House Clearance Help & Advice: Understanding probate and wills

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Losing a loved one is hard enough to deal with, and then you have the funeral to arrange and pay for and all the other elements that you never thought about. One of them is your loved ones assets and will, when it comes to these it is essential that you understand what you are and are not obligated to.

The person who deals with the assets of your loved one is called the executor if your loved one left a will and named them as their legal representative. If no will was left then the person looking after your loved ones assets will simply be called the administrator.
It is essential that upon the death of a loved one someone finds out if a will had been drawn up and if so who was named as the executor.

If there is no will then the nearest surviving relative will become the deceased’s representative, this means that the person will be obligated and responsible for dealing with all debts left by the deceased. Debts could include taxes, outstanding debts and funeral expenses.

The representative will pay these from the estate of the deceased; the estate means any property or the persons belongings. By law this has to take place before any of the remaining estate can be divided up among the loved ones relatives.

In order to be the representative there is no need to take the advice of a solicitor, the only thin you have to do by law is make sure all outstanding debts have been taken care of from the estate before it is divided.

If you are going to be the deceased’s representative then you will have to go through the papers of the deceased to first find if they have any life insurance, if they have then as the representative it is your job to get in touch with the insurers and inform them of the death. In order to claim on life insurance it is essential that the policy be paid up to date. Some people take out funeral plans so it would be wise to find out if the deceased had such a plan.

The next thing you will have to ascertain is if the deceased owned any money to anyone, bills to watch out for are unpaid council tax, electricity and gas, telephone and any credit card bills. If there are outstanding balances on these then you should get in touch with those concerned as soon as possible to find out the amount outstanding and to pay it.
If the deceased had there own home then it will be down to you to make arrangements to out it up for sale, along with any possessions.

Once this has been done and all outstanding bills have been paid then the rest of the estate can be divided among the relatives, if there is a will then of course this will need to be complied with, if not then the family will have to come to an understanding themselves over who gets what.

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