Executors taking long time to distribute money

Durandal

Apologies if this is not the right area for this topic - couldn't find an obvious section for legal/probate.

My father died in June 2010. He appointed an executor to deal with his estate. The executors have been very poor at communicating with all the beneficiaries generally, but my concern now is that my dad's property was finally sold 5th September 2011.

The executors did not inform us of this. I relied on a local person emailing me to say that someone had actually moved in.

Following an email enquiry to the executors - they informed me that the sale of the house went through on 5th Sept 2011. In a couple of weeks from now, it will be 3 whole months since my dad's has been occupied and the beneficiaries are waiting for news and distribution of money from my dad's estate.

Is this normal? It seems odd to me that someone can actually move into dad's without the executors moving quickly afterwards, to sort out the estate.

The only reason expressed thus far for the delay was to submit final meter readings to the utilities - but the property was vacant, the gas disconnected, the water 'drained down' - so how long could that take?

My concern (apart from the poor communication) is that the executors are dragging their heels deliberately - perhaps to earn extra interest on the cash? If not, why so long?

Does anyone know if there are set procedures which all executors must follow - like a code of practice? Where can I go if I am unhappy with the service - or are executors a law unto themselves?

Thanks in advance.

Durandal

Emmzi

They could also be waiting for all the legal bills to be finalised. My solicitors bill took AGES after I had moved due to all the bits and pieces!

With interest rates the way they are it's really unlikely that's the reason for the delay.

I'd just ask them.

floss2

Have you actually been in touch to ask for a progress report as a beneficiary, or was it just an email asking them to confirm that the house was sold?

Savvy_Sue

Are these professional executors, ie solicitors, banks, accountants? Or private individuals doing this in their own time?

[STRIKE]TBH, probate can't be granted before the house is sold, and [/STRIKE]tying up all the loose ends after that can also take some time. [STRIKE]Once the forms are submitted to the probate office, you then have to wait for an appointment: 3 months doesn't seem so long to me.[/STRIKE]

Whoops, sorry, got it wrong!

getmore4less

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Are these professional executors, ie solicitors, banks, accountants? Or private individuals doing this in their own time?

TBH, probate can't be granted before the house is sold, and tying up all the loose ends after that can also take some time. Once the forms are submitted to the probate office, you then have to wait for an appointment: 3 months doesn't seem so long to me.

The house can't be sold without probate.

For a profesional that does not need the interview, if they have their act together with the value of assets they can get probate in weeks, a bit longer if not an excepted estate and needs IHT paying and HMRC go ahead.

I would be more concerned about the lack of communications.

How many benifitiaries are there, none of them want the property or any of the other assets.

Any income from the estate during administration belongs to the benifitiaries not the executors.

Do you have a handle on the assets and value of everything so you can check the executors have done their job properly.

Were there enough other assets to look at a partial distribution before the house sale?

SmlSave

It could be that there are some loose ends to tie up. Also they may be waiting for the inland rev to say if there is tax due to or from the estate - this can take forever! and u cant chase the inland rev up on it.

Some probate matters can take years to be sorted but if ur worried see if u can have a calm chat to one of the executors. If there is a solicitor dealing with the probate i doubt they would speak to u unless u had id to show who u r and a executor had okayed it.

(soz for typing, still getting used to tablet.)

poppy_f1

my mums uncle died in April 09, house was sold in Dec 09 but the solicitors dealing with the will didnt finalise the estate til the August 10
they didnt contact my mum once....unless she had contacted them in the first place....it was the inland revenue that was holding everything up

getmore4less

I think using HMRC is convenient excuse

If the assets are assesed correctly and the forms filled in properly the initial capital IHT assesment is usualy done very quickly unless they are concerned about valuations.

For my dad they turned around the final income tax return along with the 2 tax periods of administration in around 2 weeks.

Durandal

Thanks all for your responses - not sure how to respond individually to posts - do I press 'Quote'. The site is very busy and quite difficult to get used to. Is there a quick way to find my posts - without trawling through all the posts?

In response to the comments:

The executors are professional, not individuals.

I don't think the delay is concerning tax, the executors wrote to us earlier in the year and sorted that out - that was income tax, are you referring to other tax?

I have not specifically used the words 'progress report' but I have contacted the executors via email so many times - always professionally and courteously - clearly requesting a progress report by inclination - I used the term 'update' - same thing. Emails are ignored - this is my major bug bear.

I'm thinking a telephone might give me a clearer picture.

The estate value is modest - the house sold for £137K and dad had approx. £20K in savings. There are 5 beneficiaries - 4 children (including me) with 22.5% share and 10% to his church.

I did wonder about cash asset distribution when the sale of the house was not happening - but being a modest amount figured the executors would be unlikely to agree.

Re: interest earning on clients money. I realise interest rates are very low - but multiply small amounts of interest by however many clients you have on your books - could then add up? Not even sure what executors do with a clients liquid assets, whilst an estate is sorted out. It would seem wrong to earn any interest on it to me - unless said interest was used to offset admin charges.

At least my dad's executors (do I name and shame? It would be hard to recommend them) have a fixed fee - thank goodness.

Thanks all for your advice - I will get back if I require further assistance.

Durandal

getmore4less

Fixed fee will probably be the issue,

This estate will be bottom of the pile over other revenue generating busines.
probably worth a call from each of you to chase them up

Were any of you consulted over the house sale?

Look up executors year there may be something you can say to nudge them


£20k pobably was not enough to consider a distribution given an empty house that could have needed repairs.

NAR

Sounds like the issue will be a heavy workload, with limited resources to deal with all their cases. Though it would appear that there should not be much to do to complete in your case.