# Settling an Estate



## redders (31 May 2011)

Hi All ,

My Brother passed away recently (and suddenly) .
After checking all his paperwork and contacting his Solicitors in which he took his Mortgage out with 4 years ago he does not have a will .

Assets includes the house which was behind in payment 4-5 months + small pension (Life insurance was unfortunately cancelled early this year)
+ there was some Credit Card debt of approx €10K on 2 cards through 2 banks .

Just now looking into what needs to be done to settle all his accounts etc..
So  , my Question is do i need to go through a Solicitor or could I get whatever needs to be done via Probate Office ,  myself ??

Any help appreciated on this..
Thanks


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## robbie00 (31 May 2011)

Hi,

A few questions, You say he had no life insurance (he would need to have had this as part of his mortgage agreement)  as this would be used to pay off his mortgage upon his death.

You say he has two credit cards, are you aware of all of his current accounts or savings account details?

If he is due a small pension he may also be die a pension lump sum that would have been due to him on his pensionable age. Does he have a car? any shares?

You can go through the probate yourself, it took me one year to gather all information in regards to a straight forward estate for my father who also didnt have a will.

If a person dies without having made a will or if the will is invalid for whatever reason, that person is said to have died "intestate". If there is a valid will, but part of it is invalid then that part is dealt with as if there was an intestacy. The rules for division of property on intestacy are as follows:
If the deceased is survived by

spouse/civil partner but no children - spouse/civil partner gets entire estate
spouse/civil partner and children - spouse/civil partner gets two-thirds, one-third is divided equally between children (if a child has already died his/her children take a share)
parents, no spouse/civil partner or children - divided equally or entirely to one parent if only one survives.
children, no spouse/civil partner - divided equally between children (as above)
brothers and sisters only - shared equally, the children of a deceased brother or sister take the share
nieces and nephews only - divided equally between those surviving
other relatives - divided equally between nearest equal relationship
no relatives - the state
More information on the following link:

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/death/

Also you can e-mail probategeneraloffice@courts.ie and ask them to send you out a copy of the forms needed in order to take out probate this will give you an idea of whats needed to be filled in etc. 

Hope this helps.


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## beffers (1 Jun 2011)

My sympathies on your loss.

Are you your brothers legal next of kin? If you are, you can apply to the Probate Office for Letters of Administration to handle your late brothers estate. You do not need to engage a solicitor to do so. Later on, if you decide to sell your late brothers house, or transfer ownership of it over to someone else, you will need to engage a solicitor to handle that aspect of things, but to handle the estate itself in general, no you do not need to engage a solicitor. 

If his estate is very complicated, and you do choose to hire a solicitor to handle things, the normal rate that they charge is 3% of the value of the estate. However, given the times that we live in, if you shop around, you'll probably be able to find someone to do it for a lower rate.

If your brother had a partner or kids over the age of 18, you may want to call the Probate Office and see what the situ is with you being the administrator or his estate, as legally you may not be his next of kin. But if you are, fire away ! Either way, call the Probate Office just to get your head on straight. They are very, very helpful.


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## redders (1 Jun 2011)

robbie00 said:


> Hi,
> Hi Robbie - thanks for getting back
> 
> _You say he has two credit cards, are you aware of all of his current accounts or savings account details?
> ...


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## redders (1 Jun 2011)

beffers said:


> My sympathies on your loss.
> Hi Beffers
> _Are you your brothers legal next of kin? _
> Parents would be his next of kin , at the moment though they do not want to deal with all his accounts/papers etc , so i said i'd look after it on their behalf .
> ...


_
_Brother had no wife or kids


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## robbie00 (1 Jun 2011)

Hi Redders,

Contact the company his pension is with he may due some type of a pension lump sum couple of thousand even. 

If he was working some companies have a death in service benefit you might want to check for this also.

Dont worry about having to pay off the CC companies just yet you can fill there details in on the probate forms. You do not need to pay these until last and also they have to freeze the accounts so no more interest can go onto the money owed.

Rob


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## Redstarlet (1 Jun 2011)

Be very careful to get advise and check into this before rushing to extract the Grant of Probate, there is a possibility that the estate is insolvent. What is the balance on the mortgage? If life policy cancelled then mortgage will not be cleared... If it is a negative equity situation I would leave things sit and let the bank decide as the main creditor if they want to extract the Grant. Just make sure to gather all your facts and figures before taking on the very serious and legal responsibilities as an executor


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