Executor will not release details/copy of will

PasturesNew

Maybe she gave it to her because she was a good friend to her and she never saw her family (siblings were old too) - and didn't want the Govt to get their hands on the house if she went into a care home .... so figured it should go to the kind person.

Maybe it was a genuine proper decision; maybe they were just 'overly grateful' (my own elderly parent might have done something like that, left to their own devices)....

Many reasons it could have been done.

PasturesNew

noelphobic wrote: »

Only if your estate is above a certain value. Not sure of the exact figures off the top of my head, but I am sure someone will soon be along who knows!

Sky high rich bugg4h amounts. It's over £300k for one person now - and if that person's inherited from a dead spouse (say) then it's double that.... so very few people actually ever get to the inheritance tax level (unless you're [a] in a big house in London a posh/rich bugg4h [c] both of the previous).

Deep_In_Debt

I'm an Executor of a will at the moment and I believe the inheritance tax threshold is £325,000.

mistrey

Deep_In_Debt wrote: »

I'm an Executor of a will at the moment and I believe the inheritance tax threshold is £325,000.

That sounds about right to me. Still when you are talking property it's not necessarily that difficult to hit the level

Leighcote

The house value would have been around 225K max.

Thanks for all the advice, seems that I have no choice but to contest the will. However, I'll try to contact the executor again for a final time and see if I can get any response.

I can picture the scene now - I fork out some shocking costs for a solicitor and contest the will, only to discover that all has been left are some nasty home-knitted pullies and the moth-eaten stuffed owl!!

vax2002

Do not take their word !
Apply for a copy, if its not in probate the wills office will tell you.
A solicitor from Leeds was jailed just last week for this very type of fraud.

Mojisola

You can check up on the house ownership and find out exactly when it changed hands - https://www.landregistry.gov.uk/www/wps/portal/!ut/p/b1/04_Sj9CPykssy0xPLMnMz0vMAfGjzOKNjSxMDA1NjDwsjM3MDTxN3dyNDUNMjQ1MjPWDU_P0C7IdFQG9k5Tz/

whitewing

Isn't it bad taste to request a copy of the will at the funeral? If the friend got on well with your aunt (which one can assume), then perhaps she was upset and offended with these discussions of the house and the will.

I have never attended a funeral and heard anyone mention a will. Do families really discuss that at a funeral?

Savvy_Sue

Leighcote wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice, seems that I have no choice but to contest the will. However, I'll try to contact the executor again for a final time and see if I can get any response.

I can picture the scene now - I fork out some shocking costs for a solicitor and contest the will, only to discover that all has been left are some nasty home-knitted pullies and the moth-eaten stuffed owl!!

Honestly, why would you contest the will?

Tell me if I'm wrong about any of the following ...

Your aunt did not have close relationships with her siblings.

You have no reason to think you are a beneficiary of the will.

Neither you nor your aunt's siblings were being financially supported by her prior to her death.

Your aunt has a perfect right to leave everything she owns to whoever she likes: the cat's home, a close friend, her pet parrot.

And it will involve shocking expense.

Leighcote

Sorry, of course what I realise I have not mentioned in my post is the fact that the executor informed the siblings at the funeral that all 3 of them had been left some "bits and pieces" which was included on a list along with the will.

What triggered all these questions is the fact that since then, there has been no word from the executor and will not take any calls or respond to emails.

Our initial question was simply "thanks again for letting us know that we have been left some trinkets - could you please let us know exactly what these are and, as we all live overseas, how we could arrange to collect them or have them posted".