Funds held by deceased person belonging to another deceased person

[elkay]

A rather messy situation. It appears that my wife's aunt, who passed away in August, actually had an account with £37K belonging to her friend, who had passed away the previous year. I believe she was looking after her friend, who did not have a bank account, and at one stage a bank account became necessary to receive pension. So the aunt opened a bank account in her own name.

Roll on a few years, and the friend goes in to a nursing home. The aunt at this stage was living with a terminal condition, and asked the friend's social worker to take over the account and her friend's affairs.

Roll on another year and the aunt passes away, without a will. I am assisting her sister sort out her affairs, so have no legal standing...the sister and her brother are NOK.

We have now become aware of two things:
- An account with 37K, of which we had no knowledge. Only activity appears to be pension payments up until last year. NINO on the payments is not the aunts.
- A letter from a representative of the local health trust, which refers to a conversationion where the deceased aunt mentioned to the trust about holding £35K of her friends money.

We are in the position where we know that the money, though in the aunt's name, belonged to her friend's estate, and should be used to pay off a portion of the care home fees accrued by the health trust (c.£87K in total).

So we have some questions:
- How do we find who the personal representatives are for the friend (unlikely to be a NOK, although I believe there was a distant relative)?
- We won't be able to do anything with the £37k until Letters of Administration are issued, likely to be some time distant (3-6 months?) Application will be made in November, Because the money did actually not beling to the aunt - is there any way to get it released by the bank to the personal reps of the friend, before LOA?

TIA
elkay

[Clitheroekid]

So we have some questions:
- How do we find who the personal representatives are for the friend (unlikely to be a NOK, although I believe there was a distant relative)?

From what you've said I would think it extremely unlikely that the friend had any personal representatives. As she probably died with no estate apart from the £37k in the account nobody would have applied for probate / letters of administration.

Assuming she died intestate then her NOK would have the right to apply for a grant. However, even if you managed to find them I can't imagine that they would have any interest in doing so if there would be nothing in it for them (unless, of course, they decided to keep the £37k and not tell the LA).

We won't be able to do anything with the £37k until Letters of Administration are issued, likely to be some time distant (3-6 months?) Application will be made in November, Because the money did actually not belong to the aunt - is there any way to get it released by the bank to the personal reps of the friend, before LOA?

As you don't know who they are then the short answer is no.

Does your aunt have an estate that actually requires a grant? For example, did she own a house? If she only had a couple of bank accounts it may well be possible to deal with her estate informally, without bothering with a grant. In that event you could probably just notify the LA of the situation and let them apply for a grant as a creditor of her estate.

If you do need a grant then you should tell the LA about the situation. From a common sense point of view the grant will enable you to close the account with the £37k in it and as administrator of the state you can then simply pay it to the LA in response to a letter claiming payment.

[elkay]

Thanks @Clitheroekid
I will be applying for LOA on behalf of the sister, as property is involved - but no danger of Inheritance tax.
The health trust has supplied an invoice for the care home costs to the trust, so we can acknowledge that the debt is valid and will pay the funds from the account to the trust.
I will contact the trust to make them aware of the situation...and that they will have to wait for private before the payment is made.
I guess the only concern I will have is ensuring that the money gets to the right place...I can imagine how easy it would be for someone in the trust to supply "alternative" account details for the transfer

[elkay]

For "private" read "probate"