Distant relative - inheritance

Linkqq

Hello. My two brothers and I have been contacted by a company and informed that our Father's cousin has died without making a will. He has no children so we, along with eight other relatives will inherit. He told us that he would pass on our details to the solicitor dealing with this.

One of my brothers spoke to the solicitor who said that there was a property and also other assets, and that he has applied for a court order to proceed, it could take 3 to 6 months.

Obviously we know that it will all be done according to the rules.

Our question is What will happen to the house and personal effects. Will the solicitor arrange a sale or will he contact the beneficeries.

We did not really Know that this person existed. Our mother died when we were young and we were brought up by grandparents. Our interest here is family history. There may be photos, documents etc which could help us discover more about our roots. Would we have access to these. We do not know the other beneficeries either but feel it would be good to meet them at some stage maybe. Either before or after things have been sorted.

Yorkshireman99

Linkqq wrote: »

Hello. My two brothers and I have been contacted by a company and informed that our Father's cousin has died without making a will. He has no children so we, along with eight other relatives will inherit. He told us that he would pass on our details to the solicitor dealing with this.

One of my brothers spoke to the solicitor who said that there was a property and also other assets, and that he has applied for a court order to proceed, it could take 3 to 6 months.

Obviously we know that it will all be done according to the rules.

Our question is What will happen to the house and personal effects. Will the solicitor arrange a sale or will he contact the beneficeries.

We did not really Know that this person existed. Our mother died when we were young and we were brought up by grandparents. Our interest here is family history. There may be photos, documents etc which could help us discover more about our roots. Would we have access to these. We do not know the other beneficeries either but feel it would be good to meet them at some stage maybe. Either before or after things have been sorted.

The solicitor has almost certainly contacted an heir hunting company to research the family tree for him. Usually the companies are very keen to share the information so the relatives can, if they wish, meet. The solicitor will handle disposall of everything and the beneficiaries will end up with a cheque each. Expect it to take six months or more.

PasturesNew

If you want a chance to root through the stuff, contact the solicitor and anybody else you've had access to to find out who had the front door key and who has sorted out the contents.

They'll go in first and look for documents, to work out who the deceased was - and will keep documents/photos usually. But all the other stuff they're likely to call in a house clearance team and it'd be sold off and the cash added to the estate.

So, you might stand a chance of getting inside the house - if all of you who are to inherit can get together and present a united front you might even stand a chance of taking some of it if you can manage to all visit the house.

After all, who knows, there might be, say, a small vase on the windowsill that you recognise as being inherited from your grandparents' house/whatever.