Co-executor refusing to renounce role

Snooze

Greetings all,

Trying to sort out my mother's estate and I've come up against a problem which I'd welcome thoughts/advice on please.

Back story is that my both myself and my sister are named as joint executors in her Will. My sister hasn't had anything to do with her for well over a decade, didn't go to funeral and even provided an email upon request stating that she didn't want anything to do with dealing with her estate and was happy for me to handle it all.

It started off well as her estate value is not particularly large, but found myself needing a grant of probate to release funds held in an ISA and also some shares. I applied and paid for the grant but in order to proceed it needs her to sign the executor renunciation form. 3 forms later and a lot of excuses about "lost" forms despite hand delivering to her address I lost the plot with her and told her what I thought of her.

She has now announced that she has concerns about me handling the estate finances and distribution thereof and decided it would be better if "we" both appoint solicitors/probate agent and let them handle it all. I am 99% confident that this is nothing more than a delaying tactic as she didn't like the home truths she got told. It's also perhaps worth mentioning that she owns a miilion pound turn-over company and has absolutely no interest in the relatively small share of my mother's estate left to her so it makes no difference to her how long this drags on for.

The Will also states : "[me and her joint execs] if either or both of them shall die in my lifetime or be unable or unwilling to act as my executors I appoint [solicitor's name and location where Will was written] to fill any vacancy thereby arising."

I have spoken to the solicitor named in her Will and he has said that she cannot do this. She must either act personally in sorting out her estate or renounce her role by signing the form. She can't appoint someone else (ie. an independent solicitor/probate agent) to act on her behalf. He has also said that she cannot dictate what I do either, eg. cannot force me to appoint a solicitor/agent if I don't want to as I'm a joint executor. Is this correct?

He has also said that because my mother specifically named him if one of us is unwilling or unable to act then, he would have to act and unsurprisingly his fees for doing this are quite sizeable.

I have emailed the district probate office about this to ask for their advice but am still waiting for a reply.

What is the likely outcome to this going to be? If she won't sign the form and I don't agree to appointing sols/probate agent (even if possible) due to costs, what happens then?

Thanks.

Keep_pedalling

Your sister is being rather silly, appointing a professional will eat up a significant amount of the estate.

Best option is for her to agree to hold her powers in reserve, and let you get on with it.

Snooze

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Your sister is being rather silly, appointing a professional will eat up a significant amount of the estate.

Best option is for her to agree to hold her powers in reserve, and let you get on with it.

But she won't do that as she's decided that she doesn't trust me to handle the estate. How am I meant to "get on with it" if she won't sign the renunciation form? The probate office won't issue the grant until she renounces, unless we both go together but that is never going to happen.

getmore4less

Might be worth checking but she may be able to appoint a POA(even a paid one by her ) to act for her without impacting the estate value too much.

if the backdrop appointed solicitor won't do a deal where you do the leg work and they take a fee for the legal makes that option more costly.

Yorkshireman99

Snooze wrote: »

But she won't do that as she's decided that she doesn't trust me to handle the estate. How am I meant to "get on with it" if she won't sign the renunciation form? The probate office won't issue the grant until she renounces, unless we both go together but that is never going to happen.

What is the estate value and who are the residuary beneficiaries?

Snooze

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

What is the estate value and who are the residuary beneficiaries?

First question hard to say as there's a bunch of shares involved but roughly totals to about £40k.

The estate is to be divided 25% each for my sister and I and the other 50% between a bunch of charities.

What makes you ask?

Yorkshireman99

Snooze wrote: »

First question hard to say as there's a bunch of shares involved but roughly totals to about £40k.

The estate is to be divided 25% each for my sister and I and the other 50% between a bunch of charities.

What makes you ask?

I was trying to get a feel for how much it was going to cost you personally if you got a solicitor to act as executor. If you do get a solicitor to do it make sure you ask for the work to be charged on the basis of the work actually done rather than a percentage of the estate value. I am trying to understand her reluctance. What are the "home truths" she does not want disclosed?

Keep_pedalling

Snooze wrote: »

But she won't do that as she's decided that she doesn't trust me to handle the estate. How am I meant to "get on with it" if she won't sign the renunciation form? The probate office won't issue the grant until she renounces, unless we both go together but that is never going to happen.

Reserving power, is not the same as renuounciation. If you renounce it is final and you can have no further involvement. Reserving power allows you to step in a later date if requires.

If she wants a professional doing it all it is going to wipe thousands of what is a realively small estate. She can of cause appoint her own attorney to work jointly with you but that will have to come out of her own pocket.

She should also be aware that it is the executors duty to maximise the amount that benificiaries get, and charities have been known to aggressively pursue people who they perceive have deprived them of their full legacy.

Snooze

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

I was trying to get a feel for how much it was going to cost you personally if you got a solicitor to act as executor. If you do get a solicitor to do it make sure you ask for the work to be charged on the basis of the work actually done rather than a percentage of the estate value. I am trying to understand her reluctance. What are the "home truths" she does not want disclosed?

Just aired my displeasure about how she'd not had anything to do with my mother for over a decade and I'd had to look after her, travel to hospital at the other end of the country etc and now that she's dead she wants to make my job as difficult as possible instead of just doing as I ask and signing the renunciation as she'd originally agreed to do.

In summary, she is now trying to "punish" me and put as many spanners in the works as she can to make the job hard for me because she didn't like being told that I and the rest of the family are absolutely disgusted with how she treated my/her mother.

What solutions do you think the probate office will offer when they finally get around to replying?

Snooze

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Reserving power, is not the same as renuounciation. If you renounce it is final and you can have no further involvement. Reserving power allows you to step in a later date if requires.

If she wants a professional doing it all it is going to wipe thousands of what is a realively small estate. She can of cause appoint her own attorney to work jointly with you but that will have to come out of her own pocket.

She should also be aware that it is the executors duty to maximise the amount that benificiaries get, and charities have been known to aggressively pursue people who they perceive have deprived them of their full legacy.

Aha! I was not aware of this "reserving power" thing - thanks! Although I'm sure she will try to find a way to drag her heels over this as well, having done some reading about it this may be a way forwards.:)

Mojisola

Snooze wrote: »

The Will also states : "[me and her joint execs] if either or both of them shall die in my lifetime or be unable or unwilling to act as my executors I appoint [solicitor's name and location where Will was written] to fill any vacancy thereby arising."

I have spoken to the solicitor named in her Will and he has said that she cannot do this. She must either act personally in sorting out her estate or renounce her role by signing the form.

He has also said that because my mother specifically named him if one of us is unwilling or unable to act then, he would have to act and unsurprisingly his fees for doing this are quite sizeable.

Snooze wrote: »

What solutions do you think the probate office will offer when they finally get around to replying?

I think the solicitor has already given you the answer.