The Lemon Fool

A family member wants to make a claim against the estate of recently deceased person.

Background

The family member has a flat in SE England which she lets out. When she left the SE she engaged the services of a small, local letting agent to manage the flat on her behalf. Unusually, the the agent was a sole trader. The agent became ill over the Summer and unfortunately died in September. The flat's tenants normally paid the rent to the agent who took his fee from this and then passed on the balance to the family member. No doubt as a result of his illness, a couple of monthly payments were not passed on. In addition, there was a recent change of tenancy and although a deposit was taken for the new tenancy this does not appear to have been protected. The situation has since been remedied, a new agent has been appointed and a sum equivalent to the tenant's deposit has been paid into one of the statutory schemes. At present, the family member is about £4,000 out of pocket in terms of rent and deposit.

As far as the family member can tell, the letting agent was not married but lived with a partner. Second-hand, the family member has learnt that the partner of the deceased letting agent has taken the view that "the business is nothing to do with me so I cannot help you." The family member also wrote several weeks ago to "the executors of ..." at what she believes to be the letting agent's home address but has received no response, to date.

Whilst the sum involved is not life-changing both I and the family member think that it should not simply be written off. So the question is, what practical and legal routes are open to recovering the amount owing. My understanding is that as a sole trader any business debts would become debts against his estate. If this is the case, then how does one make a claim against the estate of a dead person?

The claim would need to be brought against the deceased's personal representative - the executor, if he left a Will; the administrator if he didn't.

You can find out if a grant of representation has been made by making a search at the probate registry - https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate

Unfortunately, it could be several months before a grant is issued. See the note at the bottom of the page headed `If the person died in the last 6 months' - you can make what's known as a `standing search' by which you will be notified if and when a grant's issued.

In nearly half of estates there is no grant issued. In that event it's rather more complicated. The situation is governed by rule 19.8 of the Civil Procedure Rules - http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/proced ... art19#19.8 Basically, you need to ask the court to appoint someone to represent the estate.

Finally, as a creditor of the estate you have the right to apply for a grant in your own right if nobody else does, though this is not a straightforward matter, and you would almost certainly need legal assistance.

Thanks for the helpful advice, which I have passed on to the family member.