I was wondering if anyone has any experience of this, please?
My wonderful lovely father died very suddenly and unexpectedly last year (heart attack with no warning, seemingly very healthy till the last moment). My mum was his executor. I helped her with the huge piles of IHT forms. Everything went to her (bar two small gifts to his godchildren). We had to do all the IHT forms and schedules because they have a holiday house in Europe. No IHT due as all going to his spouse. We had an email from HMRC saying all in order, and they’d pass to probate.
My mum was contacted yesterday by email from the probate service with the following email:
‘We have reviewed your application for probate.
The Will you sent us has a signature that gives doubt of knowledge of contents, and we need to confirm what happened when it was signed.
You must provide us with the name, address, email, and phone number of the two witnesses who signed the Will, so we can contact them for further information.
We will send the witnesses a questionnaire and will contact you again if we need any further information.’
Initially she thought it might be a phishing scam. Typically it arrived on a Friday so can’t call them till Monday. However doing a bit of googling it does seem the probate office does contact witnesses if there is suspicious activity surrounding a will.
However, as far as I can see this is a fairly textbook case: will made and signed 6 years before his death (so he was 69, still working and compos mentis). No changes to any previous will. I would have thought the most common allocation- mirror wills with everything going to the married partner unless they predecease them, in which case split between children (apart from two gifts of £3k each to godchildren). Marriage of 49 years, no previous spouses or other children etc that might otherwise complicate things. Will was drawn up by solicitors.
Witnesses were two close friends he’d known for 15 odd years through his sport/hobby. His friends really, more than my mum’s but they’re still in touch. We can contact them and let them know, but before we do it would be reassuring to know what the issue might be.
Anyone have any ideas? Thanks