Probate question

[Lynn the Forest Fan]

I took advantage of Ancestry offering free access to probate records, to look for some family ones and managed to find my grandfather's. It said that his estate was £2881 11s in 1961. when I told my mum this, she was surprised at how much it was and wondered if it included the value of his house. But she then said that the house was leasehold with a 99 year lease. My question is, would the value of the lease be included in the value of his estate? Also does anyone have a link to a site which calculates the current value of money form the past?

Thanks

[kiterunner]

Lynn, you can always search and view the National Probate Calendar for free on the government site (make sure to select the correct tab before searching):

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills

[Lynn the Forest Fan]

I didn't know that, thanks

[James18]

Searching manually can be tricky, though. In your case you've found the man you want, but if you only know when someone died and not the year of their probate, it can be something of a wild goose chase - I have seen people with probate published years after they died, and for some reason there are people missing from the original pre-1997 register, who appear on the post-1997 register despite having died decades ago. It can all feel a bit hit and miss.

This shouldn't be a problem if the person you're looking for died after 1997, though.

[kiterunner]

I spent many happy hours searching through the microfiche and printed volumes at my local record office before it was all put online, James.

[Merry]

Searching manually can be tricky, though

lol I have to agree with Kate - 'searching manually' has nothing to do with sitting on your **** in front of a computer screen!

[JBee]

The amount left included the value of the house which would probably be most or all of the estate at that time.

Leasehold means he didn't own the land the house was stood on and had to pay ground rent to the person who did. The value of the house goes down as the number of years of lease reduces. At that time if the lease ran down the house ownership transferred to the freeholder (things have improved a lot since then with leaseholders able to increase the lease for a fee or purchase the freehold).

If the person did own the land it was called a freehold.

[kiterunner]

As for Lynn's original questions, I assume that the leasehold value of the house would be included in his estate if he didn't have a mortgage (otherwise, it would just include the equity that he had in it, i.e. the value of the lease minus the outstanding mortgage). But then he could have had life insurance to pay the mortgage off, in which case, yes, it would include the full value of the house.

And there are several sites which calculate the equivalent value today, for instance this one:

http://www.moneysorter.co.uk/calculator_inflation2.html

[JBee]

Agree with Kite - the value of the estate would be after all liabilities had been paid - ie outstanding bills, mortgage, funeral costs etc etc. It would also include life insurance payouts etc.

Regarding comparing values then and now - I do think some of these sites aren't particularly accurate.

You need to look at how much things cost then and how much they cost now.

ie a house, a car, wages etc. - I got 1 shilling a week pocket money - it cost 6d to go to the pictures on a Saturday morning. 8 aniseed balls for 1d etc. 4d for a frozen jubbly!! 240d = £1 - 20 shillings to a £1.

If you know the address have a look at zoopla to see how much the house or similar ones are going for now.

[Lynn the Forest Fan]

Thanks, that makes sense. According to the conversion site, that was nearly £45,000. The last time the house was sold, that I can find was in 2011 and it went for £289,000! Mum told me that they paid ground rent and that it was part of the Lascelles estate although I can't confirm that. The house was in Caithness Road, Mitcham

[Olde Crone]

I thought Probate records showed the gross value and the net value of an estate? Or does that only apply to the ones published in newspapers?

OC

[Lynn the Forest Fan]

There was only one value shown

[JayG]

I thought Probate records showed the gross value and the net value of an estate? Or does that only apply to the ones published in newspapers?

OC

The actual probate document does as far as I know but not the index.

[Olde Crone]

So what value does the index show - gross or net?

OC

[Elderflower]

I often use this site for relative values. The latest date you can enter is 2014 but it gives a good idea of what an estate could be worth today. I always choose the results to be shown in table format as it's easier for me to digest.

https://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/

Pat

[Lynn the Forest Fan]

I think that is the site I used before :)