Grant of probate and transfer of assets

[Probatehelp]

Myself and 2 siblings have been left a 3rd each of a share in a partnership that lets out a commercial property. The other 50% is an unrelated third party.

Executor hadn’t informed us that probate application had gone in, or that it was in fact granted a month ago - I looked on gov website out of chance to find this out as somehow the question is always skirted around. I have requested a copy of the probate document. Executor is a close family member who we are each in regular contact with however she has been a little frosty over the split of assets.

I understand that it can take time for funds to be distributed, however should we now be receiving the monthly rental income from the property? We are also set to receive some cash assets and a share in the house but I assume this will take a while longer to sort.

You have a 6th of a business and all bills need paying first.
There may not be any profit?
Once everything is gathered in and all debts paid, there may be terms and contracts about who gets what. Are there staff and services that need sorting?

If services need a copy of the probate to discuss any debts or credits this can take several months even in a straightforward case.

You may find there are more debtors than creditors and if the site needs selling to get your share this could take several years and you need income for maintenance and costs.

The probate tells you the approximate credit or debts of the estate. You can view this online for £1.50

The property is owned outright, it was bought in the 90s as a cash purchase so no mortgages etc attached. From the last set of accounts the only expenses were accountancy, insurance and a few small repairs.
No one is employed by the partnership as it just holds the commercial property that’s occupied by a long term tenant.
My relative and the other partner would each draw 40% of the rent each month and leave 20% to accumulate in the partnership bank account to cover expenses. I assume the other partner continued to draw their 40% over the last 18 months since my relative passed.
Sorry, I’m not sure what you mean by services?

Wouldn't services be insurance, council tax, utility, phone lines etc?

@cabbageking I now have the probate document so can see the net assets.
The figure is roughly as expected.

What happens next? At what point will siblings and I become partners in the partnership?

I’m not expecting a cash ‘payout’ at present - but given that the partnership is an active business surely we need to become involved pretty quickly?

Ah yes probably, I assume they’ll be included in the different between gross and net assets on the grant of probate?

The difference between gross and net estate is down to any liabilities eg mortgage, secured loan, unpaid income tax, unpaid business rates etc

So, the gross estate is the total amount of all the assets ignoring any mortgages etc.

The net estate is the gross value less any debts that the estate has.
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"What happens next? At what point will siblings and I become partners in the partnership?"

At the end of the day that is down to the executor. You need to speak to them to understand what is going on and what sort of timescales they are working to.

Any rental income that has been earnt since the person died stays with their estate until the executor finally sorts everything out when it will then be distributed according to the will.

Thanks for this.
The executor is currently not responding to messages so I suppose it is a waiting game for now.

"Executor hadn’t informed us that probate application had gone in, or that it was in fact granted a month ago "

If probate was only granted a month ago then that is nothing; the process has only just started. The executors cannot deal with the estate (in most cases) before probate is granted.

So they have only been able to deal with the estate and the bank accounts for the last month.

It is quite normal that estates are only distributed 6 or 12 months (or even later) after probate has been granted.

That the executors have said nothing a few weeks after probate was granted means nothing at all. In contrast, if they haven't been in touch with you in the next 6 or 12 months then that would be a very different matter indeed.