Executor Expenses

dosh37

I've seen some requests for information on this topic elsewhere but it seems a grey area.

In my situation, myself and my sister are the appointed executors. My brother lives abroad. All three will inherit equally from the estate.

However it seems unfair that me & my sister have incurred expenses acting as exectutors whereas my brother has none.

I know we are unable to claim for time spent (which amounts to a great many hours), but what about other expenses.
For example:-
printer ink
paper
stationary
stamps
telephone
mileage to/from the property, solicitors offices.
What about broadband expenses? I have PAYG broadband so it's not a fixed cost.
Suppose I have to buy a new printer or computer because mine stops working. Can I charge a proportion of that?

It seems to me that the executor(s) should be able to claim expenses in exactly the same way as business. Solicitors charge up to £200/hr for this service so why is it that family are expected to do it out of their own pockets?

Knowing what I do now about the amount of work involved, I would never agree to acting as exectutor unless a fee is agreed upon up-front.

thorsoak

You and your sister should agree a figure for administrative costs - postage, stationery etc - then deduct that figure from the final amount of the estate.

Had you employed solicitors your bequest would be down by £2-5,000. So you are already in pocket by doing the work yourselves - so that seems quite fair to me.

dzug1

You can claim for all those expenses (though a new printer would be pushing it) if you can come up with a reasonable estimate for them. I doubt if your absent brother will be too worried about it as long as it's not OTT

Many wills leave a sum to the executor for proving the will - I assume this didn't.

nom_de_plume

Items such as postage, stationary, mileage / fares, parking, etc. are all allowable expenses (current mileage rate is 45p per mile). Phone calls and the like are also allowable as they are direct costs. The difficult one would be putting a figure on things like printer ink, payg broadband etc. all of which do cost you money. In reality it's probably not a great deal and I guess a figure of perhaps £20 would not be unreasonable based on my own experience of being an executor.

As for the 3rd beneficiary 'unfairly' benefiting from all your hard work, that's the way it is. If you do feel so strongly about it you can try to come to some kind of agreement with him to send some cash your way for your time and effort but he is under no legal obligation to do so. It would be for him to decide if he wants to make such a gesture.

Mojisola

dosh37 wrote: »

In my situation, myself and my sister are the appointed executors. My brother lives abroad. All three will inherit equally from the estate.

However it seems unfair that me & my sister have incurred expenses acting as exectutors whereas my brother has none.

Knowing what I do now about the amount of work involved, I would never agree to acting as exectutor unless a fee is agreed upon up-front.

dzug1 wrote: »

Many wills leave a sum to the executor for proving the will - I assume this didn't.

I fully understand this - it's not just the actual costs which can be reclaimed from the estate - it's the hours that the executors spend doing work which cannot be charged for.

I think it's something people should consider when writing their wills. If you're asking people to do all the work involved, it's only fair to leave them something in the will to show your gratitude and appreciation.

hcb42

Unfortunately it happens - Four of us siblings all in the UK, and two of us did all the work (plus my husband, who took a week off work and emptied the house on his own).

We did both claim reasonable expenses including the occasional overnight stay from the estate.

Got absolutely no thanks for it either, just an ungrateful and selfish response from one sister and niece - but that's another story!

Charging a new printer or computer would not be on though.

madbadrob

The Law allows for non professionals to claim out of pocket expenses. These are expenses that you have to pay yourself and cover some of what you requested. Like another poster I would say printer ink would not be claimable because you cannot show the value of the ink you have used as a percentage of the ink against the cost of the cartridge.

I would stick to mileage, postage, telephone costs. Whilst stationary is claimable you again have the problem of costing how many sheets of paper were used what each sheet cost etc and wouldnt waste the time and effort with it.

Rob

dzug1

I would buy a separate pack of paper and envelopes for estate use - and probably charge for one ink cartridge if I had a thirsty printer