Is a solicitor/probate necessary in this case?

[McDonagh]

I'm hoping for some advice on whether or not my grandfather needs to use a solicitor or needs to take out probate on my grandmother's will. I've read through many other threads on this site and looked up lots of websites but I'm still not certain what we need to do to sort this out for him. I've studied the Revenue site and Oasis (Citizen Information?) but it still isn't clear to me whether or not probate is required. Naturally enough we want to avoid, if at all possible, any added fees, delays or complications for our grandfather so we are hoping to avoid probate, solicitors, etc.

The details -

* My grandmother left everything to my grandfather in her will
* The will was looked at by a solicitor a few months ago and he said it was fine
* Their home is in joint names and almost all their accounts were joint accounts (in banks and building societies), except for two that have roughly 10k in each (sole accounts)
* My grandmother's SSIA matured recently - can that pass automatically to my grandfather or is this more complicated?
* No executor was named in the will/none has since been appointed
* There are no disputes over the will

Can we just deal with all this ourselves without appointing a solicitor or taking out probate?

Can one or more of us act as an administrator (ie because no executor was named) without having to take out probate? In other words, can we just deal with it ourselves?

We are not certain yet if our grandmother owed tax for the last year or two and will need to check that out. She was self-employed, with her own small business, and certainly paid tax until she was ill (about 18 months ago). Can that be done without taking out probate?

Any advice would be very welcome. Thank you.

 

[Vanilla]

On the different points:

House in joint names- if it was as joint tenants and it was land registry then your grandfather just needs to lodge a death certificate of your grandmother with a covering letter ( they may require an official affadavit but will write back and advise) to the land registry to put it in his sole name.
Re- accounts in joint names- again he should be able to produce a death cert and have them put in his sole name.

Re accounts in sole name- contact the bank involved and ask them their requirements. 10k is under the threshold so they may just require a revenue tax clearance certificate ( see later) but 20k is not ( so depends on if they take into account the overall estate which by right they should but may not), so if they assess it at 20 k strictly speaking a grant of probate is necessary.

Tax issues can be sorted out without probate, but does the business have a value? Will the business survive her? If the business has a value, and needs to be passed on, this may require probate.

You can take out probate yourself. Or you can hire a solicitor to do it for you. If only a revenue cert is required the solicitor should tell you this and charge only a minimal sum. Or again, you can do it yourselves by filling out the relevant tax form and sending it to the Revenue with the necessary proofs.

Thing is, all of the above are fairly uncomplicated matters for a solicitor to deal with, but not easy for someone who doesnt have the relevant tax and legal knowledge. So either a bit of work for you to do yourselves or get a solicitor to do it for you, in which case obviously you have to pay.

 

[McDonagh]

That's brilliant Vanilla, thank you for taking the time to help, much appreciated.

House in joint names- if it was as joint tenants and it was land registry then your grandfather just needs to lodge a death certificate of your grandmother with a covering letter (they may require an official affadavit but will write back and advise) to the land registry to put it in his sole name.

I’m not sure about the joint tenants thing, just know the house was in both their names so we’ll get on to the land registry to see what they need.

Re- accounts in joint names- again he should be able to produce a death cert and have them put in his sole name.

So far this has been fine, we’ve just given the banks/building societies the cert and they’ve sorted everything out.

Re accounts in sole name- contact the bank involved and ask them their requirements. 10k is under the threshold so they may just require a revenue tax clearance certificate (see later) but 20k is not (so depends on if they take into account the overall estate which by right they should but may not), so if they assess it at 20 k strictly speaking a grant of probate is necessary.

So far we've found the only possible complication on this front is the SSIA (worth about 20k). We gave them a copy of the cert and will and are waiting to hear back from them to see if we need to do any more.

Tax issues can be sorted out without probate, but does the business have a value? Will the business survive her? If the business has a value, and needs to be passed on, this may require probate.

No, the business has no value now, it ended with my grandmother’s death.

You can take out probate yourself. Or you can hire a solicitor to do it for you. If only a revenue cert is required the solicitor should tell you this and charge only a minimal sum. Or again, you can do it yourselves by filling out the relevant tax form and sending it to the Revenue with the necessary proofs. Thing is, all of the above are fairly uncomplicated matters for a solicitor to deal with, but not easy for someone who doesnt have the relevant tax and legal knowledge. So either a bit of work for you to do yourselves or get a solicitor to do it for you, in which case obviously you have to pay.

Definitely I think if it gets tricky with tax issues or whatever I’ll suggest we use a solicitor, it would just be too complicated for us and we’d be afraid of making a mess of things, especially with tax matters.