solicitor, will, probate

wigwig

Anyone have any advice, there are 4 siblings all equal beneficiaries of my mums will which says that the estate be divided fairly.
The estate however is a farm, and one sibling wants to keep part of it as his share. 3 estate agents have so far said that to divide the desired part as a seperate lot would be detrimental to the sale, so the executors have decided that the only fair way is to sell the estate as a whole and divide the proceeds.
The sibling is threatening to appoint a solicitor to contest this, and trying to twist this into a personal vendetta, rather than a practical solution. He has to date not attended a single meeting with the other 3, or the executors, or the selling agent, preferring to fire off group emails.
We are obviously frustrated that this could delay the sale, and cost significant time and money.
If he appoints a solicitor, do we need to? If the executors have sought independent advice that selling is the fairest option does he have a case?
Thanks for any help, WW

amersall

hi there, i wouldnt have thought he would have a leg to stand on. if he is the only one to oppose this. the people who execute the will have the last say dont they? and your mums wishes must be paramount. good luck with this

gone4gold62

:rolleyes:hi also don't think that they can prevent the sale but what they can do is drag it out for ages just to be dam awkward .

localhero

The way I understand things is that this individual is not an executor, thankfully.

The executors will have a duty to carry out the wishes in the Will, according to the law and in the best interests of the beneficiaries.

If the advice they've received says that by doing things how this person wants will result in the majority being worse off, then they would be justified in proceeding with the sale.

After all, there is nothing preventing this individual buying the farm at market value from the estate and dividing it up and selling off parts how he wants.

I suspect that if he were to obtain legal advice, he would be advised that his hopes of success would be minimal and it would go no further (aside perhaps from a single cursory letter). Remember, litigation costs money - lots of it, and this itself may deter him, and so I wouldn't rush to engage lawyers at this stage. The executors must be robust with this person and not be bullied.

What concerns me though is this:

mums will which says that the estate be divided fairly.

I hope it literally doesn't say this, because what does 'fair' mean? This in itself is a recipe for trouble.

RobertoMoir

wigwig wrote: »

Anyone have any advice, there are 4 siblings all equal beneficiaries of my mums will which says that the estate be divided fairly.
The estate however is a farm, and one sibling wants to keep part of it as his share. 3 estate agents have so far said that to divide the desired part as a seperate lot would be detrimental to the sale, so the executors have decided that the only fair way is to sell the estate as a whole and divide the proceeds.
The sibling is threatening to appoint a solicitor to contest this, and trying to twist this into a personal vendetta, rather than a practical solution. He has to date not attended a single meeting with the other 3, or the executors, or the selling agent, preferring to fire off group emails.
We are obviously frustrated that this could delay the sale, and cost significant time and money.
If he appoints a solicitor, do we need to? If the executors have sought independent advice that selling is the fairest option does he have a case?
Thanks for any help, WW

I think you've had lots of good practical advice, but I want to add that you might need to consider things from their point of view - not to agree with them but to understand what they want and what they are trying to do.

This is personal for them and all the other members of the family, it's not a normal business deal, so this has to be considered when dealing with the people concerned. I don't know how long ago your mother's death was but people show grief and react in different ways. The fact that 3 of you might be able to consider dividing up the property from a purely business point of view now doesn't mean that this 4th person is ready to do so just yet. These things can take time.

Could they buy the property outright for 3/4 of the "fair market" value? This would be an ideal solution perhaps. Why do they want to keep the land they want? Perhaps they have an emotional attachment to that particular bit of land? Understanding why they feel the way they do and what they're trying to achieve might help move things forward.

As for not attending the meetings - perhaps you could offer to go and talk to them about their concerns by yourself and on their terms - if they know they're the only person holding a particular view they aren't going to be enthusiastic to go to a meeting full of people who disagree with them. I suspect they're worried (fairly or not) about being brow-beaten and bullied into agreeing to something they don't want to agree to.