Advice re probate and sharing of estate

serbask

Hi, not sure iof this is the correct place to post, so appoligies if not ...

My grandmother passed away in June last year and left a will dividing evrything between my mum and her sister. My Aunt has a very dominant personality and seemed to cope better with the loss by organising things, so my mum wa happy to let her do so. However, two things are concerning my mum regarding the estate which I'm hoping someone may be able to clarify.

1. My aunt keeps putting of probate. Its been 7 months now and she is avoiding starting the probate process but we have no idea why. My Mum is planning to buy my Aunt's share of their mothers house from her so I assume it must be linked to this.

2. Her and her daughter seem to have come into quite a lot of money after claiming hardship, evidenced by Facebook comments regarding family trips to Disney land, new ipads etc. Could they have found an account, shares etc and released them without my mum knowing (lawfully or not). One comment on facebook was "how a peice of paper can change everything"

My aunt has always been devious and money obessed, and we have seen plenty of incidents where she has been happy to get one over on people. When her Dad died many years ago the very first thing she did was dismantle his bedroom looking for money that he may have hidden. As she was successful it was also the first thing she did when her mum died in June.

I'm not very wise on the whole probate and estate process so any advice would be great. Thanks in adavnce.

RAS

Who are the executors of the will?

julie03

if there is an account with less than 5k in it some banks release it without probate, as my uncle did this on 3 accounts of my grandmothers account

meritaten

oh dear - sounds fishy doesnt it? but it COULD be perfectly innocent! I would suggest that your mum asks her sister why probate hasnt been started as she is getting concerned. She could put it that she knows her sister has cashflow probs and she wants to buy her sisters share of the house to help out.
meanwhile, she could find out if the will has been proved. I believe that if she contacts the Probate Office - look on www.Direct.gov for details of the service and how to contact them, they can tell her if probate has been granted.
I wont comment on why your mum let her sister have complete control over this when her moneygrabbing ways were well known. she had her reasons.
can I ask if your mum was an executor of the will?

Hawkeye4aneye

If as just mentioned you contact your local Probate Registry there is a small cost involved but through them you can get a copy of the Grant of Probate if one has been issued. This will tell you who took out the Grant and the value of the estate that she has declared.

However as also mentioned if the value of the funds in the accounts are such that the bank/building society release these your Aunt could have collected the funds already.

The property side of things though can ONLY be done with a Grant of Probate and Solicitors will probably be needed to prepare the documents. I suggest you ask your mum to ask her sister which Solicitors are dealing with the transfer.

A couple of points about the property
1) Is the property insured? If so are the insurance company aware it is empty as this changes some of the cover available. It could be uninsured which means if a fire occurs your mothers' inheritance is worthless.

2) Has the Council stopped charging Council tax as they should have been told of the death which usually means it is free from death for a while. You only get so long though, the time period the council expect you to sell or transfer the property.

serbask

Thanks everyone.

The executors are both my aunt and my mum. There is a will but the company that provided it has gone out of business according to my mum but I have no idea what difference if any this makes.

The house is insured - the pipes froze over xmas they have paid out even though its not occupied.

Not sure what happening about council tax but I believe you get a 6 month pardon which should have just ended. Could this be why probate is being delayed e.g. if my aunt has not informed appropriate people.

My mum let my aunt take over as my mum is as trusting and as my aunt is devious. My mum is also not good at this type of things at the best of time and gets both confused and stressed over such things. also, as their mother had died my mum thought that there is no way her own sister would deceive her as they were both devastated, but obviously time is a healer and money is a temptation.

SailorSam

The 6mth pardon by the Council isn't set in iron, i think the reasoning behind it is to stop landlords leaving property empty.
When my Mum died it took a lot more than 6mths to sort things out, i went into the local Council offices to tell them how things were going and they said as long as the property was empty (had no furniture in), so it was definitely not being lived in, they'd extend it until 12mths.

meritaten

thanks for the update Serbask! ok............so your mum is co-executor which SHOULD mean that her signature is required on all documents relating to the estate. UNLESS she relinquished the role in writing. She could in fact, do this by appointing someone (YOU) as her representative. my mum did this when her sister died as she was unwell and couldnt do it. The fact that the will writing company has gone out of business, matters not one bit! its the will that matters!!!
I dont want to speculate too much here - it could just be that your aunt hasnt finalised matters yet. but not to say anything is strange.
I am feeling a bit uneasy about this - I suspect you do too...........perhaps your mum would prefer YOU to deal with things? if you are prepared to that is?
I cannot imagine that your aunt hasnt at least set the wheels in motion. your mum is perfectly entitled to ask whats been done and to see any documents relating to

paddy's_mum

In your mother's shoes, I would be speaking to Aunty along the lines of "what's happening, please" and if no satisfactory answers are received, my next move would be a letter clearly stating that if no evidence of matters being moved along (eg letters/forms from the bank, the local authority, the Probate Office etc) was produced within 30 days I would be putting the whole matter into the hands of a solicitor.

If Aunty is finding the whole palaver too daunting or upsetting, such a move could come as a relief to her and any legal fees come out of the deceased's estate, not your Mum's pocket.

If, on the other hand, Aunty is up to no good, the threat might frighten her into hurrying things along to avoid too many awkward questions being asked.

Your Mum might have to kiss goodbye to some cash if Aunty did find and appropriate a little stash in the house but in terms of the overall picture, getting the whole business settled and finished should be something of a relief. Good luck.