My late father was signed off work 5 years prior to his death.
Due to his illness that eventually killed him.
He rented his house and had no savings except a 1/6 share in a piece of land that my grandad left him. This was jointly owned by others as was setup by my grandfather, his brother and brother in law.
min the seeds it says my grandads share passes equally to his siblings. One of which was my dad. 1/6 share.
Anyways. When my dad went to claim benefits due to being signed off work they refused his benefits initially due to this land share being worth more than 16000 threshold.
Eventually he was given benefits as the others signed something to say it can’t be sold. So he proved he had no income from it and couldn’t liquidate his part of the land as the others didn’t want to sell.
This 1/6 share has now been left to me as his son. Although there was no will I am next of kin.
My question is, will I need to do probate? And if so will this seemingly disregarded asset be reregarded upon death? Ie: could the dwp claim his benefits back from the estate? As it’s now being sold the land?
He declared it at the time? And he did eventually get benefits.
Probate usually means dwp look into it as our fears are they will take our inheritance back for benefits awarded to my dad before death as the land is now being sold? From his estate if we do probate?
