had moved so they wouldn’t have been contactable at the address on the probate grant. In those circumstances the solicitors might have been easier to find than the executors perhaps?