How to find Letters of Administration

florencethenursey

My mother has just died and we want to add her name to her parents grave stone, my grandmother died in 1962, grandfather in 1978, I need to prove ownership of their grave but cannot find a will or any details when I input my grandfather's name into the Gov.uk wedsite for searching for probate. I believe I need this to prove who his executor/s were and therfore can prove descendance so we can alter the grave stone.

My grandfather had a very small estate - no property (he lived with us) and very little money.

Does an estate have to be a certain size to go through probate?

Would my mother have had to obtain 'Letters of Adminstration' ? If so can I get a copy?

elsien

It may be that if he have very little in the way of assets and they were basically used up in paying for the funeral then letters of administration wouldn’t have been needed because there wouldn’t have been any estate to settle.

Savvy_Sue

Have you checked with the cemetery what they need from you? We've needed to provide dates of birth and relationships to establish and change the ownership of a grave, but probate / letters of admin haven't been asked for (which is just as well because I'm not sure they'd be easy to find!)

Keep_pedalling

Not every estate goes through probate / LoA. Where someone dies owning no property and a small amount of savings it is not required. It is also not required where they own a property jointly and the surviving owner inherits the house, so in reality a large percentage of deaths do not require it.

Spelunthus

Unlikely that rigorous proof is needed for an update to a monument. Take advice from whoever manages the cemetary, plus advice and quote from one or two local monumental masons. I updated a stone a couple of years ago, and no proof of my right to do so was ever asked for.

Shelldean

Hubby's nan purchased a grave for her husband 1978. Being forward thinking she placed in her son's name so when she died he could deal with it. Unfortunately he predeceased her. So when Nan died my hubby had to deal with it all. His dad had no estate so probate in any form wasn't required. So no letter of administration to use

So we spoke with the cemetery and as everything passed to mother in law, hubby's mum we had to get her to renounce her rights. We also had to get hubby's 2 sisters to renounce their rights. The grave now belongs to hubby. And he was able to deal with placing her in and updating the gravestone.