Can't find a will or details of solicitors

[Chersfrozenface]

My husband is NOK for an uncle of his who died recently. His uncle told him some years that he (the uncle) was making my husband executor of his will. However, he never mentioned who made / was writing the will or where it was / would be kept.

The problem is that we have found no trace of a will, solicitors' details or correspondence on the subject at the deceased uncle's house. We can't access his emails as he did not leave full login details for his computer.

We will try contacting local solicitors' firms. But is it worth paying for a search by the National Will Register?

Before doing that worth trying his bank. I despaired at finding my parents will in a house full to the brim with papers but in the end I found it had been stored at HSBC.

Ooh, we will try that. I didn't know banks still stored wills.

how long ago did his uncle say this? Presumably my your husband wasn’t close to him prior to death?

They spoke regularly. It's just not something that came up in conversation - and let's face it, most people would feel awkward asking outright "Where's your will?" Also, his death was sudden.

No they wouldn’t feel awkward if this person had said they would be executor. Basic common sense really to ask - where is the will?

My solicitor recommended that I give a copy of the will to my executors so it's a bit odd to be an executor and not even know where the will is. Maybe the uncle changed his mind.

Also "next of kin" has no legal meaning at all in the UK.

Indeed

and to feel awkward asking about where the will is stored when you have been told you’ll be the executor is even weirder

Have you or DH ever actually seen this will? There's no guarantee it actually exists or he may have changed his mind. It seems an odd thing to say but then not tell you where he keeps it. If he genuinely passionately wanted it to happen.

Have you asked around everyone else in his life if they know of it or it's location?

If it's definitely nowhere to be found either in his house, with bank, solicitor or elsewhere I would I presume that leads to it being intestate?

Odd, then, that the local police somehow divined that they needed to contact another force to come to the address of the apparently nonexistent NOK to inform him of the death. How psychic they mist be.

I'm not going to reply any more to posters evidently intent on merely having an argument.

If no-one has experience of using the National Will Register, there's no further point to this thread.

I am executor for my Mum’s best friend who has no kids of her own - I haven’t thought to keep up with where her will is and nor has she told me - I’ve been executor since she was in her late 50s / early 60s and not at all expecting to die any time soon, so I don’t think this is odd, but I am now thinking it would be a good idea to check in on this matter.

NOK just means emergency contact nowadays, people still use it but it doesn't give you any rights.

There's a national will register you can ask, his solicitors may have registered it.

if you check the bank and national will register and have no luck surely then you have exhausted all avenues if you have already looked at his home. is your husband the beneficiary via intestacy laws or are there any siblings or other nieces/nephews of the deceased? if he is the only beneficiary anyway and you have not found a will you could just proceed to apply for administration of the estate and note that although mentioned no will has become apparent? did the uncle mention what his plans were, ie all to a charity, friend, relative or was it to come to your husband anyway?

My understanding is that the National Will Register is optional. So if they have nothing on record, there's still no certainty about whether there is or isn't a will. It's frankly a terrible system full of holes. I would speak to your uncle.

I used the National Will Register, I think you are meant to do as much as you can to check if there is a will. I then just put the receipt in to come off the Estate. Iirc it was about £100 or just over. Though if there is no Will he will be the Administrator rather than Executer and there is an order of who should be administrator so it may not be him, depends what other relatives there are

He may not have got round to writing the will especially as you say his death was sudden so may have died intestate so I would look at the intestacy rules and speak to any other relatives involved if there are any. You need to do checks though if you suspect there might be a will because it could come back on you if you are administrator and one turns up leaving the estate to charity for example after the estate has been doled out

Sorry for your loss

We know about needing to do everything possible to find the will before following the intestacy route.

That's why I wondered about using the National Will Register in addition to trying local solicitors and, as suggested upthread, banks.

Even if it's not an effective service, I suppose using it could add to the evidence of genuine attempts to locate the will.

Yes - we used it and found a valid will for a family member. It was with a firm of solicitors based on the other side of the country (where we wouldn't have expected them to have gone) In their home we found an unsigned one will from about 30 years ago, but this one was correctly signed and only about 20 years old.
We'd been advised to use the search service, when we got 30 minutes of free probate legal advice, from a local firm.

National Will Register (its a private company so not everyone has to use it). They can do an enquiry to members to see if anyone prepared a Will on your uncle's behalf. See if there are any cards in your Uncle's house rather than papers.

Probate Registry as they store wills.

Banks

Local solicitors and willwriters. IPW/SWW

Great idea. Have you got a ouija board OP could borrow?