Caveat holding up probate

[Lizzieb151]

My father passed away in October, he had some debts and a bungalow with a small mortage left. My brother and I are joint executors and joint beneficiaries - no other person is involved. We intendeded to file for probate then remortgage the property to pay all debts once the deeds are received.

Probate application has been submitted but now one the debtors has filed a caveat preventing the probate (a firm of solicitors with a debt of £4200) - we've tried explaining that without a probate we can't remortgage to pay the bill, we don't have funds to pay outright but they said they don't believe we'll get the funds to pay. We then approached our bank who have provisionally agreed a remortgage but won't put it writing until they see the deeds. Catch 22.

Our solicitor has said they have acted unethically but have refused to get involved.

Is there anything I can do can get the caveat removed so we can proceed with probate?

Thank you

[atticus]

Warn it off.

https://www.gov.uk/stop-probate-appl...te-application

[Tofros]

There is a procedure for removal of a caveat.

You would need to submit a warning to the probate registry and once it is returned sealed you must serve it on the caveator. Professional help for that is recommended.

If they have a contrary interest in the estate they can then file an “appearance form(this has the effect of making the caveat permanent). However, the interest of a creditor of the deceased is not within the definition of a contrary interest so they could not submit a valid appearance in response to a warning.

It might be worth contacting them to say that you are minded to file a warning and are aware that a creditor of the estate does not have a contrary interest that they would need to qualify to file an appearance in response to a warning and ask them again to remove it voluntarily.

They may just have filed the caveat to buy time to secure the debt by other legal means.

As an alternative have you considered executor bridging finance? Google executor or probate bridging loans. Obviously check out that firms are properly authorised and reputable, but it may be an alternative that will allow you to pay the creditor quickly and get on with probate.