Advise for dealing with executors that are withholding...

pixiescar

Hello!

My Dad passed away in January 2012 and the will has been very long and full of oddness.

Here's the breakdown: my brother and step-mom were made executor to the will. Myself and my sister and brother were the only beneficiaries.

I have not seen a copy of the will and don't know the details, only that I have been told that the final estate is to be split "three-ways".

Apparently, now (it has taken almost 3 years) the estate is closed and I am waiting on my share and the documents. I requested that the end of estate documents be sent to me for two reasons:

a) Halfway through the will my step-mom took out £3000 to cover some bills, that we all knew about. But then took out another £12,000 about 3 days later, which I only found out as I was having a conversation with the solicitor. She said that it was a "gift" which seems incredibly odd.

b) a friend of the family told me that my Dad had given her £60,000 before he died to sort out some problems with her mortgage and that she was supposed to have paid it back.

Now that the will and estate has been finalised (for over a month now) I keep asking for my share and the documents to be sent out and I keep being told "Yeah, first thing in the morning, no problem." Then nothing arrives.

My step-mom has finally called to say that she is sending everything tomorrow morning, but that she has to keep one document back as it has something to do with my brother and some housing insurance he is owed. This smacks of her trying to hide something from me.

I've asked the solicitors if I can get a final copy of the estate documents, but they said that they only work on behalf of the executors and that I will have to ask them for anything I need.

I keep getting stone walled and it is massively frustrating. I have had a feeling of mis-trust in my gut from the very beginning but I have let it go. Now that the will has finally been finished and they are still trying to keep things from me, I am worried that they are trying to cover up something awful.

Any advise as to how I can see the final estate statements? Or what I should be allowed to see as a beneficiary?

Any help at all would be great!

Crabapple

If you've been left a share of the Estate then you are entitled to see a full Account of it, detailing assets/liabilities at the date of death and income/expenditure during the administration period, and then showing how your share is calculated.

You aren't necessarily entitled to see all the documents backing that up btw, but can press for further information if things don't make sense.

If Solicitors are instructed to administer an Estate they should be preparing full and final accounts anyway, and as you are entitled to see them I would press this point if nothing comes from your step-mum.

You can obtain a copy of the Will from the Probate Registry and I would suggest you get that too so that you know exactly what your entitlement is.

Do you have any contact with your brother who is also Executor, or is he deferring to his(?) mother on this?

Mtl2015

https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills

You can get a copy of the will here. It says 10 days but it only took 2 days for me

pixiescar

I have contact with my brother, but without being rude, he can barely read and has a very hot temper. My step-mom has even said that he doesn't really read some of the things he signs over. He's also impossible to speak to and barely answers the phone. He also lives with our step-mom at the moment.

I've asked the solicitor if I could get a full breakdown of the estate, but she just keeps repeating that she works on behalf of the executors and that is something which I need to get from them.

I shall see what comes in the post, but if my step-mom doesn't give me all of the final documents, how else am I going to see if anything dodgy is being done?

i've just ordered a copy of the grant and will from the Probate Registry. Thanks for the tip!

I just want to make sure that everything is above board. Yet when the will supposedly was ready to finish in September, my step-mom asked her "solicitor friend" to go over the books to check that nothing had been missed. Now that it's finished I have been told that,...
1) The post office employee told her not to post at Christmas
2) That my step-mom's Dad is ill and she has been busy
3) That she doesn't want it to get lost
4) Now she has to keep some documents back because of something else my brother is owed.

When £12,000 was taken out over a year ago and I found out by a slip up form the solicitor, she tried to cover it by saying that it was going to be a Christmas gift...and asking why I didn't trust her!

All seems a bit like it was too easy for her to take money out as she pleases, considering my brother doesn't read anything and signs things whenever she tells him to.

I just want to make sure that everything was done above board and I would be incredibly happy if, after all this, I was wrong and just being a bit paranoid!

RAS

You should get a copy of the accounts when the estate is distributed. As a beneficiary you are not really entitled to the paperwork prior to that.

pixiescar

I have asked both the solicitor and the executors for a copy of the accounts now that the will and estate has finished. They have the cheque for my share, yet I haven't seen the will, any details of the accounts or documents and every time I ask for my cheque and documents I get blown off.

G6JNS

pixiescar wrote: »

I have asked both the solicitor and the executors for a copy of the accounts now that the will and estate has finished. They have the cheque for my share, yet I haven't seen the will, any details of the accounts or documents and every time I ask for my cheque and documents I get blown off.

You can buy a copy of the will online for £10 here.

https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/searching-for-probate-records

As a beneficiary you are entitled to a copy of the estate accounts. You should lodge a formal complaint with the solicitor through their complaints procedure. Don't take no for an answer.

Savvy_Sue

G6JNS wrote: »

As a beneficiary you are entitled to a copy of the estate accounts. You should lodge a formal complaint with the solicitor through their complaints procedure. Don't take no for an answer.

But can you complain about a solicitor's behaviour if they are not acting on your behalf, but on someone else's?

Would you not need to instruct your own solicitors to make that complaint, as it were?

G6JNS

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

But can you complain about a solicitor's behaviour if they are not acting on your behalf, but on someone else's?

Would you not need to instruct your own solicitors to make that complaint, as it were?

Yes you can. Solicitors are obliged too conduct their business in a proper manner. No need to instruct your own solicitor.

pixiescar

G6JNS wrote: »

Yes you can. Solicitors are obliged too conduct their business in a proper manner. No need to instruct your own solicitor.

As far as the solicitor is concerned in this case, they keep referring me to the executors.
I had a short conversation with one of them last night and they told me that they had to retain one piece from the documents they were sending onto me because of some housing insurance that had been paid. It's all very vague. And that there was something in there that I was required to sign.

So I won't be receiving all of the estate accounts this time.

I have paid for the Probate registry copy of the will as suggested and I'm just waiting on this. I guess I'll just have to see what comes in the post and if this matches up with the copy of the will.

If these don't seem to match up well, I guess I'm going to have to ask the solicitor for a copy of the estate accounts. If they refuse, I will have to lodge a complaint through them...I'm not sure what other options I have left.

pixiescar

G6JNS wrote: »

You can buy a copy of the will online for £10 here.

As a beneficiary you are entitled to a copy of the estate accounts. You should lodge a formal complaint with the solicitor through their complaints procedure. Don't take no for an answer.

I have received a copy of the grant of probate and will from the government forum and it doesn't tell me much more that the money is to be split between us three siblings and that the executors were changed to 2010 from my Dad's father and sister to my step mom and brother.

He was heavily alcoholic by this point, but I don't think I am able to contest this in retrospect.
I was told that the documents and cheque would be sent this weekend, but I have yet to receive notice from them telling me that it has been sent. So I am assuming it hasn't been sent.

If they don't send the cheque or documents at all, is there a way I can nullify them and get them directly from the solicitors?