pay theElectric,rates etc

Agree with Lori. You should be able to access your Mum's bank account by taking along the death certificate so that you can pay bills. If there isn't enough in the account you have to find the money yourself and claim it all back. Don't forget to keep up house insurance too.

There is an excellent Which? book about what to do when someone dies.

 

You may be able to reduce the Council tax liability if the property is unoccupied.

 

Now I remember when my late Dad's bungalow was unoccupied the existing insurance company would not insure it. I had to find another company who would insure and they stipulated the letter box had to be sealed, it wasn't straightforward, but that was after it was unoccupied for months.

 

I agree with all of the above.

If you are the executor then you can deal with the probate. From what you are saying, you already have a solicitor and they will be able to tell you if you can have the probate and how to go about it.

Once you have probate you can operate the bank account and pay the bills. You should be able to get a reduction of 50% on the council tax (unless they have changed the rules) for six months.

Dealing with the estate is usually quite easy and the solicitor will handle the sale of the house. If there are a number of beneficiaries you will need to keep full account of monies in and out (not difficult).

Turn off gas and electric unless necessary for safety. Cancel any TV contracts and phone (unless you want to keep the phone on. Same with internet if she had one.

 

I would guess that may be because you can't make direct approaches to the court at the moment. As things relax it may be possible to go direct. Usually doing it through a solicitor takes longer because they won't be chasing the court every couple of days.

Pre Covid I used to turn up at the court to hurry things up.

The quickest I got probate was two weeks but generally it took about a month to six weeks.

 

I admit it was easier for me as the County Court was in the same building as my work. I went in there every day to ask how it was going.

 

I'm doing my late uncle's estate now and estimate of probate is 9-12 months, letting the solicitors do everything .

 

You don't always need Probate, it depends on the size of the estate and if assets were jointly owned. Your solicitor will help determine this if you are not sure. With my late Dad we didn't need probate to access the bank account to keep up payments for electric, gas etc.

 

I did the same for my father by just presenting the death certificate to the bank and they authorised the payments.