My Mum (a widow) died unexpectedly, but naturally, last week. I am the next of kin, and I have a younger sister who disappeared years ago after stealing a lot of Mum's money. Mum has £3,000 in her current account, a funeral plan worth exactly £1850 cash in value and no will. I will be responsible for paying any debts, a months worth of (non-benefit entitled) rent at £109 per week, and the funeral, of course. Do I really have to go through probate to deal with this? All the websites I've looked at seem to be for people with great fortunes, their own house and loads of disputing relatives. The Council have given me a list of costs for any work they have to do on the house for the next tenant and I am sure there will be some because she lived in it for 41 years. There is a cost for probate, of course, so is it worth it? At the moment it seems a lot easier to walk away and let them sort it all out between them (council, banks, funeral director) or is that a bad thing to say?