Well at last some good news,just had an e mail to say my wife’s probate has been approved,only taken seven weeks instead of sixteen,quite proud as I did it myself,now the temporary lift has subsided back to reality.
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Hi Ron. Well done. I haven’t done probate yet. House is in joint names, joint bank account but the only thing I think I may need probate for are savings which are in my husbands name rather than joint or mine.
Was it difficult to do? My sons have said they will help.
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Hi I found it pretty straight forward if you take care and read everything 3times,I nearly sent a copy of her will when they actually need the original won’t accept copies,good luck with it I wish you every success,ps it does cost around £330 to apply.
Well done!
It took solicitors over 9 months to get probate granted for my Mother and administering it all is still dragging on, 18 mths since she died. Unimpressed by that experience I decided to apply for my husbands probate myself and like you I got a much quicker turnaround than I was expecting. Six weeks!
Huge relief to be able to get access to the savings. Converting ISAs to my name was a bit of a pain but I took it one step at a time and it’s done now.
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You might not need probate, I didn’t. Our house was in joint names as was our main bank account but everything else I was told I’d only need probate if any of the companies requested it but everyone was fine with the death certificate and copy of his will and it was only his pension company that wanted our marriage certificate. Your situation might be different of course but I know some people assume you have to have probate and it could be worth checking if you really need it for your situation.
In fairness it was only NS&I that demanded probate,other financial institutions were happy with will,death and marriage certificates.
Hi Ron yes it was NS&I that I thought might be a problem.
Can I ask if any of you has house or property in joint names, do you have to amend that to your name only or can you leave it in joint names. I’m fed up with having to have my husbands name removed from everything. It’s so distressing,
It’s a really simple process, you just do a form for the Land Registry. They only want copy docs too, they tell you not to send originals as once they put them on their system they shred them. There are two types of joint ownership Joint Tenants and Tenants in Common. One is easier to sort out than the other but unfortunately I can’t remember which is which. I hope it goes smoothly for you, at this time complications are the last thing you need.
Thanks Princess
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Tenants in common is the more complicated one. As I’m finding to my cost! Getting the land registry record altered its in just my name was relatively straightforward but there’s a restrictive clause left that I have to apply separately to have removed. Been putting it off for weeks because the language is intimidating…beneficial owner, proprietor, sole surviving beneficiary, trustees etc etc Attempted it this afternoon because it was raining so I couldn’t garden. It’s probably not really that hard if my head was on straight but I couldn’t be sure I’d filled the forms in right. Will try again tomorrow.
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