Executor/ dealing with death admin

[Businesssecretsofthepharoahs]

My elderly mother has a terminal illness and is unlikely to live for more than a few months.

I have three siblings, but I am the sole executor of her will. My sister has Power of Attorney.

My mother is divorced, owns a modest house (approx £300k) and has approximately £10k in the bank with no other assets or debts.

I am pretty clueless about the process of dealing with her will and general admin when she dies.

Please can anyone give me a rough guide as to what happens in what order. Eg probate/death certificate/bank accounts etc

A start point for you:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/what-to-do-after-a-death/

Which? magazine used to publish a book called What to do When Someone Dies but I don't know if it's still current.

FYI, Power of Attorney ceases immediately upon death

I’ve sent you a PM

In the meantime, there is an awful lot of info. online
https://www.gov.uk/when-someone-dies

NB if your Mother is terminally ill with a short prognosis can she access Attendance Allowance (or PIP if she's under pension age) under the Special Rules?:

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/benefits/sick-or-disabled-people-and-carers/attendance-allowance/claiming-attendance-allowance/claiming-attendance-allowance-terminally-ill/

You'll need lots of documentation. Birth certificates, divorce docs, deeds of house plus all the certificates of certified work done on it (e.g Gas Safe), details of her bank accounts and pensions which you've probably already got if you've got POA, etc.
My advice would be to start gathering this together in a box file as it will help speed up the process if you've got everything to hand.

I’m doing this at the moment in rough order

1. register death (get lots of copies of Death certificate)
2. Arrange funeral
3. Get certified copies of the will
4. Find paperwork and notify everyone / freeze accounts
5. Get a value for the estate including jewellery / possessions/ house
6. Decide if you need to pay IHT and complete forms to HMRC. Get the code needed to apply for probate
7. Apply for Probate
8. sell house
9. final accounts & distribution

Use the "Tell us once" service after registering her death. It saves a lot of admin and is very straight forward.

https://www.gov.uk/after-a-death/organisations-you-need-to-contact-and-tell-us-once

Thank you.
I’m sorry that you are also dealing with this.
When valuing the estate do you just ask an estate agent (or a few of them) for a house valuation?

@Businesssecretsofthepharoahs you instruct a Chartered Surveyor or other properly qualified valuer to give you a valuation for Probate.

@Businesssecretsofthepharoahs the solicitor advised 3 valuations for Probate from local estate agents and she would take the average. However as there was a big difference she has now advised an RCIS valualtion as per PP. This cost £300.

A practical suggestion would be to have somewhere you write everything down on phone or notebook. Your head will spin and you’ll forget who you spoke to when, what they needed etc.

Agree with other posters, but would freeze bank accounts earlier as this avoids having to return any money that should have ceased on death eg pension payments. If you use the tell us once service, DWP will contact you if money is due rather than having to sort out an overpayment.
My dm died this year and I did not need a certified copy of the will, just copies of the death certificate

Additionally if the estate is not an excepted estate you will need to fill in IHT 400 even if there is no tax to pay.

Can I ask what happens with utilities when a person who lived alone dies? Will the companies (Octopus, British Gas etc) agree to freeze the monthly payments until the house is sold? Or would they allow a very modest monthly payment on the basis the house is empty? No smart meters.

@BESTAUNTB give them a final reading and a copy of the death certificate if asked.

Just dealt with this and discovered no utility bills had been paid for eighteen months and they're no longer allowed to cut vulnerable people off. They were very understanding and produced a final bill a month later

Thank you.
I’ll use some electricity, water and gas because I’m back and forth cleaning etc, and the heating willl be on low in a couple of rooms, but I can’t afford to pay £250 ish a month until the house is sold.

@BESTAUNTB probate seems to be coming through very quickly now, one family member got it in two weeks, so hopefully you'll be able to get things moving.

My mum was with octopus and they were very helpful and put her account under mine. The house hasn’t sold yet so some power is used and I can see the usage on my account. I don’t have a direct debt, just top it up every three months or so. Some of the money from my DM’s estate had been released on death eg her current account and as the executor I use this money to pay the utility bills. I keep a record of this ready for the preparation of the final accounts.

It is an excepted estate. Pop back on here OP if you have questions when the time comes. I’m sorry you are facing this. Do ensure you do tell us once as it saves a lot for hassle with government organisations and you should not end up with overpayments to repay. If there are private pensions you will have to tell them separately. Also, you can send funeral invoices direct to her bank for payment. Thinking of you.

I've no specific advice but I was executor for my Dad and was very pleasantly surprised how helpful and kind everyone was when I was sorting everything out. Banks, insurance companies, utility companies etc were all easy to deal with. I even managed to get his credit back from his William Hill account - they were really helpful. It made the whole process a lot easier. I hope when you have to do this that you find people as helpful as I did.

By the way, I noticed someone suggested getting three valuations for the house. I wonder if that would be required on a lower valued estate?

On the basis of the information you have given so far, it looks like no IHT (assuming no lifetime gifts or anything else to change the position). In relation to previous comments about the property valuations, you are after a realistic ‘open market value’. There is no need to aim for a lower value as no IHT to pay. Indeed this may mean you end up paying CGT on the ‘increase’ in value during the administration period if the property sells for more than the valuation. You can put it on the market to test the price before probate but bear in mind that a purchaser may lose interest if the grant take a while to come through.