I am assisting the administrator of a deceased persons bank account. The deceased died intestate and the person I am assisting,(his daughter) is the sole beneficiary. We have contacted all the finanical institutions that he dealt with and many have been happy to supply detaisl re amounts in accounts but require an indemnity form to be completed and countersigned by a solicitor. Some want formal letters of administration. We are in the process of collating data to apply for letters of admin from the probate service ,forms PA1 and HT205.
We are having difficulties with the bakers who operate his current account. They tell us that they will not cancel any outbound payments, i.e direct debits/standing orders and that should we wish,we can reclaim those monies back from the organisations which were paid at some later date!!.
My way of thinking is that those organisations are now creditors of the estate and must wait for settlement. They should not be able to avail themselves of ongoing SO's and Direct debits since the person who authorised them is now deceased.
Can anyone comment on the legal position? What course of action should i take?
There is no point in paying umpteen solicitors to countersign lots of forms and so i need to wait at least a few weeks to apply for probate. Potentially,the direct debits and SO'd could put the account in debt by then!!
thanks
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