Q: My sister was living with her partner for four years. Last year my sister appointed him as Next Of Kin on paperwork connected with her work death in service benefits. Now my sister has died, and her pension death in service benefit is going to be paid to her so called next of kin. I must say that my sister and I had to pay for the funeral of my late sister with no financial help from her partner.Please can you tell me if we can contest his Next Of Kin ?Many thanks
I imagine this is to do with the Pension Death in Service Benefit from her employer. What happens is that the firm offer an employee the option to nominate who should receive such benefits if they die in service, and your sister must have done so, which means that the Trustees of the scheme are most likely to do what she requested, though they are not bound to do so and may sympathetically entertain a request to deduct the funeral expenses, provided they get that before they have paid out.
In this case, the payment of the benefit is usually at the discretion of the trustees of the scheme, who will generally follow the wishes of the deceased.But that doesn’t stop you raising your concerns with them – but you would need to do so urgently.You don’t say whether her left a Will? Normally that would contain a clause which made sure the funeral was paid for from his estate.If there was no Will, then an unmarried partner would get nothing apart from joint property automatically. The rest would go to spouse (if any), then children (if any) then parents (if any) then siblings. For more details of the Rules of Intestacy, just click on the link above which will take you too a Government site which explains how the Rules operate.Hope that helps.SteveStephen Pett Contact The Probate Department (brokers)Pensions Death in Service Benefits
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My father is recently deceased. As his son I had power of attorney over his affairs and all financial assets are in our joint names. There is a will and I am the executor.I need to know if there is anything official I have to do before settling her estate which does not involve any property.We have registered her death and carried out a funeral.
Only genuinely joint accounts pass automatically. It sounds as if you were not a contributor to the accounts, just the person managing them. On this basis, the accounts belong to the estate and not to you. Whether probate is required will be a matter for the institutions holding the assets, provided there is no requirement for probate – see the article on excepted estates.Are you the sole beneficiary?If so, then just presenting the death certificate to all concerned may be enough. This will normally remove the deceased persons’ name from the account leaving you as the sole owner. Having said that:Doing would mean that there were no assets left to be disposed of in the Will thus disinheriting anyone else mentioned in the Will, as long as everything is in joint names, which may not go down too well! And in these circumstances, that may well not be legally correct. Hope that helps – see also the Probate Guide attached.
]]>Dear Sir,My mother’s mom Owns a property in Manchester, it was bought by my mother’s father and after his death it was transferred to my mother’s mom.My mother has two sisters in Pakistan and three brothers in Manchester. Two brothers are living separate and one brother is living in that property.I want to ask that I am also eligible to take share from this property on behalf of my mother as my mother has also passed away.if yes then can you help me how?How can I check status of this property in legals record?Will my uncle need MY SIGNATURES ( Will my signatures be compulsory) for transferring or selling this property to his name?If this is possible then will it be easy for me to get my entitlement.I am afraid that my uncle will snatch my all entitlement or share. Please advise and help me in this?Probate AnswerIf the property was held in her sole name, her Last Will and Testament will decide where it goes.That is the most likely option.If it was in joint names, there are two options:1) The part of the property she owns will pass by her Will. Or – more likely (if ownership is joint)2) the whole property will pass automatically to the surviving owner.You need the title deeds which you can obtain for a few pounds at:http://www.landregistry.gov.uk/public/online-servicesIf only her name appears on the deeds, then the house passes firstly under her Last Will, or if there isn’t one, then it passes on under the Rules of Intestacy: http://www.theprobatedepartment.co.uk/rules-of-intestacy/I hope that helps, after you have checked that, we can act for you but would have to charge at our usual fairly modest rates.If you have a Probate Question, we try to answer as many as we have time for: any published on the site have been changed beyond recognition SteveStephen Pett https://www.theprobatedepartment.co.uk/contact-us-for-probate-help.The Probate Department Ltd2 The Triangle, Willingdon, Eastbourne BN20 9PJGA private company registered in England number 07682081.We are NOT a Government Department nor in anyway associated with the Probate REGISTRIES which are part of HM Courts Service.More on Probate Disputes. Probate Claim Checker.
]]>Hi Steve,just a quick question, my friend and his sister were left 70 acres of agricultural land and a farm house each, both in a state of disrepair. My friend, wanting to stay in his house decided to approach building firms in order to sell some of his land so he could do up his house. However upon telling his sister his plans, she said she didn’t want him to sell any of the agricultural land and that he couldn’t do so without her signature, thus preventing him doing so. My friends grandmother has the deeds and has always been awkward about him selling any land as she lives on the edge of this land and so would see any new building work.Can my friend claim his share and do what he wants with it, i.e. partition the agricultural land as it was supposed to have been split 35 acres each, or does he have to be dictated to by his sister and struggle to pay bills etc and not make safe the house for him, his girlfriend and twin baby sons.
There are several questions here.1) What were the terms of the Will? It could be that the brothers were left a lifetime right to use the agricultural property rather than the freehold.2) The agricultural land should be registered as it seems to have been transferred on the death – check it out at www.landregistry.gov.uk (could be in Trust though – see below.)3) The fact that the grandfather holds the deeds should be irrelevant as the land should be registered.4) I am not expert on agricultural land, we work with one of the UKs leading experts, but he does charge and doesn’t answer questions free, but if the land is owned jointly, and I’m not sure why it would be, it should be possible to sever the ownership to half each.It is possible that the land is help on a long standing trust, as many farms are. The Land Registry entry would probably show this.Agricultural Property Law is a complex area, which requires specialist advice, and the chances are we would need to involve a specialist agricultural land expert if we were called upon to deal with this situation, which is sadly probably not a quick question! But at least we have the expertise on hand to deal with agricultural land issues. More on Probate Disputes. Probate Claim Checker.
]]>My husband just died and his estate was insolvent.He owed money to lots and lots of people.Am I responsible for his debts?We have a house worth about £180,000 which is in joint names. I think it is owned as Joint Tenants not Tenants in Common.He left a Will appointing me as Executor along with our family solicitor.What should I do because my solicitor does not want to act as my co-executor unless I give a personal undertaking to pay his fees myself and I do not have any money.
As a general rule, unless debts are joint and several (which means that you signed the application too or it was done together) you are not responsible for your husband’s debts.I would suggest you do nothing with the estate at this stage other than send a death certificate to the land registry to transfer the home into your sole name (assuming you own it as Joint Tenants and it goes to you by survivorship outside of your husband’s estate).The solicitor is quite right, any charging provision in the Will allowing him to charge for the work he does as executor is treated as a legacy and if the estate is insolvent legacies do not get paid because all creditors have to be paid first, so in effect he would be working for nothing. The solicitor could make an application to be remunerated and all the creditors would need to agree.When an estate is insolvent an executor or personal representative can obtain probate without a court order and then pay all the debtors under the normal bankruptcy rules after paying the funeral. This can be dangerous though because if you start to act as executor (intermeddle in the estate) and then miss out creditors or pay them in the wrong order of priority you can be held personally liable for those debts.The executor or a creditor may apply for a court order allowing them to act. The executors first duty would be to the creditors. A creditor or a trustee in bankruptcy may apply within 5 years of the date of death for an order severing a joint tenancy stopping a home going to the surviving spouse automatically.It may be best to let sleeping dogs lie with insolvent estates and hope that it is over 5 years before a creditor makes a petition and they can no longer go against your property.Ingrid at The Probate Department