I am dealing with an intestate estate of a gentleman who died in the UK. He was Polish but had lived and worked in the UK for 8 years prior to death and family say he was not intending to go back to Poland again and considered UK his home. They are not aware of any foreign assets and there is only one asset in the estate an insurance policy which requires the Grant to be released. Would I require further info to confirm he had a UK domicile?
The deceased had been married in Poland but had divorced in 2006. Therefore, the next in line to inherit would be his son. The family have supplied me with a Divorce Certificate which appears to be an original. It is in Polish so I will need it translated. I note that on the Oath, the Probate Registry simply require the date of the divorce to be stated. In order to satisfy my professional obligations that the divorce certificate is indeed authentic and akin to our Decree Absolute, would it be necessary to have the document legalised/ get an Apostille from the country of origin? Alternatively, would it be sufficient to simply get a certified translation of the document if the document is a ‘certified original.’ In order to find out if the document was a ‘certified original’, I would need to get in touch with a solicitor who is qualified in Poland who might be able to verify this.