Intestate situation involving foreign relatives

doctorcrock

My British aunt(my mothers sister)was married to an Eastern European but both are now deceased. Their only child, my first cousin, recentlly passed away leaving no will. He never married or had a partner, nor is there a surviving aunt or uncle, so clearly, myself and other cousins in the uk are possibley in line for part of the estate value.

No one in our extended family know anything about my uncles family back in his homeland, not even his birthplace, but as he would be 88 now it is possible that a sibling may still be alive.

No executor has been appointed yet so I have been tracking down my uk cousins, which has cost me a small amount of time and money. However, trying to track down my uncles relatives in the EU could involve a lot of investigative time and serious expense. As they would have lived through German and Russian occupation finding documentation might be a problem.

My Questions are:

If I found that a sibling of my late uncle was still alive, would that person receive the whole inheritance, or would the fact that the money was passed down to my cousin from my Aunt (my uncle died first) mean that the uk would sill get, or share, the proceeds? My problem is that, if I did decide to be the executor, I could spend a fortune and many hours finding my uncles ralatives only to discover that I had no valid claim to the estate.


I am talking Scottish law here but I suppose the basics are the same as in English/Welsh.

Any information or advice would be appreciated.

HappyMJ

You can take the expenses from the estate you don't pay from your own pocket. You need to get an executor appointed before spending anything though.

Jinx

Scots Law and English Law are different when it comes to executries.

Sucession http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1964/41 the first page tells you who suceeds who. Can be a bit heavy going, these things are definitely worth discussing initially with a solicitor or law accountant who can make it much clearer for you. Laws of intestacy and Scots law are very clear on sucession.

System

HappyMJ wrote: »

You can take the expenses from the estate you don't pay from your own pocket. You need to get an executor appointed before spending anything though.

I wouldn't have thought that you could claim anything for expenses before an executor is appointed as you are effectively doing all the investigation for yourself and not for the estate (in the hope of getting something from it?)

Any shareout would centre on your cousin so it would affect both sides of the family

System

Unless you know that there is enough money in the estate to make it worthwhile (including the expected expense of attempting to trace people on the uncle's side) then I would just let the money go to the state.