When someone dies, somebody will need to act as a personal representative and be in charge of dealing with the deceased person’s estate.
A personal representative is known as an executor if the deceased person left a will, or an administrator if they did not. The role of both is largely the same and involves valuing the estate, making sure that all creditors – including HMRC – are paid, and then ensuring that the residual estate is correctly distributed to the beneficiaries.
The personal representative’s role can be both time-consuming and arduous, depending on the complexity of the estate, but lay personal representatives are not allowed to be paid for their time. They are, however, allowed to claim back any reasonable expenses incurred in administering the estate, as James Woods, a private client solicitor at Hughes Solicitors in Heathfield, explains.
If you are acting as a personal representative, you should keep a clear set of estate accounts, detailing all of the money that has been added to the estate (through property sales, cashing shares and closing bank accounts, for example) and debts settled (such as outstanding loans and mortgages, utility bills, care costs and tax liabilities) during the probate process.
This would include a precise record of all the expenses you have incurred in your role as personal representative and the money you have claimed back from the estate to cover the costs of performing your duties.
Legitimate costs you can reasonably claim back from the estate for your personal representative role would include:
- postage and telephone costs when contacting possible creditors, debtors and those who may have received a lifetime gift;
- the cost of the death certificate;
- travel expenses on business connected with estate matters;
- the cost of organising the funeral;
- property maintenance;
- house clearance, cleaning and conveyancing costs if the deceased person’s home needs to be sold;
- professional valuation costs for land, property and other valuable assets;
- solicitors’ fees (if, for example, a probate specialist is engaged); and
- Probate Registry and HMRC costs.
The estate accounts are not a matter of public record; however, some individuals are allowed to inspect them, including the beneficiaries who will inherit what is left of the estate once all liabilities have been paid.
If one or more of these residuary beneficiaries is unhappy with how much they think you are claiming in expenses during the probate process, they have the right to view the accounts. This is because they will be the ones who will be financially affected by how much the estate administration has cost.
If the costs you have claimed back are found to be unreasonable, this would constitute a breach of your duty of care which requires you to always act in the best interests of the beneficiaries. If this is the case, the beneficiaries would have the right to bring legal action against you and recover all unreasonable costs or even have you removed as a personal representative.
How a solicitor can help
Being a personal representative can be a complicated business and judging what is a reasonable expense is not always straightforward. It is advisable to seek expert legal advice to ensure you claim only legitimate expenses from the estate and thus carry out your duty of care to the beneficiaries properly.
If you are worried about the level of liability being a personal representative carries, our team of experienced wills and probate lawyers can take the majority of the required work off your shoulders and deal with the administration on your behalf.
This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note that the law may have changed since the date this article was published.