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I was divorced but living with my husband at the time he died in November 2008. Our financial affairs were not settled but we had an agreement to split everything 50-50. His death from cancer was unexpected and very sudden but he left a do-it-yourself will leaving to me his share of the house which we owned as tenants in common; his pension, that would be paid for five years was left half to me and half to our adult daughter; shares in his name were left to our daughter and his part of shares that he and I jointly owned were left to our daughter.
At the time of his death, we had been pursuing a buildings subsidence insurance claim. It seemed as though structural work had been done, leaving redecoration etc to be completed. The year after his death, the insurance company had the garage partially rebuilt. The rebuilding is to a poor standard and I called in a chartered surveyor who wrote a report naming the insurers, loss adjusters and contractors as being negligent. He also disclosed that despite piling in 2007 to stabilise the garage, the cause of subsidence had been water running to ground under the garage since at least 1999 when I made the claim until 2011 when it was repaired. Naturally the insurers have disputed the report, produced their own counter-report (which was written without technical data being disclosed to their engineer) and an email from my chartered surveyor says that the house is unsellable in its present condition.
Although the house situation is a total mess and I really don't know how to sort it out, I desperately need to get probate sorted, not least so that I can get the pension money and give my daughter her share plus her shares. Can anyone advise please? How do I get the house valued? (The chartered surveyor who wrote the report was also asked to do a valuation for probate but as he never did the valuation, I assume he had some problem with it.
At the time of his death, we had been pursuing a buildings subsidence insurance claim. It seemed as though structural work had been done, leaving redecoration etc to be completed. The year after his death, the insurance company had the garage partially rebuilt. The rebuilding is to a poor standard and I called in a chartered surveyor who wrote a report naming the insurers, loss adjusters and contractors as being negligent. He also disclosed that despite piling in 2007 to stabilise the garage, the cause of subsidence had been water running to ground under the garage since at least 1999 when I made the claim until 2011 when it was repaired. Naturally the insurers have disputed the report, produced their own counter-report (which was written without technical data being disclosed to their engineer) and an email from my chartered surveyor says that the house is unsellable in its present condition.
Although the house situation is a total mess and I really don't know how to sort it out, I desperately need to get probate sorted, not least so that I can get the pension money and give my daughter her share plus her shares. Can anyone advise please? How do I get the house valued? (The chartered surveyor who wrote the report was also asked to do a valuation for probate but as he never did the valuation, I assume he had some problem with it.
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