Left The House In My Late Mum's Will But My Sisters Refuse To Sell It-HELP!

System

Mojisola_ wrote:

You could suggest that the will is varied so that you are given the £77,000 cash and your sisters take a larger percentage of the value of the house.
Clear deprivation of assets.

securityguy wrote: »

Clear deprivation of assets.

Yes it as as that would be less than my full inheritance if I don't sell the house.

The 77k is what was savings from my mothers bank account but that was left to the 3 of us, myself and my 2 sisters. And I can only inherit a third the same as my sisters can only inherit a third.
Which is 25k for each of us from the 77k of mums savings.

And I and my sisters can only inherit a third of the money from the sale of the house. So if someone buys the house for say the 364k that it is valued at we each get 114k which is a third.
As well as the 25k each from mums money.

Yes my sister will have to leave the house but she will get 114k plus the 25k the same as I and my other sister will get.

It won't be enough for her to buy a place but she will be able to rent a flat if she wants. So she won't be living on the street with that money.

As I am unable to work I won't get a mortgage because you have to be working to get that.

My mum could not get a mortgage when she moved from her last house to this one. So she had to buy her house upfront with the capital she got from the sale of her old house.

But I know that the 114k and the 25k I will get won't be enough for me to buy a place upfront as my mum did as a 1 bedroom flat would cost more than 114 to buy.Well it would here in London anyway.
As I am unable to work I won't get a mortgage because you have to be working to get that.

So I will have to carry on renting but given that the rent for my Housing Association flat is £149 a week or £7000 a year as it works out which I will have to pay in full plus my full Council Tax which is about £1200 per year.

That money could last me about 15 to 20 years. which is not a lifetime but will help.

My solicitor said that the only way my sister could stay in the house is if she buys her way out of my share-That is give me 114 which she hasn't got.
Otherwise the house has to be sold.

My solicitor told me that as a benefactor I have the right to make sure that my sisters the executors deal with the estate correctly in the appropriate or reasonable amount of time.

If they don't then I can take legal action against the executors but the solicitor said I cannot do that now. Because it has only been 5 weeks since probate was granted so it is too early time. And I have got to first give my sisters a time to put the house up for sale first.

My solicitor advises to give my sisters 3 to 6 months to get the house up for sale. And if after that time they have not, then I can take legal action.
But I don't want to wait that long. I want the house put up for sale now and for it to be sold ASAP so I can get my money.

nom_de_plume

annbarbs wrote: »

My solicitor advises to give my sisters 3 to 6 months to get the house up for sale. And if after that time they have not, then I can take legal action.
But I don't want to wait that long. I want the house put up for sale now and for it to be sold ASAP so I can get my money.

You do need to listen to your solicitor. It's far too early to be pushing for the estate to be finalised.

I can't speak from experience but I doubt your benefits will be affected at this stage and, at worse, I would expect you may have to repay some money but cannot see your benefits being reduced until such times as you have received your share.

In the meantime you could ask for an interim distribution of the cash monies.

silvercar

But I know that the 114k and the 25k I will get won't be enough for me to buy a place upfront as my mum did as a 1 bedroom flat would cost more than 114 to buy.Well it would here in London anyway.
As I am unable to work I won't get a mortgage because you have to be working to get that.

So if you are not working, do you need to live in London. I'm not suggesting you move hundreds of miles away from friends and support, but if there are no plans to work you could move to a cheaper area a bit further out..

My solicitor advises to give my sisters 3 to 6 months to get the house up for sale. And if after that time they have not, then I can take legal action.
But I don't want to wait that long. I want the house put up for sale now and for it to be sold ASAP so I can get my money.

You are being too impatient. Your sister has to cope with losing her home as well as her mother. It is quite normal for things to take months.

securityguy

annbarbs wrote: »

My solicitor advises to give my sisters 3 to 6 months to get the house up for sale. And if after that time they have not, then I can take legal action.
But I don't want to wait that long. I want the house put up for sale now and for it to be sold ASAP so I can get my money.

You can't and won't get the money in anything like that period. They have, in practice if not in law, at least a year before anyone will even begin to entertain the idea that they are being dilatory. The DWP cannot consider you to have had the assets until you have actually had them, particularly if you are not an executor (I suppose in theory they could argue that an executor should hurry up - I can imagine some might, for example, delay finalising an estate in the hope that they find work before the estate pays out, so that they maximise their access to JSA).

On the issue of deprivation of assets, the person who suggested taking the cash says they meant that you could take the cash now plus a smaller share of the sale later but coming to the same total, so it's not DOA. It's a possibility, although I can't really see benefit of it: £77k would presumably stop your benefits, so that happening earlier rather than later isn't necessarily a good thing for you.

Mojisola

securityguy wrote: »

On the issue of deprivation of assets, the person who suggested taking the cash says they meant that you could take the cash now plus a smaller share of the sale later but coming to the same total, so it's not DOA. It's a possibility, although I can't really see benefit of it: £77k would presumably stop your benefits, so that happening earlier rather than later isn't necessarily a good thing for you.

The cash wouldn't have to be given to the OP immediately. It could be distributed at the same time as the rest of the estate is settled.

getmore4less

Stripping this back the legal owners of the house become the executors, with the grant of probate, hlding the house in a trust with the three of you having beneficial interest.

You will not be able to sell the house without agreement or a court order and that is going to take a while as in months not days.

of the two of the 3 don't want to sell then that could make it difficult.

