question Probate

[woa2]

Just a quick question, looking for help or advice.

 

Have any of you here applied for Probate after a death? If so, how do I go about it and is it difficult? Any tips on what to do? I have asked a Solicitor and he want £1200 plus VAT to do it. Seems a lot for just filling in forms. Reason for asking is that my Mother died last Saturday after an illness and I am trying to deal with everything.

 

Sorry this isn't MV related, but it is to put my mind at rest ready for W&P at Beltring. If anyone is passing my WOA2 please say 'hello' and offer me a drink - I think I will need it!

 

Many thanks

 

Robert Davey

[griff66]

best thing to do is book appointment with solicitor to run you thru procedure then its quite simple to to do all this,if not time consuming one tip is to get lots of certified copies of death certificate every tom dick and harry will want one from utility companies to banks.

[Tony B]

Deepest condolences. The Citizen's Advice Beaure can give you basic help for free. However Probate can be a right pain. Normally the legal expenses will paid from the estate. You can also see if a local solicitor does what is called the 'Green Form' scheme. This gets you £50 of advice free. Though in these things a lot depends on your relationship with the Solicitor. If you don't use a solicitor as a matter of course, recommendation from friends is often the best way to find one.

[eddy8men]

hi robert

sorry to hear about your mother, if it were me i think i would let a solicitor deal with it as i'm sure you've enough on your plate without going into legal matters on top of everything else, there's only so much you can deal with at one time.

 

my condolences

 

rick

Edited July 7, 2011 by eddy8men

[antarmike]

Sorry to hear about your mother, I lost mine over Christmas, and my brother and I have avoided doing anything. We have just been shocked into action. We knew probate had to be proved within a year, but it had escaped our attention that Interst on Inheritance tax starts to be charged at six months, following the death. We have just wasted a chunk of the estate through our inaction.

 

It might look like a bit of form filling but when looked at each Question often leads to a separate downloaded form, 4 or 6 pages thick and full of more questions.

 

Paying a Solicitor means he understands the forms, and knows which ones you have to fill in, but I suspect he will only keep coming back to you for answers and you will be the one trying to go through your Mum's papers or Family history to get the answers.

 

I don't know. I am having a bash with my brother early next week, but we already acknowledge we may pass it over to a professional.

[ted angus]

Just a quick question, looking for help or advice.

 

Have any of you here applied for Probate after a death? If so, how do I go about it and is it difficult? Any tips on what to do? I have asked a Solicitor and he want £1200 plus VAT to do it. Seems a lot for just filling in forms. Reason for asking is that my Mother died last Saturday after an illness and I am trying to deal with everything.

 

Sorry this isn't MV related, but it is to put my mind at rest ready for W&P at Beltring. If anyone is passing my WOA2 please say 'hello' and offer me a drink - I think I will need it!

 

Many thanks

 

Robert Davey

 

 

Sorry to hear your news Robert : I did my mum's estate by probate including selling her house. She lived in Northumberland ; I was still in the RAF up here in scotland. She had come to live with us as she was 89 after 2 years of trying to get her to come up here, her doctor eventually persuaded her and arranged an ambulance to bring her up _ NHS at its best. 5 days later she took a bad turn and died some 40 minutes later in hospital . I registered her death in Dundee , informed her local council for council tax purposes, informed works & pensions re her old age pension, informed the people who paid my late father's widows work pension to her. Contacted the Probate Court in Newcastle, got the forms. Filled them in, made an appointment to be heard at the court- just an interview with a court officer. They issued paperwork that gave me the right to sell the house and discharge the will. , ( i was the sole benefitionary and joint executor of the will ; my cousin was the other executor he had to sign the form for the Probate giving me full control). The only thing I had to pay a solicitor for was to do the deeds when I sold the house, its not worth trying to do that bit yourself.

