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Any Legal eagles or solicitor’s on here ?


Browning 425 clay hunter
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Hi all, long story but I’ll try to keep it as short as possible.  My dad passed away 6 years ago, and didn’t have much money, he did one of those deals where you sell your house and live in it till you pass away then they take possession. 

  After he died my two older sisters dealt with everything as I was a mess, they went to a free drop in solicitor and he advised them not to apply for probate as they would be liable for any losses as well as gains. He had a credit card with a few grand on it I think and maybe one or two other debts. No car and no other asset’s so  they followed the advice. We received about £150 per month for about a year off one of his pension’s between the three of us but nothing else. 

  Out of the blue my middle sister (who neither me or my older sister speak to) got a letter from a solicitor explaining that when the house sold there was a small percentage due to us ( just short of £5300). The solicitor dealing with it says they are the named executor and for them to ‘renounce’ themselves  they would charge us £1500. Also they informed us if it was under 5k they could of just paid it straight to us. 

 My eldest  sister doesn’t want to apply for probate encase she gets chased for any debts as she did after he died even though we sent death certificates to everyone we heard from and after receiving the death certificates she still received calls being chased for the money. 

 I’m just trying to explore the options to avoid paying the £1500 to the solicitor, also they told us last November about the money so 10 months later they’ve still not done anything and seem to be twiddling their thumbs. Is there anything we can do or do we just have to wait another 10 months for them to tell us they won’t renounce themselves and sting us for the £1500 anyway. 

Any helpful advice or comments appreciated form the limited information I’ve provided. Thank s 425

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Please go get some advice from a proper regulated solicitor.

I am a solicitor (property disputes, financial services/investment disputes & employment law) but I don't deal with that area of law and I am not local to you.

However, I do know you will not become personally liable for the debts of the deceased merely by taking up a grant of probate (will) or letters of administration (no will) so I really don't understand the first bit of advice you had.

Debts are payable out of his estate not from anyone else's assets. They aren't suddenly payable by his next of kin. 

The Solicitors holding the money will want to pass it on to the rightful recipients.

You can search for local specialist probate solicitors here :  https://solicitors.lawsociety.org.uk/  most will give an initial free meeting.

 

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I'd be interested to know when your dad did the equity release and who he did it with because the 6 years rings a bell - I reckon the equity release lot have kept their heads down for 6 years, waited for limitation to pass (I.e there's a 6 year cut off for most civil claims) and then have now surfaced and offered you pence in the pound.

A while ago the solicitor in the office next mine, his mum got door stepped and did some sort of shonky equity release - that market place wasn't that well regulated 6+ years ago. She did the deal and then carked it in close proximity to doing the deal and the equity release people tried to claim something like 80% of the house for a relatively nominal advance and a very short period between advance and death. He took action and got the agreement torn up.

The market place is better regulated now, but it's still quite often the most expensive way to borrow money and open to attack after the event.

 

 

 

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Just to balance Munglers sage advice:

We have just completed a very modest release procedure in the last month, mainly to provide our daughter with a small dowry on her wedding day which gets her onto the deposit step of buying a council house property ladder which will itself more than double in value to her over 5 years as she will get a 55% reduction. 

The amount we borrowed on what is basically a lifetime remortgage will almost exactly double over the 22 years its likely to be repaid by.

So although the almost 4% interest is likely to be just over 22K, our house value rose by almost 400% in the last 20 years. It's basically free money as far as I can see and we now have more in the bank than at any time in our lives. Not a lot mind you, but we are now well equipped to deal with almost anything that might befall us money wise, bearing in mind we are very frugal people.

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Thanks for the advice guys. I’ve just had an updated off my sister who we don’t really speak to. The solicitor has confirmed for £60 plus vat they will renounce themselves but then we need to apply for the money somehow, I asked if it’s probate and she said as it’s a low amount of money we don’t need probate but she’s looked into it and the process that we need involves filling in  about 30 pages of forms and send them off to hmrc then somewhere else.

 She said you can pay to have this done but isn’t sure what the name of the process is called if applying ourselves and I can’t really look into it without knowing what the process is called. We could do it ourselves but she’s had a look at them and said it’s a minefield and would rather get someone professionally to do it 

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You should get all the equity release documentation together just to understand more about what went on there.

Indeed, what has happened to the house? Who are the solicitors who have contacted you and what is there involvement in all of this?

Too many unanswered questions I am afraid.

If you pull the land registry office copy entries (£3) and see what it sold for last, or get in touch with the land registry and ask for details of registered sale prices going back to the date of death (assuming that upon death the equity release people stepped in, sold the house and in the intervening 6 years it may have changed hands and been sold again).

Following up on Dave's post - back in the old days, equity release was based on losing chunks of your house i.e. do an equity release, take cash now and give up a large % of your gaff upon death. Now, with a better regulated market place there are other options (like buying yourself out of the deal at an agreed APR% and in a rising market that may make sense for some).

All I know about equity release is that my firm is insured to do any work at all apart from equity release. Our insurers say we can't touch it even to witness a signature and that ought to tell you all you need to know about equity release.

None of this is advice, go and see a solicitor etc.

Edited by Mungler
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