Contents of your mother’s safety deposit box may stay a mystery

Ms D.M. writes: I need your help with an ongoing problem that I am having with Barclays. Staff are insisting that I obtain a grant of probate for my deceased mother’s estate, as the bank has a safety deposit box in her name. My mother left no money, and my father has only limited funds. I was told at first that probate was not needed if the contents of the box were worth less than £50,000, but then I was told that, as Barclays does not know what is in the box, probate is definitely needed.

THIS is a tricky situation as you have no way of knowing what the contents of the safety deposit box might be worth. And Barclays’ own rules about the value of items it will hand over without probate are not the same as the less generous limits that apply to probate fees.

The knock-on effect of this is that the solicitors who are the executors of the will might be charged hundreds of pounds in probate fees if the contents are valuable, or nothing at all if the contents are worth no more than £5,000. And this is completely unpredictable until the box is opened.

In its decision not to let you open the box, Barclays is legally right. A spokesman told me: ‘We have every sympathy with the family of our late customer regarding the need for a grant of probate to allow the executor to access the safe custody box.’

This, though, is the only way the bank can respect your mother’s wishes, as she clearly valued whatever is in the box so only the people she named as executors, with a grant of probate to prove this, can claim to stand in your mother’s place and take control of whatever the box contains.