If my husband dies and I am not on the deeds

[illbetheresunorrain]

what happens if my husband dies and I am not on the deeds of the property. What are the steps I need to follow?

Does he have a will? I wasn't on the deeds because I still own my former home, which I rent to a lovely tenant, and we agreed that this house would be in DH's name. DH left me our home in his will. After I had been granted probate, I applied to change the ownership on the land registry. It was fairly easy to do online. If he hasn't made a will, the house would still come to you as his spouse. It all took time and work, but I was able to do it all myself.

He has not done a will yet but he will do. No relationship issue, just I was wondering what happens if he suddenly died and the will did not happen fast enough. Is probate a long, expensive process or quite straight forward?

Probate cost depends on how you do it. My Step-brother did my step-dad's probate himself, so I felt confident to try. I actually had to do Inheritance Tax forms, as DH had assets in Ireland, but I think they were very similar to probate. I spent a while looking at all the forms online before downloading and printing the ones I thought I needed. That clarified exactly what information I needed from banks, mortgage, insurance etc. The slow bit was dealing with all the paperwork I needed to collect. I kept detailed lists and made notes on every phone call/email/whatever. The paperwork took hours to fill in, but I did it in bits, whenever I got some information then made a best copy to submit. I did not have to send any of the paperwork I'd collected, but I had to keep it filed in case they asked to see it. The main point was that as his spouse I had spousal exemption so didn't owe any IHT. I just had to jump through the hoops to prove it. This took 4-6 weeks I think, it was last year but already the time details have gone. I received a unique number from the IHT which went on to a box on the probate form. Without that, I think the probate form is very similar in needing full financial information. Probate took about a week: I actually had a phone call from the probate office about 8.40am on a Saturday to tell me it had been granted, then the official paper arrived the following Wednesday.
Irish probate is going through a solicitor. Began in July, still not finished. It is going to cost me thousands.
Honestly, having something detailed and complex that I had to do helped me get through those early weeks.

If your husband dies intestate then there is a process to follow over who gets what. this might help you. https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will/y

Get a will written - makes everything easier.

Having a Will does make things easier, but having a complicated estate can make filling in the probate forms a long job... a lot of people have a house, and savings, but others have investments, shares, sometimes a 2nd property.
If you are both on board with wanting to make things easier for whoever is left, have all your paperwork for anything financial kept in one place. Finding all the paperwork, especially if not a spouse, and not living with the person who has died can be very time consuming.
You can employ a Solicitor - which is where the cost of probate can rocket - and you are the one who still has to find the paperwork.

Are there any children, from former marriages etc? That would complicate this enormously
I would worry less about the deeds and more about the lack of will and issue around going through intestacy

Definitely get a will written asap. Probate can be really quick. My DH died in the July and probate was complete by end of November. He had a will though. It would probably take longer without as you'd need to apply to be the administrator of his estate and then they would have to follow rules of intestacy. It makes things much more complicated. My mum wasn't on the deeds for their house, but DF left everything in his will to mum and so after probate it was just a case of getting the house transferred to her. Their house was paid off though. I'm not sure what would happen if the house was still mortgaged and your DH didn't have life insurance to pay it off.

If you do not own the house as either tenants in common (where each of you own a %), or joint tenants (where you both own the whole property) then he can gift his house to whomever he wants in his Will.
If owned as TIC, he can only gift his % in his Will.
If owned as JT to house becomes the property of the sole survivor and cannot be gifted to anyone else in a Will.
If he does not have a Will, the laws of intestacy follow. https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will

If you were to divorce, the house would be considered a joint asset regardless as to how it is owned when dividing up the assets.