When is a will required

savysaver12

Morning,

Looking for some help, when closing a deceased persons gas/electric/Bank account, do these companies need a copy of the will. Also if a solicitor is instructed, can they deal with all of this after receiving a copy of the will or is it the executors who have to do this?

Keep_pedalling

A lot of people fail to make wills so no the supplier does not need to see a will.

If this is a simple estate I would not instruct a solicitor, not only will this add costs it will add considerable delay in winding up the estate. The suppliers should be informed asap so that is a job for the executor don’t leave it with a solicitor.

If you are the executor, you can get plenty of help with the probate process here.

FlorayG

To answer your question - no, the executors don't have to do anything, the executor can appoint a solicitor to do everything but expect a bill mine was about £3,000 but they dealt with everything

user1977

Creditors shouldn’t have any need to see a Will. They are more likely to need to see a death certificate.

savysaver12

thank you for your responses, it is a little more complicated as one executor wants to get things done as quick as possible, but then this is the one who booked the solicitor, the other doesn't want anything done for a few months as they are not coping well with the death.
The person who died who named both as executors only wanted one to keep a copy of the will, the other has been requesting this a lot over text saying it is needed to close the bank account and gas accounts.
In this case would you let the solicitor do everything? it is causing friction that is not needed at this time

Tiglet2

A Will is not needed to close the bank account or gas accounts.  An original Death Certificate is.

Keep_pedalling

savysaver12 said:

thank you for your responses, it is a little more complicated as one executor wants to get things done as quick as possible, but then this is the one who booked the solicitor, the other doesn't want anything done for a few months as they are not coping well with the death.
The person who died who named both as executors only wanted one to keep a copy of the will, the other has been requesting this a lot over text saying it is needed to close the bank account and gas accounts.
In this case would you let the solicitor do everything? it is causing friction that is not needed at this time

Appointing a solicitor will add significant delay in the whole process. People cope with grief in very different ways, some will just avoid doing anything others just want to get stuck in and sort everything out. The solicitor will not take on the work without full agreement from both executors.

One option is for the person who is not coping is to let the other get on with it and reserve their powers. 

savysaver12

great thank you, they have the death certificate so this can be done, the other doesn't want to give the other one control due to issues relating to money and wills in the past. I will just advise them to let the solicitor handle it.
Would rather pay to ensure its done correctly if one doesn't trust the other, thank you for your help all.

Linton

A copy of the will may be necessary to prove that you are the appointed executor.  I would expect this to be the case were you to ask for the contents of the deceased's bank accounts to be transferred to yourself.

If you are talking to the utilities you should ask to speak to the Bereavement Team rather than to the normal call centre people.  You should find the Bereavement teams very helpful.

SiliconChip

When I was executor for my mum the only organisation that wanted to see the Will was Co-op bank in order to close her credit card, fortunately they accepted a scan of the original by email rather than having to send them a certified hard copy. Everyone else processed the requests with either or both the death certificate and grant of probate.

thegreenone

Tiglet2 said:

A Will is not needed to close the bank account

Banks should definitely be asking for sight of the Will, as any money will be sent to the Executor/s and the bank will need proof that they are sending money to the correct person. 

Perhaps the keen executor in this case, could pull everything together and go through it with the not-so-keen executor.  Then ask the solicitor to do Probate.  Anything more will, as above, take much longer and cost an awful lot more.  I took this approach with my late Mum's estate as I'm very nervous around official paperwork and worried about getting it wrong.  Mum's solicitor sent me a check list to follow.