DIY Probate - any Gottyas?

In the situation you describe it should be very straightforward. Phone the Probate Office and get the forms and follow the instructions. You just need to be methodical and accurate. After you submit the probate application it can take two or three months to get probate. Which AKA the Consumers association publish a A very good book on the subject.

its fairly simple , they will send you an infomation pack out , depending where you live probate appointments range from a cuople of weeks to a couple of months after application

no real snags , if you screw up they send you a letter highlighting your error

As others here have said - you need have no hesitation. The Probate Office is surely the most helpful and easy-to-deal-with of all Government departments.

I agree with all the previous posters. I have undertaken probate for both my father and my mother-in-law. Straightforward and very simple (assuming simple affairs such as no foreign properties owned etc!). Don't instruct a solicitor - they will charge the earth for what is a simple procedure that can be undertaken by any layman with a modicum of intelligence and common-sense.

Ret.

Just adding to the other replies, you should find it very easy, just pick up a form from your local probate office. It's very straightforward.

I'm in the middle of it right now and have no hesitation in recommending you DIY. IR205 is just a 2 pager.

Interestingly, when I went to get the will from the solicitor, he said that if I supplied him with a spreadsheet, he'd do the application for £100 + VAT which, is less than what it would cost in travel expense for the executors to go to 2 interviews at the probate office.

The Which? books are -

It is all very straightforward and the govt departments you deal with are very helpful. There is also a big satisfaction in doing it yourself.

You say that the estate is small enough not attract IHT but remember that as he sold his house two years ago and gifted the money to your wife it will still form part fo the estate. if there is tax to pay it is good to know that the NSI certs can be used to pay it before probate is granted. NSI wont' release the money to you until probate is granted but they will pass it on to Captial Taxes.

The thing that casued the most work for me (whernb I did my fatehr's probate) was listing all the gifts the deceased had made in the last 7 years.

Robert

No, the proceeds of the sale are invested in *his* name, and a thus a main part of his estate - but it is *still* below the IHT limit for a single individual, let alone the increased allowance accruing from his late wife, who only used a small fraction of her allowance.

As others have said, it ought to be very straightforward. However, I wouldn't do it. I'd use a solicitor.

My reason? Years ago, my father in law died, followed after a year by my mother in law. My brother in law decided to do the probate himself - he's an educated chap with a university degree, quite savvy about the ways of the world. Having submitted all the forms and congratulated himself for a job well done, he was rather taken aback when the bill for inheritance tax was much larger than he had expected. At that point he was told that if he had prepared a Deed of Variation (I think that's the phrase) the estate could have saved a lot of inheritance tax, but it was too late, there was no point pleading with the tax office and he was stuck with it.

I don't know if that is the only pitfall in doing it yourself. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't.

Since a Deed of Variation can be executed at any time within 2 years of the death of the person concerned, in this case your father-in-law, your brother-in-law should not have missed the boat. But it does of course show the benefit of a proper knowldge of the law where matters are a bit complicated. In a simple case, however, there is really no difficulty in obtaining Probate or administering an estate.

You say there's no property but presumably there will be 'chattels' (clothes and other personal possessions). The most tedious thing in my experience was having to value all of them... how much is the resale value of the LP collection or that sculpture made by Auntie Vera? The values you put on things may be slightly arbitrary but you do have to go through and value them, and be prepared to justify the answers if anyone challenges them.

Theo

I had a (paid) valuer come in and give a written valuation of the whole house contents. The values turned out to be very high when we eventually tried to sell things.

What I should have done was to invite a few house clearance companies to make a written offer for the entire contents of the house. i think that woul dhave been enough for Capoital Taxes and would have given a lower result. In my case there was tax to pay so this mattered.

Robert

We cleared my f-i-l's house when it was sold a couple a years ago. The house clearance companies we contacted wanted paying to take it away - so we used Freecycle, charity shops and trips to the tip.

He has very few personal possessions at the time of death - just clothes (well used - and unsaleable because of his incontinence) and the odd watch, shaver etc. His estate is below the IHT threshold anyway, so we should be able to get away with putting an arbitrary value on his possessions.

There really is no point in making a big issue of the amounts. Unless the estate value is close to the IHT limit then the Revenue will not be bothered.

Peter Crosland

The Todal posted

How did that come about?

Let me guess. Gifts had been made during the 7 years prior to death(s) and these made the estate exceed the exempt threshold (the "nil rate band"), or increased the excess. He probably assumed that these gifts, particularly those made early on in the 7 year period, would benefit from the tapering rule, and was unaware that tapering only applies to gifts which themselves cumulatively exceed the NRB.

It can be advantageous to use a solicitor when dealing with probate because the CTO will know that the solicitor will have pre-checked all the figures, and won't themselves need to be too thorough and probing.

The problem with solicitors costing a lot lies with many of them offering a complete package deal, typically charged at so-and-so many percent of the value of the estate. Some of them offer the alternative of charging by the hour for actual work done, and it is sensible to try to minimise their fees by taking some of the simple work away from them and doing it oneself, especially compiling the inventory of assets, including writing to banks for certificates of account balances at date of death, drawing up schedules of gifts, and organising valuations of property and contents. In cases where it is clear that the estate is going to be well below the IHT threshold, property and contents valuations can be own estimates, but otherwise it is likely to be necessary to get professional valuations done.

I did my mother-in-laws estate (well below the IRT) and was not asked to attend any interview with the probate office apart from one pre-arranged visit to swear to the paperwork I produced and to then supply the original will.

Perhaps the various probate offices operate different visits needed policies ?

I dealt with the very helpful Maidstone (Kent) probate office. From sending off the forms to the first (and only) interview was about 3 weeks and the Grant of probate was posted to me about 4/5 weeks later. You can of course nominate the actual probate office in your area that you wish to deal with. Regards