Probate - aaargghh!

[Claennister]

Has anyone done the whole probate thing in Northern Ireland? I have looked at getting a book about the process, but can't find one which is specific to NI, and too many I have managed to get a peek at give lots of info on England and Wales then go "Procedures in NI may differ" and I'm interested in HOW they differ! The probate forms aren't a lot of help, as they keep saying we should bring an itemised list of stuff and then a catch-all "Other such documents as may be requested". Like what?!

The will is 100% simple, everything passes to the son (my DH) and the solicitor has pretty much looked at the case and gone "This is so simple we think you should do it" so they don't even want the business. And the hard bits they would want from us anyway, the valuation parts. I presume we have to have the property formally valued? The solicitor said we could just enter the sale price of No. 6 as it was a carbon copy of ours at No. 4 and was recently sold in similar circumstances, but what if they dispute the value at interview? Can/would they? The value of the items in the property is another sticky wicket, as we have looked at people who do probate valuations, but they are going on about valuing fine art, collectibles, jewellery... this guy left about 70% newspaper clippings and the rest 1970s furniture in mouldy condition, but I'm concerned that if we represent the value of household goods to be nothing, they will argue with us. It's going to cost us money to have them taken away, never mind value. Even if we get a solicitor they just ask us how much we think it's worth and put the same figure in the same box on the same form, so we aren't actually getting any HELP for the money. Nothing in the pack from the court is being that helpful, it just says we need photo ID, death certificate, will and "anything else they ask for". The IHT205 doesn't say we need to provide any evidence of the valuations we enter, just to fill them in. Nobody will see the stuff in the house, it's all going to be in the tip by the time we're at the probate interview, so what could anyone do anyway?

Is it really as simple as they are making it sound, fill the boxes with a good estimate then show up with ID and death documents?

Not in NI but have just filled in probate forms after my MIL’s death. The inheritance tax form notes said the value should be what you would get for the item if selling in something like the local newspaper classified ads. Most of her furniture is also pretty old, so we’ve just assigned a nominal value to each item on a very basic spreadsheet. She does have a few pieces of “named” China so we’ve found comparable pieces on eBay and put that as the value (nothing worth more than £100). I think the forms says anything worth more than £500 should be professionally valued. For the house we got an estate agent to do the valuation and have just kept a copy. We haven’t heard anything back from the probate office yet.

Take photos of the rooms in the house. In my experience they rarely query valuations of furniture unless it's antique but with photos you can show it has no value. And yes, it is that simple.

The inheritance tax form notes said the value should be what you would get for the item if selling in something like the local newspaper classified ads

That's where we think it's a value of nothing, as I can't imagine anyone wanting a broken armchair with very visible stains on it, a 3 door cupboard whose doors are held closed with a wedge of cardboard, a washing machine which dates from 1981, that kind of thing. Much of it is of the type that the charities won't have as they can't shift it. The newest furniture is 10 years old and is an old fashioned dark brown laminate, maybe £20 each. Perhaps the way to go is that when the charities come to take things they can sell, we will note what they are prepared to take away and assign some level of value to those things. We have been actively trying to give stuff away for nothing and nobody will take it, so how they could possibly reckon it could be sold in a classified ad for money is beyond me. A general auction house valuer looked at it just to be sure none of the china and glass was valuable and said there was absolutely nothing at all they could sell, but they wouldn't put that in an email for me when I asked them to, so just my word that they said it.

It's not going to come anywhere near the inheritance tax boundary anyway, so in a way it doesn't matter if we say everything is worth £20 or £15,000, so long as we don't get it wrong in a way that they can refuse the Grant. There are no Rembrandts down the back of the sofa, he was a very ordinary guy who lived and then died.

If it’s under the inheritance tax threshold then i’d assign a nil or nominal value, note it’s condition and then get rid of it.

Photos is a good idea. I’m going to do that next time we go to my MIL’s house.

I’d also note that you’ve asked for a valuation and had a verbal response to say nothing had a value. Note the company who did it and leave it at that.

Thanks! Feeling more relaxed about it now. We have a week booked off from work, every day someone is coming to do one thing or another and it's all booked, I just hope everyone is true to their word and comes when they said. What an archaic process that we have to make another incredibly expensive trip to the city in which he died just to present them with the forms. We are well over £1,000 in just travel already.

We sent the probate forms about 10 days ago. Today got an email to say it’s been processed and now my DH has to go and swear oath (we’re choosing to go to the probate office to do the oath swearing), then another 10 days and we should have the grant of representation. Luckily my MIL only lived about an hour from us but we’re still making weekly trips to sort through things and nowhere close to emptying the house yet.

We are well over £1,000 in just travel already.

It is entirely reasonable for you to be reimbursed for expenses while doing probate. Think what a solicitor would charge for their time as well as their expenses.

Do, include them under costs. All the best, it is quite straightforward.

Sounds very similar to England (I did my father's). We just had a guess at value of possessions including car by looking on line (and of house again from value of similar ones - in the end it sold for less). We had to pay for house clearance so value of possessions can certainly be negative - just put Less than £100 down if you think they are worth nothing.

Op, I really think that you are overthinking things, especially the valuations and interview. Unless it is totally different in NI, the 'interview' in England was just an oath signing, a few minutes max, no discussions or even talk about the form.

I did mums two years ago and virtually everything went to charity shop or tip, only a few items were sold second hand. I do have her jewellery, but apart from wedding ring, most of it is of little value.

I think I put a nominal amount (£500?) for possessions on the probate form - why would they question it - I am guessing many older people have very little of value to be sold!

We did get house valuations, but then we were intending marketing it immediately anyway, so wanted to get those whilst DB was around after funeral. We used middle valuation. But if an identical house has just sold, why would probate question your valuation?

We too were well under inheritence tax value, even with sums she had given to DB and I when alive. Everything was very smooth, we signed for probate about 3 weeks after sending form off and got probate certificates a week or two later.

Dont overthink it!!!! Maybe if you were very close to IHT, then values may matter, but otherwise, no.