Justice CommitteeWritten evidence from Hugh Eddowes

Summary

1. This contribution is my story of obtaining Probate and settling the affairs of my brother, David Eddowes, who had disappeared, particularly of how to obtain Probate and then settling the Inheritance Bill due on his estate.

2. My brother disappeared in August 2002 from his home in Seaview, Isle of Wight. Our Mother had died the previous February and her Executors had applied for Probate which was received very soon after his disappearance. My brother’s half share in our Mother’s estate was left mostly in Trust for him, similar to our father’s estate when he had died in 1993. I and my two sons eventually became the Trustees for my brother’s Trusts. A few days after the last known sighting, I was in touch with the Police and soon after with the charity Missing People. Despite their advertising in Big Issue and with snippets appearing in the Isle of Wight County Press, culminating in a substantial article in the County Press 28 August 2009, no credible reports of his existence were received.

3. As part of the evidence for presumption of death, my brother’s doctor was requested to write a report about him in the quest for probate and he wrote... “In today’s parlance we would describe David Eddowes as having learning disabilities but his medical records do not reveal any such formal assessment or diagnosis. In plain words he was a simple man, competent to communicate in speech and writing albeit in clumsy and simple terms”.

4. Nowhere could I find any guidance of what to do about the affairs of a missing person, not even from the charity Missing People! Having sought and received legal advice informally from various sources, I waited the accepted seven years and then instructed solicitors to apply for a Presumption of Death. The Solicitors first assumed that they would be applying in the Family Court for a judgement of Presumption of Death but they then found the route via the non-Contentious Rules for Probate and eventually the Probate Office ordered that an application for a Grant of Probate could be made, 9 April 2010. There being no evidence available to apply for a more precise date, I was advised that the date of death should be taken as 13 August 2002. The application was duly made but this had to include HMRC’s receipt for the initial payment of Inheritance Tax as determined by their formal methodology. This required that interest was payable on this payment as from March 2003, being six months after the date of death. The Grant of Probate was duly issued on the 25 October 2010 on the basis of death being on or after the 13 August 2002. The payment to HMRC was accompanied by a letter from the Solicitor requesting that due to the unusual circumstances they give consideration to allowing the legal costs of applying for Probate to be offset against the IHT ( as mourning costs are in normal circumstances) and charging interest from the date of grant of probate.

5. The methodology and procedures of HMRC were that very quickly they claimed interest on the late payment of all due instalments from March 2003 resulting in my being charged an extra 34% on the basic IHT demand. In order to minimise further interest charges, the necessary amount of money was raised and paid. At that stage, HMRC read the solicitor’s letter sent several weeks previously and decided to allow the requests made by the solicitor. They eventually repaid all the money with a little interest, but not before their systems demanded a compliance check. This resulted in them having to check the value of a property as at August 2002 when they had already accepted the value at February 2002 when our mother had died. This just added to the delays.

6. The costs of a missing person to the relatives are not trivial. There are the search costs which may or may not be significant. Because of the rule that the property of the missing person can not be disposed of nor managed, I had to put my brother’s belongings into storage which cost over £9,000 and was considerably more than the they were worth. His money in the Bank could not be touched so it has not been possible to invest or get any return on it.

7. To answer your specific questions, I would say:

1.Does the current system work effectively? No!

2.How easy was it to find information to get started? I had to go to the Solicitors because the Internet was in no way helpful and even the Solicitors had to do a lot of research to find the processes they needed to follow to get “Presumption of Death”. Once these things were established there were no legal issues.

3.Does the current system create difficulties for families and, if so, how can these be resolved? These difficulties were:

(i)the inability to manage my brother’s affairs for the seven years; and

(ii)the associated costs as mentioned above.

4.What can we learn from the experiences of Scotland and Northern Ireland which have Presumption of Death Acts?

My understanding is that these set out definitive procedures to follow.

5.Is there a need for legislative or procedural changes in England and Wales? If so, what form should these changes take?

Follow the procedures of Scotland and Northern Ireland, except that:

(i)Inheritance Tax should be based on the date of disappearance;

(ii)no interest is due until six months after the date of the Application for the Grant of Probate has been approved; and

(iii)legal costs and maybe other costs should be allowed against Inheritance Tax.

September 2011