Disbursements before probate

Can a person in charge of an estate pay expenses or bills before receiving the Grant of Probate from the court?

The answer to this question depends in large part on whether that person in charge is an executor or an administrator. If he or she is an executor named in a Will, then yes, it is alright to pay expenses and bills before receiving probate. In fact, in many situations it's the smart thing to do in order to avoid penalties and interest on amounts owing.

If the person is, on the other hand, applying to be an administrator of the estate, then he or she doesn't have the legal authority to do anything on behalf of the estate. Whereas an executor appointed in the Will derives his or her authority from the Will document itself, an administrator has no authority whatsoever until the court says that he or she does. An administrator-in-waiting is just going to have to wait, and the creditors or beneficiaries will simply have to be patient. It's not the fault of the administrator if the deceased didn't make a Will.

As I've often said on this blog, the question in law is generally not "can I do this?" but "should I do this?" Even where there is a Will naming an executor, it might not be a good idea for the executor to start paying bills for the deceased if he or she plans to renounce the executor appointment and let someone else handle the estate. It may have an effect on whether the executor is allowed by the court to renounce. While paying one or two bills is probably not enough to cause a court to refuse a renunciation, things get trickier if the executor is calling himself the executor and making decisions about the deceased's bank accounts while paying those bills.

Sometimes an executor uses his or her own money to pay expenses before probate. This can happen when estate assets are frozen while waiting for probate. If this should happen, the executor is entitled to reimburse himself from estate funds once he or she has access the funds. If the executor makes those payments assuming that there are funds, and it turns out that there are none, the executor is going to be out of pocket with no way of reclaiming the loss.