Probate or letters of administration?

[hereforthecraic]

My mum passed away five weeks ago and didn’t write a will. Her estate isn’t a large one under £100k. Been given conflicting information on if it will need to go to probate. As us, her two children, would be the beneficiaries. Should be “simple” . Waiting for a meeting with solicitor who is currently on holiday. Does anyone know?

It’s called a ‘grant of probate’ if there is a will and a ‘grant of letters of administration’ if there is no will (so it’s an intestacy). The grant is the confirmation that you are the person with the authority to deal with the estate. The intestacy rules set out who inherits and who can apply to administer the estate where there is no Will. Some banks will release funds up to a certain limit without a grant so depending on the amounts held with each institution you may or may not need to get a grant. If there is a property to sell you will definitely need a grant.

At that level I think you need to get approval/authority from the court.

As there's no will that will need Letters of Administration.

It could well be that probate isn't needed - when DF died, I remember DM saying it wasn't going to probate - I don't think he had a will, so it was just a matter of DM inheriting his half of their house, some savings/investments (around £200k for the house and low tens of £k for other assets) and personal possessions.

I think probate is only compulsory for larger estates/if IHT is exceeded. Many people assume that everyone falls into this category, which is obviously untrue.

If the house was owned as Joint Tenants it would pass to the widow outside the estate. So would money in joint bank accounts.

As a rule of thumb banks etc want a grant where they hold more than £5k but it varies.

It will depend on what the estate consists of.
If there is property then you will definitely need a grant of administration to be able to sell the property. You usually need it as well to sell stocks and shares although if there is only a small holding I think it may not be necessary.

If it is just money in bank accounts / savings etc then it will depend on whether these exceed the limits above which the financial institution requires probate/letters of administration - this varies from bank to bank and can be anything from £5k up to £50k.

It doesn't sound complicated you can apply for letters of administration online. Ours came through within a week earlier this year for similar size estate and two adult children/beneficiaries