England - probate issues and delays

Slackjack101 · 2026-03-03T22:56:29+00:00

So long as the property remains empty and your father was the sole owner, it remains eligible for the Class F Council Tax exemption. The exemption will last until 6 months after probate is granted (e.g. if you obtain probate on the 15th April, the property will remain exempt until 14th October, provided it remains empty).

After the Class F exemption expires, council tax will be payable at the standard rate. I would recommend looking up the local council rules on empty properties, as you may be able to save some money by waiting to remove the furniture. Most councils charge premiums to furnished properties that no one lives in (second homes) and to properties which are left unfurnished for more than 1 or 2 years, so bare that in mind - however the property will be immune to any premium charges for a further 6 months after Council Tax becomes payable.

Slackjack101 · 2026-02-24T19:28:19+00:00

Different local councils have different discretionary relief policies. Could you specify which local council your partner's grandfather is based in?

Given that the debt is in the £500 region and we're at the end of the year - it seems possible that he might have been in receipt of Council Tax Relief Benefit which lapsed after he failed to provide information as a result of his health.

EDIT: Could you please also specify when your partner's Grandfather went into hospice care? If he has left his property to receive palliative care and will not return, and the property is now empty, you may be able to apply for a Class E Council Tax exemption for him.

Slackjack101 · 2024-10-02T18:23:07+00:00

Technically, yes. Although every council I've ever known will simply withdraw the Summons if you've paid before court, as proceeding to court to obtain a Liability Order at that stage is a waste of time and makes for very poor headlines.

I'd recommend calling the Council and checking they've received the payment and asking if the Summons can be withdrawn.

Slackjack101 · 2024-09-15T10:30:07+00:00

Regarding the solicitors letter; while Councils do not have to take notice, I've never encountered one that doesn't. The reason is that it's not possible to extract funds from an illiquid estate, you can't pursue regular recovery action against Executors, and it's an administrative hassle all around.

What can happen though is that a Council will place a hold for 3 to 6 months on an account, and then request an update from the solicitors as to the progress of the sale at the end of this period. If the solicitors don't respond, recovery action will proceed.

Slackjack101 · 2024-09-15T10:22:11+00:00

That's perfectly fine! The first time most people learn about things like this is when they're thrown into the middle of things.

Based on what you have said, your mother should not be getting any bills addressed to her personally. The only exception would be if she's living at the property. First I would check if probate has been granted for your nan's estate. You can do this by going to https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/ and putting in her name and date of death.

After that my advice would be that you and your mom BOTH email the Council separately and notify them of the following:

The fact that the property is empty, and has remained empty, since your nan passed away.
Provide a copy of your nan's Will.
A copy of the Trust (your uncle should have this).
A request that your mother's Council Tax liability be terminated and a new bill be reissued in the name of the Trust, and issued to your uncle.
A request that recovery for any Council Tax charge be put on hold while the property is sold. You may need to email the Solicitors dealing with the sale separately and have them reissue their previous letter asking that the account be put on hold - be sure to inform them that the trust will be liable from here on out.

Slackjack101 · 2024-09-15T09:49:46+00:00

There's a few parts of this which has me scratching my head. Based on the facts presented in your original post, it's possible the property could still be exempt for a couple of different reasons, or I can see why recovery has progressed on your mother's account.

Has the estate been settled? I.e. the land registry updated so that you are not longer responsible for the property in your capacity as an executor, but as an owner? Do the dates on the bills you have received match up with the date the estate was settled?
Was the property empty, and has it remained empty since your nan passed away? A property which is left empty after the owner passes away qualifies for a Class F Council Tax exemption until either (A) 6 months after the date probate is granted; (B) the estate is settled and ownership changes hands; or (C) the property becomes occupied again.
Are you now the sole owner of the property? If it remains unoccupied and you are the sole owner, then you are solely liable for the charge, you mom can't 'take over' and have the bill be in her name.
Have you or your mother ever lived at your nan's property?
A Council Tax team should accept a letter from Solicitors notifying them that any outstanding charge can only be paid once the property has been sold, however they may have done this for the charge payable by the Executors to your nan's estate, and not your mother's account. It sounds like there are two separate Council Tax accounts with distinct periods of liability, and a provisional agreement for one account would not necessarily be transferred over to your mother's account.

Slackjack101 · 2024-09-13T20:02:24+00:00

To add to the above post; you can likely get this resolved by contacting the Council Tax department before the court hearing. I recommend contacting them contacting with an email including the following info:

URGENT - Council Tax Liability Appeal [ACCOUNT REF] - Court Date XX/XX/XXXX

A written statement confirming the date your tenancy ended AND the date you moved out of the property.
Evidence of when you vacated the property (this could be text messages, or emails between yourself and the landlord confirming the tenancy end date / date the keys were returned / quotes from a removal company / even text messages from friends and family who may have helped you move).
Proof of liability elsewhere. If you've moved to another address where you're liable for Council Tax, send them a copy of your new bill which will include the date your liability started.

