Administering a non-resident’s estate to secure infected blood compensation payment

We recently advised on the inheritance tax reporting and application for grant of representation in relation to the estate of a non-domiciled and non-resident individual. This individual’s estate was entitled to a significant compensation payment from the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme.

Whilst the deceased individual had lived in the UK for a long time during his life, at the date of his death he had permanently moved abroad. He had been settled at his home abroad for over 10 years.

The grant of representation in England was still needed to establish legal authority over the deceased’s English estate to include dealing with the collection and distribution of the significant infected blood compensation payment.

In order to obtain a grant of representation, the estate first needed to file an inheritance tax return. The inheritance tax return was complicated for a number of reasons including:

1. The international nature of the deceased’s estate and specifically ensuring the domicile of the deceased was investigated and declared correctly to avoid bringing the deceased’s worldwide estate within the scope of UK inheritance tax;
2. Claiming the specific inheritance tax exemption available to compensation payments of this nature which allowed the estate to remain free from inheritance tax entirely.

Once the inheritance tax reporting was completed, we then assisted in dealing with the grant of representation application. This was a complicated application under rule 30 NCPR 1987.

We successfully advised and supported the personal representatives with their inheritance tax obligations and grant application. This resulted in the personal representatives receiving the grant in good time and proceeding to finalise and collect in the compensation payment from the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme.

Please note if there are separate time limits for claims under the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme and specifically an interim compensation payment for an estate must be made by 30 October 2026. Please visit the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme’s page on the government website for further details. If you need a grant to administer a compensation payment under the Infected Blood Compensation Scheme, please do not hesitate to contact me to discuss.