Death of Sister

[Geoman]

I wonder is anyone can help with this issue.

My sister died unexpectedly last week after a short stay in hospital, aged 55. She was married with no children, no surviving parents, one brother and one sister.. Her husband is in a care home with late stage Alzheimer's.

Very little is known about the husband's family. My sister told us that she did manage to track down a son some time ago, to give him the opportunity to say goodbye to his dad, but that he was not interested. No other family is known of.

As yet, no will has been found. Assets may include some pensions the sis used to talk about but there is no owned house and I don't believe there were any other assets of worth apart from personal possessions. Although she did work, I thing she may have been on some benefits.

Obviously the husband is in no fit state to administer the estate, but he may well be the sole beneficiary.

My family have secured the rented house and started going through all the paperwork.

My question is, what next? Can another family member administer the estate? We should have a death certificate next week, after the post mortem but I'm wondering how we should proceed. If her husband is the sole beneficiary and there are pensions or insurances what happens? He can not look after his own affairs and, AFAIK his son was not interested (although may change his mind is there is a small estate to distribute. Or, do we need to spend some money and get some legal advice?

Thanks for any help!

[DrBunsenHoneydew]

You would need Court of Protection permission to take over the husband's affairs if no-one has Power of Attorney. And you will need permission to deal with the deceased sister's estate if there is no will/executor. You are not obliged to get involved of course, but being realistic you will need a solicitor to help sort it all out. When you register the death, the Registrar will inform benefits agency to stop state payments, but you should gather documents of any other pensions, bank accounts etc.

[melonfool]

"AFAIK his son was not interested (although may change his mind is there is a small estate to distribute. "

Your sister's estate has nothing to do with her husband's son.

If she left no will, the money (it sounds as if it will be under the limits) goes to the husband. Any money he inherits will presumably go towards paying for his care anyway.

Someone does need to take on his affairs. In your shoes, I'm afraid I don't think I would take it on. I'd do it for my own family but not an in-law unless we had been very close in the past.

If the son does not wish to do it, then I think you have to apply to the Court Of Protection. Speak to Age UK for advice?

If there is no money for a funeral for your sister the council must provide a basic funeral. It is very basic and they do everything they can to avoid paying but it is their duty to do it.

Mel

[Clitheroekid]

As your sister died without making a Will the Intestacy Rules apply. These basically say that her next of kin is entitled to apply to the Court for authority to administer her estate. The authority is called a grant of letters of administration, and is the equivalent to a grant of probate where a Will exists.

In this situation her husband is the next of kin and therefore the person entitled to make the application. However, he is incapable of doing so.

There are therefore two main options, but unfortunately neither is simple.

The first is for another relative – yourself or your sister would be the obvious choice - to apply to the Court under section 116 Senior Courts Act 1981 for a `passing over' order. In simple terms this is an application to the Court to `pass over' the husband and appoint someone else instead.

The section reads:

If by reason of any special circumstances it appears to the High Court to be necessary or expedient to appoint as administrator some person other than the person who, but for this section, would in accordance with probate rules have been entitled to the grant, the court may in its discretion appoint as administrator such person as it thinks expedient.

It's well established that the mental incapacity of a proposed administrator amounts to `special circumstances', so such an application would almost certainly succeed. And bearing in mind that such an application is unlikely to be opposed It may be possible to obtain an `ex parte' order - one made without a court hearing – which would substantially reduce the costs.

The second option is for someone – normally a relative of the husband - to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as his Deputy. A Deputy is someone who is authorised to take over the management of the affairs of someone who has lost mental capacity. In this particular case the Court would be asked to make a specific order allowing the Deputy to apply for letters of administration on the husband's behalf. Again, it's virtually certain that it would be granted.

But as I said, neither option is simple, and although, as with any such situation, there’s no legal requirement to employ a lawyer, these are not tasks to be undertaken lightly. The vast majority of people would employ a lawyer, but the costs in either situation may be disproportionate to the value of the estate.

If the value of the assets is only small the simplest solution may be just to do nothing, and wait till the husband dies. Your sister's assets can then be dealt with at the same time as his own assets.