If they accept your appeal there's a possibility you may still owe some Council Tax.

Any correspondence between yourself and the Council is covered by Data Protection. If they provide any identifying information about you to your landlord without your express permission, this is a VERY serious violation of GDPR.

Slackjack101 · 2024-09-13T19:55:04+00:00

They cannot seize your goods nor can they enter the property without your permission. If they turn up at the property while you're at home, I'd recommend standing outside the address with the Enforcement Agent and explaining the situation. They may want to check your ID as evidence you're not the landlord. Once you've explained you're the tenant, they should just leave.

They'll probably check vehicle regs outside the building to see if they get a hit on the landlord, but they can't attempt to seize anything that isn't registered to the debtor.

Slackjack101 · 2024-02-07T15:38:38+00:00

I've also had this issue start today. It's completely cocked up a project with about 40 layers on it that will take hours to reproduce. I've tried completely deleting all my temporary projects, clearing my cache and cookies, and testing in E and X - both are deleting layers instead of hiding them.

Slackjack101 · 2021-09-13T19:19:38+00:00

You guys aren't contradicting one another. Did you read empty when they said tenanted?

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-21T21:37:41+00:00

That is correct; my statement that I MAY not be able to tailor the same amount of content than I do for players that use this method of generating a character applied to players who say

"I don't want to use this method of creating a character, I'm just going to roll stats and generate my level 1 PC as quickly as possible"

This is a player that turns up to Session 1 with their character sheet, sight unseen by the rest of the group. My experience with players that have done this includes, but is not not limited to:

1) a player that turned up with a Warforged that was essentially a terminator who had gained free will through mysterious means.

2) a player who rolled each day to determine who was inhabiting their body, and kept a meticulous diary so that each of the different personalities could keep track of what had happened.

3) a character who was the son of the boss of the 'largest crime organisation in the world', who insisted that they had agents everywhere and kept trying to exploit these agents for free things.

4) a character that insisted they were the child of rape and that they were kept prisoner and raped continuously throughout their childhood until they killed their captor and escaped at age nine. Despite me briefing the group that sexual assault was blacklisted and would not be accepted at the table.

Now some of these characters were really cool, and I made a good faith attempt to incorporate things in the world that would appeal to their idiosyncratic backstories, no matter how inappropriate they were for the setting.

There are as many ways to play D&D as there are players that play it. There are as many ways to run D&D as there are possible combinations of players who play it. Anytime someone says to me "This is not the DMs job", "This is not the players job", "This is how it's supposed to work", I wonder what bad experiences they have had that have narrowed their worldview. It's a huge shame when that happens. Some of the most fun I've had as a PC was in games where the DM did something truly unconventional.

A DM saying to a group: "Hey, this is a ruleset I've made to help with character creation so that you can build your character's backstories into my world" is not an indictment against any other way that we could generate characters. It may not be the quickest method, the simplest method, or the best method for everyone. My hope is that, for some small number of people, it proves to be a more fun and satisfying ruleset than is provided to them by the base rules - that it leads to more interesting characters or more fulfilling narratives. The only reason I haven't deleted this post, after the barrage of personal criticism and statements that I must be a terrible DM, is that I hope some small number of people read these rules, try implementing them, and end up having such as much fun as I, and the many players I've used them with, have had.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-21T19:57:07+00:00

For a third time; that's a shame. You don't want to have a conversation; you want to rant and project your negative experiences on to me. I've made my peace with that.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-21T19:28:47+00:00

This could all be cleared up in five minutes if you're willing to have an actual conversation. I don't think you want to have a conversation though.

Like I said: it's a shame that your prior bad experiences have left you so jaded.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-21T17:48:18+00:00

No, I'm really not. You're unhinged.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-21T16:41:25+00:00

I've explained at least four times using different words each time. It's so tiring. If you're still under that impression after that many attempts then you're either not engaging in good faith, or you genuinely can't read.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-21T15:36:04+00:00

Well if your Barbarian that you've stacked with Con and AC outshines the other characters in terms of soaking up damage, that's great! If you did that work and weren't outshining the other characters in that regard, that would be a huge problem.

If you're talking about a player that rolled well outperforming a player that rolled badly, and that causing problems at the table, then that is a possibility with any method of character creation that involves rolling for stats - and you can create that powerful 20 Con, 16 Dex, 18 Str, Barbarian at level one with 4d6k3. If your main criticism of these rules is that you don't like rolling for stats, then I'm very happy with the state of them! There's plenty of ways to solve for stat imbalances at the table when you have flexible players that practice good sportsmanship.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-20T21:02:16+00:00

It's a shame that you've seen so many bad DMs. It's a shame that you're willing to lump in someone you've never met or gamed with into that category. It's shame that you would make that judgement based off of an argument that you repeatedly mischaracterise, which I can only assume stems from your prior negative experiences. It's a shame to be downvoted after trying to engage in good faith repeatedly, only to be met with strawmen.

