Clearing a parent's house in Seaham or Stanley, an executor finds the will in a drawer, dated 1994, leaving the house to a spouse who died a decade ago. It is a common scene across County Durham, where many homes were bought from the council or the coal board a generation ago and have not been thought about legally since. Will solicitors in Durham untangle these estates, and spend the rest of the week helping the next generation avoid creating them.
A modern will for a Durham family covers the house, which may be worth little in a former pit village and a great deal in the city; a pension death benefit, which usually passes outside the will on a nomination form that needs updating too; and the children, stepchildren and grandchildren who are to share everything else. For university families and farmers in the dales the estate may cross the inheritance tax threshold, and the solicitor will discuss lifetime gifts, trusts and the reliefs for farmland and business property.
Lasting powers of attorney are as important, especially where the adult children have moved to Leeds or London for work and must deal with a bank or the hospital from a distance. Without them, a family faces the Court of Protection. Unmarried partners should know that intestacy gives them nothing.
Probate is the other half: the inheritance tax account, the grant, the house sale and the distribution, with the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme and old compensation schemes needing their own correspondence.
Single and mirror wills and lasting powers of attorney are fixed-fee almost everywhere in Durham; probate may be fixed, hourly or a percentage of the estate, and the difference can be large.
Durham's wills and probate solicitors are listed below, verified first. What a will costs and what probate costs are explained in the guides, along with wills, trusts and probate generally and lasting powers of attorney; the general will solicitors page covers the basics.
