We need to do probate on my father in laws estate. Plan on doing it ourselves. Forms look a bit complex and there’s some stupid old fashioned swearing on oath thing involved.

Its not a complicated estate, house was in a trust so that doesn’t come under probate so cash only. Will was drawn up etc.

Anyone done it themselves? Any pitfalls?

Yes and no pitfalls for very small estate where no will and all passed to my mum . if the estate is just cash it should be easy . the point of lawyers is not just their technical knowledge it is also their professional indemnity policy in the event of error or dispute.

Yes, and it wasn’t too much trouble. There was an oath to be sworn in the presence of a solicitor.

Even if i could get my finger up far enough I’d have no idea what I was looking for

Yes, it was relatively straightforward even including the fact another will turned up and we have a fight about that. Have posted on other threads started on this topic – you could try searching for advice given by others on those.

From memory the forms where fairly straightforward and getting the probate (multiple copies advisable so you can multi-task in terms of getting control over accounts etc) simple. From your post the only query may be around the house as the taxman may challenge that, depends if it’s necessary to even declare it.

We’re doing it now, my brother taking care of most of the stuff.
Only pitfall we’ve had is some money grabbing vile old slag of an ahem ex-wife coming out of the woodwork and claiming to be a debtor.

a couple of times one intestate, one with disputed will – most organisations very helpful – its just phone calls and paperwork – time consuming but not excessively

thestabiliser – Member
Even if i could get my finger up far enough I’d have no idea what I was looking for

you need a solicitor to do a search 8)

From your post the only query may be around the house as the taxman may challenge that

With ‘doubling up’ rules on inheritance tax there will be no inheritance tax due even with the house included. But probate forms first, inheritance tax stuff can come after that.

I did it, simple will, one beneficiary, small estate, no worries. Just one box at a time and repeat, it looks a lot but all quite logical.

This bimbo has done it and survived. The only problem you could encounter is with the DWP and their ‘fishing’ exercise.

yeh I figured the slow and methodical approach will get us through it.

I did it too – it took an age, but didn’t involve anything that I couldn’t find out myself via Google.

My wife did it for both her parents. Nothing that required more than a bit of patience.

I did it for my father’s estate. No problem once you get into it, just take one step at a time. I’m pretty stupid, so if I managed it so can anybody.

Just done it. No issues at all. Just take your time going through all the forms.
I swore the oath at the Probate Office. Took no longer than a minute.
Once submitted, it only took a few weeks and we had Probate granted.
It was obviously a sad time, but made happier with the knowledge that we’d saved a shed load of money by not using a solicitor.

happier with the knowledge that we’d saved a shed load of money by not using a solicitor.

Yup. My wife has just this week done the necessary for her mum’s estate. She spent a couple of hours filling in the forms but that’s it. The solicitors quoted £700 to do the job for her.

Easy ring probate helpline ans ask to make an appointment, ensure they know where you live as we where sent 100 miles away despite local office being 3 miles away, they didnt seem to have any geographical knowledge or google earth to help, but theyre extremely freindly and chatty.

Make appointment, take details of who you are , driving licence and passport, have a nice chat, swear on a book called a bible, sign some form and ask for some copies of probate certificates,then say many thanks and off you go to approach the banks and building societies to retreive the money your parent had in them, beware that santander are crap and make excuse after excuse about not leting you have the money .

Then when everything is sorted, expect a letter from an office of the DWP, saying they want money back for overpayment of benefits,something which you never knew of, numerous phone calls, refusal of a face to face meeting with anyone, an appeal to the court and a long meeting with a nice chairman of appeals, and youve lost the case, and a few days latter a demand for the cash owed.Which we had to pay.