12125 Father Died With No Will....

Hello, I am hoping someone can help with our situation.
My father is an Italian citizen (so am I). My mother, father and myself live in the UK. My father passed away at the end of 2008. My mother and I found out that he had an Italian bank account with the proceeds of the sale of my grandmother's house sale after her death. Problem is, we have NO idea how to access this money. We have been left with a bank name and account number, and a note from my father saying "There is money in this account."
Has anyone had a similar experience and if so could you provide any help or direction for us? We have already contacted the bank in question and provided my father's death certificate and his marriage certificate to my mother. They said they need more documents, but still have not told us what those documents are. We are beyond frustrated, and, since we live in the UK, we can't just walk into the bank and sort it out. Thank you!

Category
Legal

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/11/2009 - 07:43

I'm sorry to hear about your loss and your problems. The bank cannot transfer the acount directly to you. In Italy, you have to do a "dichiarazione di succesione" within a year from the time of death. Notaries take care of this, whither there is a will or not. You are going to need different certificates such as death, marriage, birth, etc to prove lineage and entitlement. I would say it may be advisable to start contacting the nearest Italian Consulate and explain your problem. Have you registered your father's death with the Consulate? This will be a necessary step to start with.
There are some lawyers and notaries in the Forum. I hope they will be able to give you more advice.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/11/2009 - 12:22

Not only must you do the succession, but if your father died without making an Italian will his property will be divided according to Italian law - which in effect means that his Italian property will be divided between his widow and his children. without having the act of succession and paying the taxes due, you won't be able to access the bank account or anything else.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Sat, 04/11/2009 - 12:34

Many thanks for your replies. I have done some searching online today and see that without a will, the estate will be divided in thirds (my mother, myself, and my brother). Is this something we need a lawyer to do, or would contacting our local consulate (we are in London) be helpful?

We have absolutely no idea how much money is in the account. Could be 1 euro, could be 100,000. We've never seen a bank statement. I suppose that's the crux of the problem- do we hire a lawyer if there is really very little money there. Not really sure how to proceed. I will contact the local consulate next week and see where we can go from there. Thanks for the help!

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 04/20/2009 - 05:08

The bank will have to produce a letter confirming the exact contents of the bank account as at the date of your father's death, in order for you to make the declaration of succession. If you write now and ask them for this, they may be able to give it to you and once you know the balance you can decide whether to go ahead. You will need to go to a court official or a Notary to obtain the atto notorio which proves who are the legitimate heirs. This will need to be attached to the declaration of succession at the same time as paying any necessasry inheritance taxes. Then once you have completed the formal steps, once you provide a copy of the documents to the bank you will be entitled to withdraw the funds.

I hope this is helpful. Charlotte Oliver

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Thu, 05/07/2009 - 09:49

[quote=klaani;116028]Hello, I am hoping someone can help with our situation.
My father is an Italian citizen (so am I). My mother, father and myself live in the UK. My father passed away at the end of 2008. My mother and I found out that he had an Italian bank account with the proceeds of the sale of my grandmother's house sale after her death. Problem is, we have NO idea how to access this money. We have been left with a bank name and account number, and a note from my father saying "There is money in this account."
Has anyone had a similar experience and if so could you provide any help or direction for us? We have already contacted the bank in question and provided my father's death certificate and his marriage certificate to my mother. They said they need more documents, but still have not told us what those documents are. We are beyond frustrated, and, since we live in the UK, we can't just walk into the bank and sort it out. Thank you![/quote]

[COLOR=black][FONT=Courier New][FONT=Calibri]The situation is not complicated, but you need to know the Italian law to solve the problem. You need to carry out within 1 year after the death of your father some civil and tax fulfilments to avoid penalty and the payment of fines. After having completed this process you can get the money from the bank without any problems.[/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR]
[COLOR=black][FONT=Courier New][FONT=Calibri] [/FONT][/FONT][/COLOR]