I am dealing with an estate where deceased left a Will leaving residue to charity and a few pecuniary gifts. It now transpires that his home was still in his mother’s name. Mother had died some 20 years previous (divorced). He was an only child. No Grant/letters were taken out for the mother, no Will has been found and there are no other relatives entitled to apply. Can the deceased son’s executors apply for probate. I have had look in Tristam and Cootes but cannot find anything to confirm I can do this.
We have just done similar, whereby the Administrator of our estate applied for Letters of Admin in the unadministered spouses estate 10 years after she died. We sought advice as there was no clear answer and it was advised that as the whole estate passed to our deceased our client could apply as his PR.
We did already have the Grant in the husband’s estate though as the unadministered asset came to light during the administration process and not a the outset.
The executor of the deceased can apply for a Grant of Letters of Administration to the estate of the deceased’s mother. I think you will need a Grant of Probate to the deceased’s estate first. You will probably need to refer to that Grant in the application for a Grant of Letters of Administration in respect of the deceased’s mother’s estate so you can show the chain of representation.
Thank you both, very helpful. I have tried to put all the additional relevant information in the PA1A following the format of a similar Oath I found in Tristam and Cootes. I am guessing there will be a few queries from the Probate Registry.
Such historic applications are not uncommon - I have recently completed an application for a death in the 1970’s - I cannot recall the effective date off hand, but provided no IHT was/is payable, the application is Truth (Oath as was) only with no IHT205 etc. This is in T&C & I think it is deaths before 2002, professional applications are truth/oath only, or as is now PA1A / online equivalent .