Adding a person to letters of administration after issue

[TALEVER]

Hi,
I wonder if anybody can advise. My father died in Oct 16 and did not leave a will. He left very little of material value and so administering his estate was straight forward and was achieved without applying for letters of administration.

We are awaiting an inquest due to circumstances surrounding his death and were encouraged to apply for letters of administration via probate registry to allow us to access his medical records. My two sisters (there are three of us) applied to probate without me and letters were granted. They have asked me to deal with matters surrounding his death including potential legal action however I do not have the legal authority they do.

I have been told I can apply through the chancery division of the high court to be added to the letters but I cannot find information on this. I am loathe to pay a solicitor when I am quite capable of filling in forms and it appears a fairly straight forward issue.

Can anybody point me in the right direction please?

Another avenue could be power of attorney from my sisters to allow me to act on their behalf. Again, any advice would be gratefully accepted.

Thanks in advance

Tracy

[Kati]

Re: Adding a person to letters of administration after issue

tagging [MENTION=85500]Peridot[/MENTION] for advice xx

- - - Updated - - -

to LB by the way

[Peridot]

Re: Adding a person to letters of administration after issue

Hi,
I believe the further Grant that you would need to apply for to effectively 'add' you as another administrator would be a Grant de bonis non administrates. The only reason you would be able to do this is because you are one in the 'class' of people who were entitled to apply for the Grant but you did not at the time. Usually this sort of grant is used when administrators have either passed away or lost capacity to deal with the administration of the estate.
This application can be made to any Registry it doesn't have to be the original Probate Registry dealt with. I would suggest your best bet is to contact the Inheritance tax and Probate Helpline here for advice on the correct application form to use. https://www.gov.uk/government/organi...-tax-enquiries
It wouldn't be possible as far as I am aware for the administrators to appoint you as an attorney to deal with the estate. Once appointed the administrator is stuck with the position I'm afraid except in the above mentioned instances.

[TALEVER]

Re: Adding a person to letters of administration after issue

Thanks lots for taking the time to reply. I will look into this tomorrow.