 

In each notification ( pensions tax etc) I made initial contact by phone noting time date and who I was speaking to, then did formal notification including certified true copies of the death cert ; keeping copies of each letter. The death cert copies are obtainable from the registrar.

i also dealt with my wife's aunts estate, she had little money, lived in a council house and had several small debts. I didn't need probate for that just a certificate of oath which most solicitiors can issue for a few pounds. The biggest stumbling blocks are things like catolouges KAYS, Littlewoods etc. the aunt paid PPI but they refused to pay out on death as she was over 70. I delved and found she had signed up to them when she was 72 and her date of birth was on the copy of the application form she filled in. I wrote and told them you have 28 days to pay or I go to the police and report you for obtaining money by false pretences ; they settled the account in 5 days !! another stumbling block was getting both my mother's and the aunt's mail redirected to me after their death impossible even with the death cert, probate document and cert of oath in the aunts case only the person who the mail is addressed to can sign the form to have it redirected !!!! You will have checked to see if you actually need probate ??? Both of my examples were several years ago but i doubt it has changed much, don'y let the forms but you off I read each question twice wrote the answer on paper, got a friend to read each question once happy filled in the form.

Good luck & chin up. regards TED

[Runflat]

Robert

 

Sorry to hear about your loss. Sorting out an estate is something most of us rarely have to do, so it's perfectly understandable that you're not too sure about things.

 

It's difficult to give sensible advice without knowing more about the complexity of your mother's estate, whether or not she had a Will, and how the estate is to be distributed - detail which I wouldn't want you to reveal on here. Also your (or the appointed executor's) ability and desire to deal with the associated paperwork, and your relationship with the beneficiaries of the estate will also be factors. That said, and setting the emotions aside, in my (limited) experience a reasonably intelligent person should be able to deal with straightforward estates on their own.

 

I suggest you start by reading here, which will give you an insight as to what's required: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/inheritancetax/intro/probate-process.htm

 

Broadly, before probate is granted you must satisfy the Courts Service (probate office) that either no Inheritance Tax is due or that it has been paid. If the latter (tax being due), you have to fill in form IHT400 (in England and Wales), along with any schedules, and send them to HMRC who will give you a certificate that tax has been paid; if the former (no tax due) most people can fill in the simplified Inheritance Tax form (IHT205 for England and Wales) and give that to the Courts Service at the same time as applying for probate, though for the more complex estates form IHT400 will first need to be completed and given to HMRC, even though no tax is due.

 

Contrary to what the Daily Mail may lead their reader's to think, only about 3% of estates are liable to Inheritance Tax - in simple terms, no tax is due if the estate is left to a surviving spouse or to charity and gifts in the previous seven years have been minor. In other cases it is due @ 40% on the value of the death estate plus gifts in the previous seven years that, combined, are above the Inheritance Tax threshold (normally £325k but can rise up to £650k depending on whether the deceased was pre-deceased by their spouse and what happened to their estate).

 

My biggest tip is to establish quickly whether or not there was a Will and to obtain valuations on the more valuable / contentious items before market price changes and everyone forgets what the price was at the time of death

 

The Probate and Inheritance Tax helpline is here, should you need it: http://search2.hmrc.gov.uk/kbroker/hmrc/contactus/search.ladv?raction=view&fl0=__dsid%3A&sm=0&ha=34&as=1&sf=&sp_scope=hmrc&sc=hmrc&nh=10&sr=0&cs=ISO-8859-1&tx1=&tx0=49659

 

Good luck, and my condolences to you and your family.

 

p.s. Just to elaborate - a straightforward estate is one where it consists, essentially of a house, cash in the bank a normal pension and some stock market share investments. Things get more complicated if there is agricultural or business property (which can get tax relief, subject to conditions), trust arrangements, strange pension arrangements, tax planning arrangements, etc.

Edited July 7, 2011 by Runflat

[woa2]

My very grateful thanks to all of you who have replied to my question. Your answers have been very helpful and just what I wanted.

 

My Mother had left a Will, of which I have a copy, and the estate goes equally to my Brother and myself. She owned a house, had some money in a bank, some other savings and a few shares. I had already done an exercise a few years ago to check on inheritance tax and she wasn't liable for any. Therefore things look straightforward, I hope.

 

Once again, my thanks for the advice and the messages of condolence. See you all at W&P.