Wills and probate

[Rarar7]

Hi, can anyone explain this simply to me please?

FIL died in January. As far as DH knows, he is in the will for 20% of the estate. This includes 2 houses.

Nobody has contacted him about this. I know "probate" takes a long time, but I'm not sure what probate means. At what point are the houses sold and who makes that happen?

Thank you if you can shed any light.

The executor has to collate the value of the whole estate (including shares, estimates of house value, house contents, bank accounts etc).
Then it has to be submitted and any IHT paid.
Then they get grant of probate.
Then they have to divvy up.
Then you get your money.

6 months minimum I'd have thought, maybe a year.

When someone dies with a will made out, there is an ‘executor’ of the will who applies for probate, does all the paperwork, arranges the sale of property etc and then eventually makes the payments to beneficiaries.

Is your DH not in contact with whoever is in charge of arrangements?

Do you know who the executor is, @Rarar7? That's assuming your FIL left a valid will. The executor is the person appointed in the will to sort everything out. There might be more than one executor. It can all take quite a long time, especially if the executors are family members or friends and doing this in their free time, perhaps for the first time.

I am not a lawyer, but from memory of when my husband had to do this for his parents' estates, first the executors need to establish what all the assets are, and get them valued. They also need to look at whether your FIL had any debts outstanding that will need to be paid off out of the estate. They will need to calculate inheritance tax, if that's due, and pay that first. There's a probate form to fill in and submit. There may be an interview at the Probate Office (online now? don't know). Once they have probate, that's a document giving them the authority to sell off all the assets and distribute the proceeds in accordance with instructions in the will. It could take ages to sell a property, of course, depending on what condition it's in.

(I might have the order wrong here - can't remember whether you can sell the property before getting probate or not.)

So many things have huge backlogs because of lockdown. I don't know if the Probate Office is affected.

If there was no will, it's all handled in a similar way but under the Intestacy Act. In this case there would be an Administrator instead of an Executor, probably a family member if someone has volunteered.

Hope this is right! You might get a more informed response if you post in Legal Matters.

Thank you all!

As far as we know, BIL is executor but he hasn't said anything.

FIL owned these 2 houses, both not worth a lot because of size/location (maybe £100k each). One is empty and one has long-standing tenants that were friends of his. No idea of any debts but he was in a nursing home for about 18 months and I don't know how they charge - maybe he owes all the money from the houses to the nursing home?

DH has been told there was a will split equally 5 ways. He had to email a solicitor to say he didn't mind his dad's car being passed to his brother.

DH doesn't want to ask what is going on for various reasons. He has offered to help get the local, empty house ready for sale if needed but didn't get a response.

I guess if he doesn't want to ask then we just wait and see. I understand the process a bit more now though - thank you.

My elderly relative died a year ago. I was contacted about 6 months later by solicitors to say she had left me a specified sum in her will. I have heard nothing since. I'm guessing it was a fairly sizeable estate, with only one property to sell but lots of investments.

Ah ok, could be quite a long time then. I don't think FIL had any money as such, just these 2 houses. And possibly debts from the nursing home which may take it down to zero anyway.

Finding the executor and reading a copy of the will is the first step. We applied for probate recently, took 7 weeks. There isn’t the backlog there is with other departments. You can market the house in parallel with applying for probate. But if your DH has a share of the house then all the beneficiaries need to agree what to do with it.

Thank you. Nobody has asked him what he wants to do. His brother did ask him a long time ago (when FIL was terminally ill) if it was ok to keep the house with the tenants in as they don't want to move, rather than sell and split the money. But he hasn't mentioned anything since FIL actually died.

I might get him to ask BIL what is happening and if he needs to do anything.

A Will becomes a public document at some point, meaning anyone can obtain a copy. But I’m not sure when in the process this happens — possibly after Probate is granted as this verifies the Will.
It can take a long time. My neighbour died ( at least 2 years before Covid) she’d been ill for years and had arranged everything meticulously, even writing her own funeral service. Two years later her house was still standing empty, car still on the driveway. Her two adult children both lived overseas so this could have delayed it all but be prepared for a wait.

I am currently the sole executor of someone’s will.
I contacted each of the beneficiaries to notify them of the death and obtained their email addresses as I wanted to have a written record of all communications.
I emailed each beneficiary a copy of the will and explained that I would be emptying the property, sorting out all the financial affairs, then would apply for probate. I said if they had any questions I would be happy to answer them.
I emailed subsequently to update them when the grant of probate was received and notified them I had put the house up for sale.
I set up a specific ‘executorship account’ at my bank.
I made an interim payment to each beneficiary when I received the funds from the deceased’s bank and savings accounts (long before the house was marketed) in proportion to the terms of the will (each beneficiary was left a different percentage) as there was no point in keeping more than c£5k which was more than enough to pay ongoing utilities and insurances etc. on the property.
When the sale was completed and I had a final nett amount in the bank I sent each beneficiary a spreadsheet showing all of the financial transactions, such as paying back overpaid money to pension companies, etc. and refunds of council tax, insurances and utilities, etc.
I then paid each beneficiary in accordance to terms in the will.

There is a lot of info. on the gov.uk website about applying for probate, etc. and I phoned the helpline to clarify a couple of points (about valuation of assets, house contents, etc.). According to HMRC the executor has to keep records for 8 years!

It is important to understand that the executor has a duty to carry out the terms of the will and is not permitted to be reimbursed for his/her time - it took me hours and several days, months even and was at times exhausting but I could not deduct any payments to myself even though it ‘cost’ me annual leave days, etc. because of the distance involved from the property.

It seems sensible for your DH to ask for a chat about his DF’s affairs and primarily to offer help to his DB. It’s a huge responsibility and can be overwhelming, especially when grieving. In the course of helping with the house etc. it will be easier to find out what progress is being made if that info. hasn’t been forthcoming.

DB should get legal advice about the property being rented as if it is part of DF’s estate his duty is to carry out the terms of the will and sell it to give the proceeds to the beneficiaries, unless there is a specific instruction about the tenants.

In any case, your DH (and any other beneficiary) should be able to see a copy of the will immediately. If his DB isn’t up to the job he might have to get separate legal advice.

Let’s hope that it’s just a case of being early days and DB is overwhelmed with navigating his responsibilities, so get your DH to step up and offer help!

Thank you so much. Useful to know it might be a very long process (We aren't counting on any money as FIL may have spent it on nursing home which is fair enough, but would be useful obviously if we will get some).

@MyfavouriteisA Thank you that's really helpful. Wow it sounds really difficult and time-consuming. I will get DH to message his brother about it and offer to help. That's useful about the tenants too. Appreciate you explaining to me.