The other thing the carer/live in sister could do is apply to the court to have a bigger interest in the property as that was her home, a life interest could be the outcome of that.

There is another potential solution but you probably won't like it.

As a beneficial owner of the property you could(depends on the exact wording of the will) have the right to live there already so could move in.

I suspect that would not go down well.

As others have suggested the option for them to buy you out and have clean financial break would be they raise money against the house to fill the gap between what cash will be left and your share.

System

I have spoken to my solicitor today and I have asked him about some things some posters on here have said.

I suspect it is worth asking your solicitor whether your sister has acquired a right to continue living in the house.

My solicitor said my sister cannot do this a court cannot do this.

The other thing the carer/live in sister could do is apply to the court to have a bigger interest in the property as that was her home, a life interest could be the outcome of that.

My solicitor said NO she cannot unless my sister had bought the property when my mother was alive which she did not.

My mother bought the house and was the owner and it was my mum who allowed my sister to live there with her. But my sister did not own the house, my mum did so she cannot apply to a court for this.

There is another potential solution but you probably won't like it.

As a beneficial owner of the property you could(depends on the exact wording of the will) have the right to live there already so could move in.

I suspect that would not go down well.

No there is absolutely no way that my sister would allow me to live in the house with her. As I told you my sisters do not want anything to do with me and do not even want any contact with me.
If I tried to go round there to see them they won't even let me in the house and they won't even talk to me on the phone.
So there is no way I could do that.

The situation is that I want to sell my mothers house but my 2 sisters don't want to sell.

Sister A
Is single has no children and never been married. She was living in my mum's house with my mum and was caring for her before she died. And is still living in the house now.

Sister A does not want to sell the house because she does not want to move out.


Sister B

Is married with 2 children and lives in her own house with her husband and does not need the house for herself but because Sister A my other sister wants to carry on living in my mums house she does not want to sell it because my sister has said she does not want to leave my mums house. So she is siding with my other sister.

I want to sell the house because I want my third of the money from the house myself.
My mum has left her house and her savings to the 3 of us, myself and my 2 sisters in her will.
And we each get a third of everything.
So I own a third of the house.

My mum made my 2 sisters executors of the will and my solicitor told me.
That as executors of the will my sister have an obligation to deal with the property appropriately and in time.

My solicitor told me as a beneficiary I have a right to receive the estate. If my sister refuses to vacate, as a beneficiary I have a right of action against the Executors, my sisters, to ensure that the estate is dealt with properly.

My solicitor also told me that there is a concept of the Executors year. It is reasonable for me to expect to receive the money from your Mum’s Estate at the latest by the 1st Anniversary of her death. Which is November this year, since she died in November 2015.

But that depends on when the house is sold and if someone buys it by then or not. Obviously if nobody buys the house it could take longer.

And if my sisters do not deal with the property in a reasonable amount of time or are not handing things as they should and refuse to sell the house.

I can take legal action against them and my sisters can be removed as executors of the will. And the court can order my sister to sell the house.
That's what my solicitor told me.

The biggest problem is obviously my sisters since they do not want to sell the house and have so far not done anything about it.
But I think I have done the right thing going to a solicitor as I won't be able to sort this out on my own.

getmore4less

How long was sis A living in the place?

Was there any other dependency?

She can apply to the court they decide not your solicitor.

If as you insist you own part of the property you have a right of access.

If they hold their ground you won't see anything this year.

System

If they hold their ground you won't see anything this year.

Refer to my previous post which is what my solicitor told me:

My solicitor told me as a beneficiary I have a right to receive the estate. If my sister refuses to vacate, as a beneficiary I have a right of action against the Executors, my sisters, to ensure that the estate is dealt with properly.

My solicitor also told me that there is a concept of the Executors year. It is reasonable for me to expect to receive the money from your Mum’s Estate at the latest by the 1st Anniversary of her death. Which is November this year, since she died in November 2015.

No I might not see the money this year. As we may have to take court action against my sisters the executives if they ignore their obligations and refuse to sell the house. And all of that takes time to be resolved but the house will be sold eventually. But no one can give me an exact time as to when.

As my Solicitor said we may have to take my sisters to court to do it. And my sisters can also be removed as executors by the court if they fail to do their duty or obligations.

My sister has always been living with my mother before she died. Mum moved there in 2010. Before that mum lived in her old house which she sold to buy this one.

No there were not other dependents, mum owned the house and my sister who is in her 40's lived with mum. My sister has never married or had children. She has lived with mum and dad all her life, then when dad died in 2003 she stayed in the house with mum.

My other sister is married with 2 children but she has her own house which she and her husband own.

My sister who lived with mum until she died never had children, so she has no dependents.

Yes it's true that because mum left her house to the 3 of us in her will that I do own the property. But so do my 2 other sisters. We each will get a third of capital from the sale of the house but we can only inherit a third each not the full amount of the sale.

Meaning whatever the house is sold for example £364k will be split in 3 and we each get 114k. The value by the High Court is only a rough estimate of what we could sale the house for. If house prices go up value could increase or decrease.

Yes I probably could live in the house legally but my sister is in there and she would not want it. And if I did that it would cause a lot of problems because she would never let me live with her. My sister would never have me living with them. And I would not want to anyway.

RAS

What getmore4less is trying to explain is that even though the will leaves the property to be divided equally, the law may actually agree that your sister needs a home regardless of the will.

Does your sister work? Has she ever worked?