Lawsons

Solicitors

13 Bull Ring

WAKEFIELD

WF1 1HBMAG.mej.14 January 2015

For the attention of Peter LawsonDear PeterIn re Mati Lal Ghosh DeceasedI have mentioned this Estate to you before and I am aware that, very recently, you will have, or at least should have, received an e-mail from Roberyn Joy Marinas, who is a lawyer in the Philippines, retained to represent the interests of the children of Ms Maribel Dizon. Indeed, Ms Marinas has copied me into the e-mail which she sent to you on the 15 December which, hopefully, you received. The purpose of this letter is to put you fully in the picture.I am enclosing a copy of the Grant of Probate and also of the Will itself. You will see that I am the sole proving Executor although power has been reserved to Chris. It will be my intention to bring Chris into the equation very shortly once it is possible to commence administration of the Estate in earnest and that will be upon completion of the sale of the Deceaseds freehold property. Whilst contracts have not yet been exchanged, this is expected imminently with completion to follow very shortly thereafter and, hopefully, by the end of the month.

You will see, from the Will, that the entire Estate is to be held in trust for the four named children of the Deceased. All are still infants and therefore respective entitlements will need to be held in trust for them pending their respectively reaching the age of twenty one.

It is unfortunate that the Deceased never revised his Will since subsequent to its date, he fathered two further children with Maribel Dizon, namely, Mark Anthony Dizon born on the 22 May 2002 and Martin Dizon born on the 4 February 2004.

I can enclose copies of the Birth Certificates of each of those two children.

In the very early stages, I sought the Advice of Counsel since at that point in time I thought that it might have been possible simply to bring those children into the equation to be treated in the same way as their full siblings and half-siblings but Counsel simply confirmed what I feared and that was that this would not prove possible. It would seem therefore that a claim has to be made under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975.

/continued

As you will appreciate, it is essential that we keep down any costs relating to any litigation and therefore I would like to think that we could reach agreement and some very early stage and see that agreement incorporated in a formal Court Order.

I am not quite in a position yet to give you full details of the Estate although you will see, from the Grant, that the net Estate amounted to just under 500,000. That figure includes two bank accounts, two condos in the Philippines (one condo occupied by each of the two families) and the Deceaseds freehold property in Wakefield.

The probate valuation of the English property was 450,000. However, because when the property was eventually placed on the open market for sale, there were two keen parties effectively bidding against each other with a consequence that it has sold for a gross sale price of 525,000.

In addition to that, I have been made aware of the existence of an account of the Deceased, in a bank in the Philippines, which has about 1,000,000 pesos standing to its credit.

Both factors will mean therefore that I will need to deliver a revised account to the Inland Revenue which will mean that they will be expecting more Inheritance Tax.

In addition to that, there is the legal position of the Estate in the Philippines to sort out. I have retained the services of another lawyer in Manila and as soon as I am in funds I will invite her to sort things out at her end. I have already been made aware, by the bank in the Philippines, as to exactly what their requirements would be before they would agree to the closure of the Deceaseds account and it would seem that an application to the court will be required. I would imagine that the process may well be somewhat akin to obtaining a Grant of Probate in this country but exactly what costs might be involved, I have no idea at the moment.I am sorry for being somewhat vague with regard to the value of the Estate but it will not be for a few more weeks before I can give you exact chapter and verse but I will certainly do so as soon as I conceivably can.The Grant is dated the 14 October and therefore we have until the 14 April to sort things out by agreement without your having to issue and application so as to protect your clients position. We all know, however, how time passes by very quickly and I will therefore do my best to answer promptly any letters which you will be sending to me.

So far as your costs are concerned, obviously, those instructing you do not have the wherewithal to meet them from time to time. At the end of the day, I would expect that they will be paid by the Estate but, in the meantime, what is to happen with regard to your costs and whether, or not, it would be wrong of me to agree to pay them or, indeed, pay them is something which I would have to take under advisement.

Regards

Michael

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