Probate help.

baz178

baz178

baz178

Associate
Joined
21 Jan 2013
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792
Location
Leeds
Hi, girlfriend’s dad died a few months ago but we believe he never left a will, girlfriend applied to probabate 3 days ago and received a email this morning it as been granted, which I though was quick instructing her she can do stuff now.

Do you think they have found a will with how quick it been? There’s also 2 other brothers in the family.
 
Sounds like there is a will as a Grant of Probate is issued when there is a valid will and the named executors are applying to administer the estate. Letters of Administration are issued when there is no will (intestacy) or if the named executors in the will cannot or will not act.

Unless she's just got the terms mixed up?
 
That sounds extremely quick for probate to be granted.

Pez said:
Unless she's just got the terms mixed up?
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Would be my guess.

You need to provide the will (if one exists) and a lot of financial information about the estate to even apply for probate. If there is confusion about whether a will even exists, it seems odd that a valid probate application could be made and granted so quickly.
 
baz178 said:
Nothing come up but if she only received the email about 2 hours ago might not of uploaded anything yet
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Perhaps you could paste the text of the email here (obviously deleting any personal details) to help people make sense of the situation?

Seems even stranger that such an official message would be sent on a Sunday.
 
Sorry she’s not willing as she’s not interested in the money, what I read it come back stating that you can proceed to sell the house and stuff.
 
It says

Probate application and it’s been approved and we have you has next of king of mr Evans. You don’t need to send death certificate. We will send letters of administration
 
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She will require death certificates, and should get around 20. Yes, that's a large number but everyone and their mother will want one and it's better to have some to spare. Beyond that, especially as significant money is involved, this is a time for proper legal advice and she may find it easier to appoint a solicitor as an administrator of the estate.
 
Quartz said:
She will require death certificates, and should get around 20. Yes, that's a large number but everyone and their mother will want one and it's better to have some to spare. Beyond that, especially as significant money is involved, this is a time for proper legal advice and she may find it easier to appoint a solicitor as an administrator of the estate.
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But she’s already got probate now with the email, was asking if it seems like a will there
 
baz178 said:
But she’s already got probate now with the email, was asking if it seems like a will there
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There's a difference between being an executor of an estate and an administrator. The solicitor will explain all this. If things havben't changed in the 15 years since I did it, the first thing she needs to understand is that if she is both executor and administrator she is personally liable.
 
email on a Sunday sounds a bit weird...

There is no "central" register of wills - there is no way of checking if someone did or did not complete a will. Unless you know they have or the person said they had, you don't really know.

There is a national wills register but it's voluntary to register with

As @Quartz said about - your girlfriend needs to be extremely clear and careful about what her "role" is here - Administrator or executor are very very different and hold very different powers.
 
Having done this last year, with a will, it seems very quick. I had to go through all the inheritance tax hoops before i could apply for probate (~£1m estate) as i needed an IHT reference as part of the probate process. I started the whole IHT/Probate at the start of July and it took until October to be completed.
 
baz178 said:
Sorry she’s not willing as she’s not interested in the money, what I read it come back stating that you can proceed to sell the house and stuff.
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If the estate involves selling a property, you're talking quite a lot of money rather than just a couple of grand.

Even if your girlfriend isn't interested in the money, she should get a legal services team to sort this out.

Your girlfriend could end up in all sorts of bother if she doesn't know exactly what she is doing.
 
booyaka said:
I know it's slightly off topic - but Office of Public Guardian is more Powers of Attorney than anything to do with Wills.

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Maybe so, but you can register your will with the OPG and it was recommended that you do so.

bainbridge said:
Even if your girlfriend isn't interested in the money, she should get a legal services team to sort this out.
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Very much so.
 
If i wasn't interested in the estate or any money then i wouldn't personally be getting involved with it and leave it to the rest of the family to sort given there are implications with involving yourself as others have mentioned.

bainbridge said:
Even if your girlfriend isn't interested in the money, she should get a legal services team to sort this out.
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Definitely this if you are going to involve yourself though.

@baz178 - Having had to do similar recently, get a solicitor to at least handle any will, probate, court costs and pensions (they'll do a better job at chasing them especially if they're old and companies have merged/been taken over etc) as it will save you a few headaches.
Bank accounts and bills is now mostly online form filling or emails, and/or contacting bereavement departments but it's all fairly straightforward compared to everything else.
Someone mentioned getting loads of death certs., my experience is that most places were happy with a scanned copy being either emailed over or included as an online form attachment. We've only physically used three or four of them.
 
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visibleman said:
Someone mentioned getting loads of death certs., my experience is that most places were happy with a scanned copy being either emailed over or included as an online form attachment. We've only physically used three or four of them.
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This was not the case for me.
 
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