Probate Service contacting us, is it a scam?

[ferferksake]

My husband's father died a few years ago (about 6 I think) and his mum died last year. Someone claiming to be from the probate service has traced our son through facebook and is asking for my husband's address in connection with his father's estate. Is this normal, especially after such a length of time, or is it going to be some sort of scam?

[dzug2]

If they are actually from the Probate service (not sure if that happens or not) then it's not a scam.

More likely they are from an heir finding company - in which case it's not really a scam, but they are going to want money to claim an inheritance from your father's estate.

Was your father's estate wound up properly?

http://www.bonavacantia.gov.uk/output/ might also be of help.

It could also be an out and out scam - difficult to tell

[jackthehat]

Take the bull by the horns.
Find out who they are and contact them.
They are usually a little cagey about the 'who' and 'how much' and prefer to release these details after you have signed a contract with them. They will then tell you the 'who', give you some idea of the value of the estate (this is the total amount NOT your potential cut), complete the paperwork to lodge with the Treasury and then take their commission when it's all sorted out.

However, you Do NOT have to use such a company, but it could be useful to find out 'if' there is such an entitlement out there, somewhere.....just don't sign anything ! :o)

[twix123]

I would have thought that after 6 years the estate would have been wound up and therefore not liable to further claims, unless it was very complicated and not yet finalised. It is very unlikely that the official Probate Service would use a social networking site to try to find heirs considering the number of deaths each year, although this may be done by the heir tracing companies. If your husband was close enough to his father to know details of any will etc. he would know the current position of the estate.

[Dee Sa]

its a scam, contact the real Probate Service and ask them have they tried to find you and tell them why, Trading Standards may also be able to help you.whatever happens dont part up with a single penny.

[ferferksake]

Unfortunately there is something of a family rift between my husband and his sister, to the extent that I've never even met her! As she harangued their parents into selling up and moving in with her only a few months before his father's death, he has no idea what happened to his father's estate and assumes everything was left to his mum. We've moved since and although he had spoken to his mum on the phone (he wouldn't visit for fear he might lose his rag with his sister) nothing of money was ever discussed. Similarly he has no idea if his mum had a will at all or what happened to her estate if she didn't. The only thing we do know that might point to money somewhere is that his sister had a very large extension built on her house a few years ago.

[buildersmate]

Once probate is granted (if there was a will), the will becomes a public document and you can apply to the probate service to see a copy. This will inform you / confirm for you what the wishes of your husband's late mother were.
If there was no will and letters of administration was sought by the sister (which would have been necessary to deal with the estate), the estate should have been divided according to specific rules that govern intestacy. Your husband should definitely have had a share in that division - that's what happens under intestacy.

[ferferksake]

This turned out to be weirder than you could imagine! It was an heir finding company but it wasn't about his father's estate.
Thanks for the advice on not signing jackthehat, small print included having to appoint their solicitor for a minimum fee of £500!
Thanks for the link dzug2 contacted them directly and found everything out.

Here's the weird part.....

He had a badly disabled son with his late wife and as they were young, with two other children, by the time he was about 5 they were struggling to cope. He used to go into a care home to give them respite from time to time and an older couple who used to visit all the children there fell in love with him and asked if they could adopt him. Although worried about this couple's age, as their son only had a short life expectancy, they didn't think that he would outlive them and they decided that this couple could probably give him a far better life than they could. They clearly doted on the boy so eventually they agreed. His wife got cold feet at the last minute and didn't sign the adoption papers although he did go to live with the couple and they became his guardians. They still used to visit him from time to time with the other children, but not so often that they were a nuisance or a confusion to the boy. (cont)

[ferferksake]

(cont)
In November 1992 there was a knock at their door and two policemen came with the bad news that their son had died. They were all upset but made a family decision that as the other couple had raised him for the last ten years or so as their own son, they would not intrude on their grief and so they held their own private memorial for him rather than attend the funeral. His wife took it particularly badly and had a breakdown as she blamed herself for his disability. (She was taking medication for kidney failure, weighed 5 and a half stone full term and he had to be delivered by caesarian as she didn't have the strength to push - hardly her fault, poor woman).

Having contacted the treasury's office it seems that he actually died in July 2006 and it's his estate. How the hell can something like that happen? He was so upset when we found out yesterday, not knowing what had happened in the meantime. His head was spinning with thinking that he might have just been stuck in a home with no visitors, nobody to care about him. His daughter is livid. She was on the phone last night saying she's been robbed of 14 years of her brother's life. She's going to start making enquiries with the police as to where they got their information from back in 1992. This is just so bizarre and so, so sad.