Probate-what is the process

[Compostella]

My girlfriend lost her father this week, he was her last surviving parent and she is one of 3 children.

What do we do and where do we go to get probate?

Couple of complications, he lived in a house that was shared with the housing association and was behind with his mortgage repayments and rent, to the point where we have just received a court date from the lender.

No life cover so I can see there is going to be some work to do to sort the mess out, just wondering if anyone had any pointers they might share?

[themas]

I'm not certain about this, but I think the Court claim needs to be withdrawn or struck out on the basis that you can't sue someone who is dead. This assumes the claim is only against the deceased, and not him jointly with someone else. You need to talk to the lender (or his solicitor, whose details should be on the Court form) to tell them of the death and ask what action they want to take. If they say the case should go ahead, then talk to the Court office of the Court the claim is in and tell them the circumstances.

Is there any equity in the part of the house he owned? If so, the debts have to be paid out of this equity (or out of any other assets he had) and anything over goes to the beneficiaries. If there was no equity and no other assets then the debt dies with him (again, assuming it was his sole debt and not joint) - no-one else can be asked to pay it.

If there is a Will the executors need to deal with probate. If not, then it probably falls to the children. Either way, you are likely to need a solicitor - one will be needed for disposal of the house anyway.

[spudqueen]

You can try and sort it all out yourself but personally I think it's worth appointing a solicitor. They deal with these situations every day and know what they're doing and how to go about it. It also stops a lot of family arguments like when my Mother died a couple of years ago my brother and I were not exactly seeing eye to eye on how to go about things until we agreed to go to a solicitor.

Commiserations by the way to your girlfriend and yourself and I hope that you're both coping ok. It is a weird time, after a death and before the funeral. I hope that things get sorted.

[dzug]

It's not that difficult to do probate (or Letters of Administration if there is no will) yourslves - it depends how comfortable you are with mostly routine paperwork - writing letters, filling in forms, etc. - and how emotionally involved you are.

You need to establish precisely what assets he had at the date of death, and precisely what he owed. You then fill in forms that you get from your local Probate Office (should be in the phone book or you can search on line) and pay their fee. At some stage you have to go to the office to swear that the information you have given is true, and after a few days you get the probate document.

This entitles you to collect in (from banks, etc) any assets. You then pay any debts and if there is any left over it's divided amongst the three children.

In your case you need to ascertain that the equity in the property is sufficient to pay his arrears of mortgage and rent. If it isn't, it isn't worth you doing anything at all - hand the problem over to the housing association.

Double check on the life cover - it's unusual to get a mortgage without it, though not impossible. If it was an endowment mortgage, it ought to pay out on death (though if he was in arrears on premiums it's difficult to say if it will.)

Funeral expenses, and the cost of getting probate, are paid before other debts so you shouldn't be out of pocket on those.

[Mrs R]

Hi

If you have this sorted now then you can disregard. But with regards to the mortgage arrears even if it went to court the judge would probably adjourn until you have received probate and another court date would be set. However the Lender should be seen to be doing as much as poss in view of the FSA guidelines to avoid court action especially if your father-in-law is recently deceased. My advice would be to contact the arrears department direct (they should speak to you re the account as the data protection act does not apply to the deceased as long as no other person is named on the mortgage) and see what they have to say. Also are you in a position to pay anything towards the arrears, as if you can get the account under 2 months in arrears or offer them a lump sum as lenders all report there arrears and if they can reduce the arrears and get it out of there reported books by the end of the month they will probably be more obliging and would probably adjourn the hearing on that and proposals for the remainding of arrears as long as the monthly payment is being maintained. Also the housing association normally write to the lenders when there are rent arrears asking the lenders to pay, thus increasing the outstanding balance. You could also look at redcuing the monthly payment by transfereing the account onto interest only for a short period - ask the lender for a quote of monthly payments (there is normally a fee for doing this approx �50 but it can be added to the outstanding balance) As advised previously though you def need to find out what equity is in the property.

Good luck.