Grant of Confirmation

Keep_pedalling · 15 October 2015 at 2:00PM

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

AFAIK a Scottish will cannot deal with property outside Scotland. This has to dealt with under the legislation of the other countries.

Based on our experience with my wife's Scottish uncle it can. His estate contained cash in English banks and US listed shares. It did however take over two years to finalise, but I think this was more down to the solicitor handling the estate than anything else.

Pippa1 · 1 January 2016 at 6:06PM

NiceD - We have been told by a solicitor that we need to use him for grant of confirmation because a property is involved, he is charging an enormous fee. You seem to have been able to do it yourself and it also looks like you had a property involved. How did you make an appt at sheriff court in Glasgow? Did you just phone them? Much obliged for your help, it is a minefield at a time when we are most vulnerable. Pippa1

Pippa1 · 1 January 2016 at 6:13PM

Can I also mention the difficulty I am having with building societies who are refusing to close the accounts and transfer money into my account despite the fact I am the executor and inheritor and the will clearly states this. They are insisting on waiting until grant of confirmation which I am told can take up to 6 months. They finally agreed to pay for funeral expenses (very expensive) and it took the Nationwide Building Society 10 days to draw cheques for the costs. In the meantime the suppliers were quite cross with me as they had to wait to be paid. The amount of money is well below the threshold for grant of compensation but they are taking into account the property my mother owned. It is terribly harrowing at a time when you are grieving. I was so worried about how I was going to pay for the funeral expenses when really it shouldn't have been a problem as my mother left money to cover all the costs. Pippa1

Yorkshireman99 · 1 January 2016 at 7:59PM

Pippa1 wrote: »

Can I also mention the difficulty I am having with building societies who are refusing to close the accounts and transfer money into my account despite the fact I am the executor and inheritor and the will clearly states this. They are insisting on waiting until grant of confirmation which I am told can take up to 6 months. They finally agreed to pay for funeral expenses (very expensive) and it took the Nationwide Building Society 10 days to draw cheques for the costs. In the meantime the suppliers were quite cross with me as they had to wait to be paid. The amount of money is well below the threshold for grant of compensation but they are taking into account the property my mother owned. It is terribly harrowing at a time when you are grieving. I was so worried about how I was going to pay for the funeral expenses when really it shouldn't have been a problem as my mother left money to cover all the costs. Pippa1

Whilst I can understand your frustration I believe the NWBS are correct in withholding the funds until you have the confirmation. AIUI until then they have no legal authority to release the funds. The confirmation process is intended to ensure that no false claims are made.

dougieh · 30 July 2016 at 5:47PM

The messages have been very useful in applying for confirmation for my father. All the information above has worked well for my application but the Sheriff Clerk has asked to "state what item number you require confirmation for". Does anyone know what this means and where to add it? There are 5 items in the inventory that will require me to provide the confirmation certificate is this what have to provide?

GMcNic · 20 January 2017 at 12:41AM

Thanks for taking the time to document your experiences. I am just about to begin the process and found it extremely helpful.

katiescotland · 11 February 2017 at 6:39PM

The procedure is not difficult and HMRC are very helpful if you are not sure what info to put into a box.
I made the mistake of using a legal firm and the bill for completing 2 simple forms is more than £20k so watch out. a total nightmare
-because you are bereaved it is easy to enter into a unlimited fee scenario - foolish. The best thing to do is sit down with a friend and go thru each part together.
- if you can add and copy information from a bank statement and organise a survey to get a property valuation - you can easily do it yourself and quickly it won't take 4 years!

2 forms for estate not due IHT C1 AND C5

If IHT is due you need to use IHT400
The C1 - save to your pc in pdf format - it adds up the inventory for you. If there is lots of stuff to enter than use the combined C1&C2 form. If you prefer a paper copy then print out at your local library and use you calculator to add it all up - as a friend to double check your total.
If the total is not more than £325k then complete the C5
If it is more than £325k but the person who has recently died had a spouse who died previously then his/her allowance [provided none was use previously] can be added giving a total of a £650k allowance
Do one section at time and then phone HMRC if you are not sure if it is correct - they WORK FOR US and I have found them really helpful - they know you have been bereaved. LEGAL firms need to make a profit - pay for grand offices - their fee rate reflects this - if you want to give your parent's personal financial details and title deeds to a legal firm - stop and think what could go wrong. If the fee is massive you cannot contest - DO IT YOURSELF - bit by bit. Unless you want to give £20k £30k £40k to a legal firm. BEWARE!!!
Finally if no executor has been named then asap get yourself appointed as executor dative
DO NOT permit a legal firm to be the EXECUTOR because then they have total control
If it is too much for you then use a book keeper for a fixed rate to organise the paperwork
It is not difficult - print out the guidance notes from HMRC and you will be fine.

Saver2017 · 2 March 2017 at 3:11PM

This is an extremely informative post - thanks to those providing answers on the process as it's so difficult to find proper guidance online.

I'm in the process of applying for Confirmation in Scotland and have had my first attempt at completing the forms returned to me. I think I now have a better idea of what needs to be done in terms of specific wording, but I have been told to check my figures. The arithmetic is definitely right so I'm only assuming that it's information I've put on incorrectly.

I think it's to do with a £10,000 gift made from the estate back in October 2015 (paid to two recipients). I know this has to be added back into the estate for Inheritance Tax calculations (incidentally the estate is well below the IHT threshold) so I included this £10,000 in for C5. However, I did not put this in the Inventory on C1 as part of the estate - should the £10,000 be listed on the inventory as well?

My confusion over this is that the HMRC guidance notes state that the amount in C5 Box C should be the same as the figure at 15 on Page 4 of the C1 but the only way this would seem to tie up would be if the £10,000 gift was listed as part of C1 Inventory also.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thanks.

osanago · 8 November 2017 at 1:20PM

Hi there, I have just tried to submit my confirmation certificate but it was returned & one of the comments was regarding the items to be listed as directed, does that mean I need to put estate in England etc with a zero value as he only had estate in Scotland or do the bank accounts have to be put under the title of estate in England if that is where they are registered?
Also is the summary of estate just the value, no additional info required?
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks, Emma

Urvasi · 29 November 2017 at 11:59AM

Just to say this has been a very helpful thread thank you to all who have posted.
I have just been through process.
Form C1 was returned twice as incorrect. Here are some of the minor errors which needed to be corrected:
1. We only had property in Scotland and did not put NIL in England and Wales, NIL in Northern Ireland on the form. You need to type this as part of the summary.
2. The amount for the confirmation is the amount before any deductions. Not the final total.
3. When we sent back the form and re-signed it you have to date it the same date as the original form as that was the date which was docquetted on the will.

It has been a challenge but the sherrifs office have been good communicating by phone and email to keep us informed. I called them to check exactly how much the fee was and who to make payable to and they are very good at answering phone and helping.

Grant of Confirmation

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