No will or probate

[Trevor51]

I posted a short while ago about the length of time it is taking to do the probate for my mother. We are into tenth month since her death. I was talking to my youngest brother today and suggested that we might get some idea of our mother's intentions if we looked at our father's will who died in 2010.
Doing a search I can't find any record of probate for my father. Is it possible that this was never done and the house never transferred to our mother, or may be it had already been transferred and all bank accounts were joint.
If the transfer of assets is to a spouse and therefore no inheritance tax is there a requirement to do probate anyway? What are the implications now if it wasn't done?

[Peridot]

Hi Trevor51,

Very much will depend on how property was held by your parents. As you suggest if property including bank accounts and house were in joint names then they would pass to the survivor automatically. It may not have been necessary to obtain probate if everything was left to your mother. The only time you would require a Grant is:-

• Property (houses, buildings or land) is owned by the deceased as a tenant in common not joint tenant (in which case the property can be transfered to the survivor on production of the death certificate).
• A Grant of Representation is required by a bank or other financial institution with which the deceased held assets, if the amount in the account is over the specific threshold set by that institution. This will vary depending on the Bank as they set their own limits. Again if the account is a joint account a Grant won't be necessary.

If the estate was left to your mother then the spousal exemption will also apply meanting no Inheritance tax would be payable on your father's death. However it may be due now depending on the value of the estate.

It sounds like there may be a bit of unraveling to do but don't panic. If you believe that your father left a will leaving everything to your mother or all their assets were joint then it is unlikely there is any inheritance tax that has been missed so there will be no penalties.

If things were not dealt with correctly when your father passed away there may still be things that need dealing with which would delay your mother's estate being finalised as in the example above father leaving everything to mother there may be bank accounts that still need transfering.

This is all very much speculation however and I would suggest asking the questions of the executor what is holding things up. We may be able to give you some more pointers then.