Will storage

I have a copy at home but the original is stored securely and it was a very reasonable one-off fee. My children have the letter telling them the location.

Pittcity

You can store your will with the Government probate service for a one off fee of £20.
You get a certificate for your executors to produce.

i think this should be the norm.
every will to be stored there, originals.
copies with whoever wished.
then if a later will turns up, or someone claims as next of kin, that would be invalid if original will is found in official storage.
i know one can do this at the moment, and a search is made there, but it's not compulsory.
someone may make their will and leave it in their desk.
greedy cousin turns up , burns will, claims estate.

Thanks again, all.
As I hoped - good advice and personal experience.
I appreciate it.

My advice is to only to keep a copy of the executed will at home, endorsed with the details of where the original is lodged with the storage reference number if available. Fire proof boxes can be stolen (I.e a thief might think there was valuables inside) and ordinary metal filing cabinets are not fire/flood proof. If the original will cannot be found then the deceased is likely to deemed as having died intestate, i.e without a will. The rules of intestacy dictate how the estate is to be divided up which may not be as the deceased wished and could even result in family disputes.

Pittcity that looks a good option I will call my local office and see how to arrange it.

Don’t put it into a Banks Safety Deposit box.

Your family won’t be able to access it without Probate and the proof of Probate will be in the Safety Deposit box.

That’s from a Which report.

You can store your will with the Government probate service for a one off fee of £20.
You get a certificate for your executors to produce.

No personal experience stoker, this Gov.uk document seems to deal with it though.

www.gov.uk/government/publications/report-a-will-is-lost-to-support-a-probate-application

Good luck with the decision making, as I said before in your situation I’d not be paying for storage but please make sure your Executors have a copy and also know where the original is.

What would be the consequences of loosing the original?

Ours are now at home as our Solicitor wanted to charge us a small fortune each to store it, now that they have moved in swanky new offices.
Am now trawling the web sites looking for a decent size fireproof/ waterproof box.
Both DDs know where they are though.

Mines in a metal filing cabinet and copy each to son and daughter

Mine is stored with a solicitor along with my Power of Attorney and I pay £24 a year but this includes no fee for any changes I wish to make. I've had the will for 12 years and changed it twice. I do have a copy at home.

Mine's at home in a fireproof box, and my daughter (the only beneficiary) has a copy.

in my example, the cats' home, or anyone not in close contact with the person, who is beneficiary, does not know they are the beneficiary.
they may have never heard of the testator.
in which case they will not know when if they die.
and a next of kin person has a motive to destroy any will they find which names anyone else.

yes but that only works if the beneficiaries know when the person dies and where the will is.
and that they are beneficiaries.
read my example above.
i presume it is my point that you say you don't understand.

I don’t understand.

If You make a will with a solicitor, they keep the original and you have a copy. At least that’s what I’ve done.

You pay for the service and there is no extra charge for storage as it’s in a safe place anyway.

i think this whole subject needs to be up-dated.
there should be a central registry where every will is stored.
then copies could be kept wherever desired.
the present system relies on honesty and being well organised.
suppose aged person dies and leaves total estate to cats' home.
distant cousin creeps out of the woodwork and goes through the house. is next of kin. finds will. reads it and burns it in the grate. claims estate, acc rules of intestacy.
there may be a will somewhere lodged with a solicitor. or not. how would solicitor know person has died.
it should be a rule that all wills are lodged with a probate registry, could be done electronically.
then no one could conveniently fail to find one in house.

We did ours last year and the solicitor keeps it at their office as part of the service. There is no annual charge so I think you need to look at that.

What if the solicitor retires or goes out off business
What happens then ?

Please, please, please make sure that somebody knows where a copy of your will is, especially if stored at a solicitors. Alternatively register your Will with www.nationalwillregister.co.uk.

We had a situation where someone died which we didn't know until their house was put on the market and we enquired at the estate agents because we thought they had gone into a home. We knew he had made a will leaving everything to my husband or his mother if she was still alive. The Government Dept dealing with intestate estates had not asked the 2 local solicitors if a will existed and there wasn't a copy in the house. They charged an extortionate amount for their lack of service even though the first solicitor I rang had a copy! Heir Hunters had noted that there was an estate so had contacted estranged family and they had charged a fortune along with an expensive solicitor instructed by the family who had spent quite a lot of the realisable money. The family then threatened to sue us for the time they had wasted for sorting things out!

my will was written by a solicitor for £100 and is stored by them for free. I keep a copy in my `dying tidy` pack

Your Will is the most important document you will ever sign, and I would not entrust it to anyone other than a local solicitor and certainly not a company who want £35 a year for storage. A Will has to be so carefully worded and the slightest error could result in your wishes being misinterpreted or even challenged. Your decision, of course, but I would be inclined to have the Wills re-drawn by a solicitor - off-set the cost against what you are being asked to pay for storage which I think is a bit of a con. I have never heard of a solicitor charging for this.

My Will is with my solicitor, ..copy in filing cabinet. Daughter (sole beneficiary and executor) knows where it is.

I had mine done by a solicitor. My daughter, only executor and beneficiary, has a copy and the solicitor is storing the original.

Mine is in a simple box file here at home and beneficiaries each have a copy. Sorted.

We got ours at home hidden away safely, and a copy with the solicitor that did it