How to find out who is dealing with my father's estate

[Hohoholymoley]

My father passed away in January and I'm trying to find out who is dealing with his estate. I'm living in a different country and his ex partner and son are not being forthcoming with any information. He did not have a Will so my sister and I are his only blood relatives. Any idea how I can get this information? I searched the probate website to no avail. Thanks so much

Just to clarify, did he die in the UK (England? Scotland? Wales?) and you are overseas?

Are you sure there was no will?

Does he have assets to leave?

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/dealing-with-the-financial-affairs-of-someone-who-has-died/#h-how-to-deal-with-the-property-of-a-person-who-has-died

This is useful. With no will someone needs to apply for letters of administration.

If that had not been done then you can do so.

Hi I think he must do because my step brother made if very clear that my father wanted it split 3 ways even though there is no Will.
He was in contact with the solicitor, he asked me to sign a form allowing him to "sort it" but I refused and asked for my details to be passed on but there has been radio silence for the last month.
Would the solicitor be dealing with the letters of administration?
He died in England yes.

You should contact the solicitor pdq. If he didn't tell you which it was, you could try contacting local ones.

its a bit of wild west I am afraid, is there a solicitor involved? Once they have the death cert, anything under 50 grand can be withdrawn from most banks...other stuff can be taken without anyone knowing...

Perhaps speak to the company who arranged his funeral to find out ? The estate will pay their costs.

Was he actually divorced at the time he died? Did he have children with his second wife?

Instruct a solicitor of your own to injunct/freeze/secure the estate and write to your dad’s partner. You need independent legal advice. If they have instructed a solicitor that solicitor will act in their best interests which it sounds are very much not your best interests. I also believe there is now a register of wills (although not compulsory to join it) so may be worth checking that. Good luck.

No, no other children, never remarried, he's not actually my step brother legally. I'll ring around the local solicitors. Thank you.

Do contact the solicitors.

However, don’t panic. A solicitor can’t act against the NOK in these circumstances- they couldn’t do anything to favour your father’s partner or son because if he died intestate the rules are very clear.

You could contact the government legal department who deal with the unclaimed estates bona vacantia list.

Contact details are at the bottom of this page: www.gov.uk/government/organisations/bona-vacantia

Ah brilliant thank you, was getting worried they could take it all. Never expected them to be sneaky about it, I just thought these things took time and I would be contacted, or that he had nothing to give.

Definitely take over more pro-actively to try to sort it - and let his party her and her son know you’re doing so, for clarity. You will need communication with them and it’s better to be up front. Is your sister helpful? Ideally you’d both be involved.

rules are clear but people dont always follow them and once money is gone its gone..

Legally his girlfriend’s son had no rights to do anything at all with the estate (using “girlfriend” to highlight the fact that she has no legal status whatsoever). Girlfriend would automatically get contents of any joint accounts, but only you or your sister can take action regarding any other assets. You need to step up, however logistically tricky that is.

Sister is helpful but happy for me to deal with it. I've contacted him again to ask for the solicitors details.

Should they have given my details to the solicitors? They have my number and my address.

Well done. I think you could helpfully send him the Citizens Advice link with details of what needs to happen when someone dies intestate and say you’ll keep him/them informed as you go along.

As a PP says any joint accounts would have been accessible to his partner but not anything else without the letters of administration and I think any solicitor would be very careful not to proceed without next of kin approval. So my guess is since you refused to sign they’ve been doing nothing much wondering how to proceed.

Everyone who is saying OP to contact the solicitor to achieve what? Beyond saying OP exists. OP hasn’t a clue what is going on or more importantly what instructions have been given to the solicitor. I worry OP won’t achieve anything, and will expose how out of the loop OP is. OP Get your own independent legal advice ASAP. Your solicitor can then contact the other one in writing and it will be much harder to fob them off. I give this advice as I’m a barrister and know exactly what my duties are to the person paying me and exactly how to progress my client’s interests whilst revealing very little to the other side. Especially when OP is overseas. Given OP is already 4 month behind the girlfriend announcing her existence to a solicitor who has been doing his/her thing for the girlfriend and son achieves very little. OP doesn’t know what the steps are, what’s happened, what assets have already gone. OP please get your own solicitor who will be able to find out far more than you.

@Hohoholymoley yes the girlfriend/son probably should have mentioned you but are they under any legal duty to do so? I don’t know. It doesn’t really matter. You need to secure whatever assets are still around and haven’t been spirited away already. Did you come back for the funeral? What if anything was said then about assets? Not just big things like house but car/contents of home?

Was he living alone when he died - you mention his ex partner so I assume they weren't together when he died. Or do you mean ex because he is now deceased? If they were not together when he died then it's up to you and your sister to sort out his estate. Do not allow your sister to sit back and leave it all to you. Does she live abroad too?

If your father was still with his partner when he died did they live together, own a house together? If they had joint bank accounts chances are she will have had them transferred to her name by now. Who paid for his funeral?

There is so much to sort out. Is there any chance of you being allowed travel from the country you are in now or are you restricted due to covid?

Would your DS be willing to apply to be administrator as there is no will?