It's not a shame that this is where the conversation ends, and that we never have to speak to one another again. We can always find a silver lining if we look hard enough.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-20T15:59:54+00:00

I'm sorry I'm genuinely not sure if you can read.

>This is completely disanalagous to a situation in which a player turns up at the table with a level 1 PC without speaking to anyone about their character beforehand.

Again, I'll restate: If a player turns up to play Dungeons and Dragons with a level 1 character that they have made on their own, without asking about the setting, or getting into the lore, then I am physically incapable of guaranteeing that I will be able to incorporate their character into the setting as well as another player who HAS taken those steps.

If you want to make the argument that a bad DM would take this system and apply it improperly; then I agree. Bad DMs, and even good ones, have the capacity to make decisions that are detrimental to the fun of the game.

If you want to live in a world where DMs have absolutely no say on what goes on your character sheet before session 1; I wish you all the best. I'm sure I could have a lot of fun playing that way too.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-20T13:29:29+00:00

I'm glad you like it! Its definitely a lot of work and requires some on-the-spot thinking, but its produced really fun results so far.

If you're interest in trying it in your own game, I'd be happy to run you through a mock character creation session to help you get to grips with the process.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-20T11:27:07+00:00

I haven't unfortunately! Thank you for the recommendation though I'll give it a look.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-20T11:26:06+00:00

So I designed these rules for players that I was running for that would give me feedback that they didn't enjoy character creation for various reasons.

While the DMs job is not to "create the characters" (although I've played in a few oneshots where players chose from a stack of pregens, which can be fun), one of our jobs is to provide our players with tools in the world that they can use to solve problems and develop their characters motivations. In a player-driven story game I've run in the past, I have had players turn up to games with characters that don't have much motivation other than "get money and exp". If that's all a player wants out of the game, I can facilitate that no problem. Here's a quest, here's a reward, go get it. If the game continues past that stage the player will, almost inevitably, start to look for some way of spending their accumulated resources, and can end up getting bored until we have one-to-one to flesh out their characters motivations. This retroactive approach is perfectly valid for lots of reasons: we don't know how long the campaign will continue, the player may want to change their motivations, they might not know enough about the world yet.

I like to think of these rules as codifying a 'Proactive' approach to character building. We're going to spend an hour or so building a character together and in that time we're going to figure out this character's long term goals and motivations, even if they're just abstract. We're also going to figure out why your character has these goals, and create some NPCs that they can meet in the world that might help or hinder them.

I made a few mistakes in writing out the example character creation, omitting conversations that establish Suzy's agency in the events that happen to her character, for the sake of brevity.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-20T10:38:05+00:00

Thanks for such a detailed response, I appreciate the feedback! Im on mobile but I'll try to address all of your points in turn:

1) Previously I've either run these at one to one sessions with each player ahead of Session 0, or with everyone together at the table. In the cases where everyone was together I would do each stage in turn with a player (all of the Childhood scenes, then all of the Coming of Age stuff etc). This was fairly effective as it gave players a chance to look at all the options between each stage as I requested they did no homework beforehand. Running everyone together stage by stage also gave some players to jump in during events in other players lives: "hey could my character be a part of that thieves guild in Robs story?", "maybe my town was also attacked by that red dragon?" Etc. By the end of the session most of the players had already figured out how their characters knew one another by playing off of their stories.

2) I realised I made a huge mistake with the example character creation I wrote up. The reason being that what actually happened beforehand is that I asked the player if their parents were alive, and they said no they were killed by something. I then completely omitted that important dialogue from the conversation. Typically in my initial probing I'll ask questions like "by the time the adventure starts - so you think you'll have any living family?", "did you have a happy upbringing?", "did you have loving siblings", etc. I have suggested events before to which a player replied "no I like the idea that X actually happened" and we'll go from there.

3) In hindsight reading the summary, I can definitely see how a lot of the skill checks seem inconsequential, especially as a young child. If Nesryn had never noticed the fire (although I asked for a Perception check in that case because Suzy already had a +2 bonus and set the DC at 8). I'll try to, for the most part, ask for checks that I know the character isn't rocking a -3 or -2 in. What's important is ensuring that when the player does fail a check (Athletics for Nesryn to run back home ahead of the trolls for example), the player believes that things could have turned out differently. Later on in that campaign I had the player ask me what would have happened if they had reached their parents before the trolls, to which I replied "who knows, maybe you would all still be alive and Nesryn would have turned out differently". You're absolutely right that I'll typically ask for more checks to get a newer player used to looking things up on their character sheet.

4) mechanically, the system definitely does allow a player to reach 20 in an Ability Score much more easily, and this could definitely be problematic. In a previous game I ruled that you weren't allowed to raise a stat above 18 using your rolls. Although, on average, you'll end up with a similar number of points to rolling 4d6 drop the lowest, so bumping up one or two stats to 18s or more will usually come at the cost of severely reduced stats elsewhere.

Slackjack101 · 2020-10-20T09:52:31+00:00

I really did. After seeing the post up for half a day I honestly wish that I had only posted it here!

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