Probate and Wills

[bagpuss_39]

Two years ago my partner's father died.

Obviously she was too distressed immediately after the death to speak to her brother's (she has 2 older brothers) about any will. According to her mother (the ex-wife of deceased and mother to his 3 children) there was a will, said will has not been found or mentioned by the sons.

My partner has recently discovered that her nieces (and grandchildren of deceased) received a sum of money within a month of the death, this is money she was entitled to by law. The matter was not discussed with her and by law they should have done seeing as how she (and them) are his beneficiaries. The amount of money within the deceased estate is unknown. My partner was not interested, until today, in receiving any monies from the aforementioned estate but after receiving information about the brother's financial transactions from an account that would have been frozen she feels she needs to do something about it.

It is my understanding that if there is no will (and at this point in time there is no indication of a will only what he said to his ex-wife and this man was not known to lie at all) then dependent on the amount held in the account/s at the time of his death depnded on whether a Grant of Administration would have to be done thus meaning that his 3 children (my partner and her 2 brothers) would receive a third of estate after any debts were paid off. The deceased was unmarried (was married twice but first marriage was the only one that produced children).

Can anyone shed light on what needs to happen and what kind of information/evidence is required?

Thank you in advance for an information supplied!

[dzug2]

It sounds as though the most likely explanation here is that there WAS a will leaving all to the grandchildren and that because of the size of the estate noone bothered to get probate. As a non-beneficiary it's of no direct concern to your partner.

If you do not believe that this is what happened then the first step is to ask the brothers what happened to the will/estate. If you don't get a satisfactory answer then decide how much money you are prepared to spend establishing the 'truth', whatever that may be - and probably failing. The likelihood is you will be banging your head against a brick wall unfortunately

[Buenchico]

Start by getting the Probate Office to carry out a search to see whether a Grant of Representation has been made (either the result of an executor seeking probate on a will or through someone applying for Letters of Administration upon intestacy). It will only cost you a fiver:
http://www.justice.go...f-probate-records.htm

However, assuming your assumption that there is no extant will to be true, then the rules state that there was no requirement to seek a Grant of Representation if the value of the estate (including property, cars, etc, as well as what was held in bank accounts) was less than £5000. However:
(i) it can sometimes still be necessary to obtain a Grant under those circumstances, in order to get access to the assets of the estate ; and
(ii) the absence of the requirement to obtain a Grant doesn't change the way that the estate must be distributed (i.e. one third each to the three children of the deceased).

If the value of the estate was over £5000, then a Grant was required before anyone could touch the assets of the estate.

Chris

[bagpuss_39]

Thank you for your advice.

Since posting the question my partner is meeting with her brothers to discuss issues surrounding this probate matter.

They appear to know they acted in appalling manner so fingers crossed they will be sorting things out as much as is possible. Even though he was cremated his ashes sit in an airing cupboard 2 years on which I think is disgusting and shows a total lack of respect for not just the deceased but his family.