Scene setting.
A letter recently arrived at my Dad’s address addressed to my Mum (who died in 2014) from Ireland State Savings saying that as there had been no activity on her account they were moving it to Dormant Status.
Mum never had plastic cards of any description and every account she ever had had a book.
She stashed a bit of money £400 - £500 in the Post Office for emergencies, if something happened when she was in Ireland and needed to get home or whatever and she left the book with her sister who still lived in Ireland.
About 10 years ago my Aunt died and Mum went over for the funeral. She wasn’t in the best of health herself and before she went she told me about the account and said she was going to close it I remember it well as we had a hilarious conversation with her worrying that the Irish pounds she had opened the account with would be useless now Ireland had Euros.
That was the last time it was ever discussed and have no idea if she withdrew the money or not and have no idea of the whereabouts of the book.
There might be some money in the account or it could be a tiny amount of residual interest.
I have sent a copy of the Death Certificate to ISS and a letter explaining that my Dad is the the sole beneficiary and he is 90 with dementia and I have POA over his affairs.
Before they will go any further they want a certified copy of Mum’s Will and the POA.
I have both these documents but only one copy of each.
To comply with their rules the copy must be certified by a Postmaster, Doctor, a practicing Solicitor or a Commissioner of Oaths.
I looked in my Doctors surgery and they want £70 per document and online hasn’t been much help. I thought I had cracked it as the Post Office certifies documents for a small fee but they have a very small list of what those documents are (passports, driving licences etc) which doesn’t include wills and POA. I have no idea what a Commissioner for Oaths is.
As POA I am acting for my Dad in this and need to look after his interests and don’t really want to spend a load of his money to find there is less than £10.00 in the account.
I realise this will probably get a ‘tl,dr’ answer but would appreciate any thoughts
