Probate Help

[mitsy26]

Hi all

Please can someone help me regarding Probate. My dad recently passed away without leaving a will. We have been told the house needs to go into probate. We have been given a value of £4000 for someone to do it all for us but we are unable to afford this. Someone has suggested for us to do it ourselves but I just wanted to know what is actually involved with this?

It was his wishes for me to stay in the house but if I ever wanted to sell it or get married then I pay my brothers in equal shares - which they have both agreed to.

Many Thanks

[Birdfeeder]

probate is relatively easy to do. Go on to the government website where you can download all the necessary forms plus the Inland revenue ones. There is a phone help line that I found very useful given on the forms. The people manning the phone were very helpful and nothing seemed to be too much trouble for them. Just take your time there is no immediate rush to apply for probate, make sure you make a copy of all the forms for your records. Hope this helps.

[Jennykenny]

I too did the Probate on my husband's estate.
A friend, who has a good eye for detail helped me.
Is there someone who you could ask to help?
Fill in the forms with as much detail as possible and as Birdfeeder says, take plenty of time.
If you use a solicitor etc, you will still have to do most of the work involved in supplying them with the information.
It seems daunting at first, but you will get a great feeling of satisfaction when you complete it, and have saved a lot of money.

[Buenchico]

Whatever your father's stated wishes may have been, since he didn't leave a will the intestacy rules MUST be followed. From what you've written that means that ownership of the house MUST pass, in equal shares, to you and your siblings:
https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will
(Of course that doesn't prevent you and your siblings from coming to an arrangement about who lives in the house or whether it should be sold. If they wanted to, they could even sign over their shares of the house to you but, in the first instance, title to the property MUST pass jointly to all of you).

You will need to apply for a 'grant of representation' in order to distribute your father's estate in accordance with the intestacy rules. As he didn't leave a will, the grant will be in the form of 'letters of administration', rather than 'probate'.

Start by finding the contact details for the nearest Probate Registry:
https://courttribunalfinder.service.gov.uk/search/postcode?aol=Probate
They'll provide the forms and can give you quite a bit of advice too.

Once you've collected all of the relevant information, and entered it onto the paperwork, you simply have to attend the Probate Registry's office to swear an oath (or, if you're non-religious, to 'affirm'). Letters of administration can then be issued to you.

Once you've got the letters of administration, transferring title to the property is simply a matter of a bit of form filling. See here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/whole-of-registered-title-assent-as1

You might need a bit of legal assistance at that point but it certainly shouldn't cost anywhere near to £4000! (Shop around!)

[Barmaid]

There is a pretty good guide here with a link to all the forms and their supporting notes.

https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/applying-for-a-grant-of-representation

If you do it yourself it should cost you about £230. (Probate fees, death cert fees and swear fees).

You could instruct a solicitor just to extract the Grant (I am guessing what you have been quoted is for the solicitor to administer the estate as well). I would imagine that if you shop around you can get it all in for about £500.

[Togo]

Hi mitsy. My partner and her brother are currently executors for their late mother and are in the process of completing probate without a solicitor and the exorbitant fees. It is straightforward. I have provide the links to the 2 forms that you will need to complete, with the relevant guideline notes. You will see that there is a tax form IHT205 that must be completed, regardless of the estate value, and accompany the probate form PA01. All these forms are in pdf format and can be downloaded and printed as we did.

http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/hmctsformfinder/pa01-eng-2016.03.16.pdf

http://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/hmctsformfinder/pa002-eng.pdf

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/459092/IHT205_2011_.pdf