Problems with a will

JennyJ29UK

Not sure where to post this but I noticed someone else had posted about wills in this forum. When I was 14 in 2002 my grandmother died and left me her house in her will, my parents asked what I wanted to do so I said to sell the house which they did, the sale of the house was £35,000 in 2002. I never received any of the money, I expected it when I was 18, 21 and finally 25 and still did not receive a penny. I'm told I may have left it too late to pursue a claim against the trustees but obviously I expected my parents to give me the money. I'm now 29 and still there has been no mention of the money, I feel like I'm being fobbed off everytime I ask them as they keep putting it off each year and saying once my mam turns 55 next year they will release equity from their house and give me the money but there's been no mention of it for months. I've contacted a few solicitors and they said I may have left it too late to make a claim. Has anyone been in a similar situation or has any advice?

74jax

A sub board off this Families Board is a Deaths and Probate board. I'd ask to be moved to there.

Keep_pedalling

It sounds like your parents have have "invested" the money in their own property, which they had no right to do, and they can't pay it back without selling up.

You now need to have a serious conversation with them and demand that they come clean on where your money went. It should now be way above the original £32,000. If they indeed put it into their house then that portion of house belongs to you.

If they still won't come clean then you should take legal advice and if nessasary take them to court for your inheritance. Not a nice thing to do to your parents but they have effectively stolen your inheritance.

tea_lover

What do they say they did with the money?

Keep_pedalling

The advice you had regarding being out of time to claim is wrong. There is no limitation where a trustee has committed fraud or for a benificiary to be able to recover funds, which IMO both apply to you.

http://www.mills-reeve.com/limitation-in-trustee-claims-07-20-2015/

TBagpuss

Were your parents the trustees? If not, the trustees may have acted properly in giving the money to your parents, it is not uncommon for wills to allow parents to give a receipt on behalf of a child (i.e. for the trustees to discharge their duty by paying money over to a parent, for the parent to look after for the child)

If your parents were the trustees then they still are, and the fact that the money has been invested into their property doesn't change that. Your entitlement is likely to be based on what proportion of the 2002 value of their house the £35,000 represented - e.g. if their house was worth £70,000 in 2002, you might be entitled to 50% of its current value, not simply to £35,000.

Limitation is compliated. Normally, it would be 6 years from
- the cause arising OR
- you becoming aware of it OR
- you turning 18

If you were not aware of the terms of the will and thought you were going to get the money at 25 (and particuarly if your parents told you that you were entitled to it then, rather than at 18 or 21) then it may be that the limitation for any claim would run from your 25th birthday on the basis that that was the date you became aware that they were in breach.

An alternative approach may be that this is a debt they owe you, in which case each time they acknowledge the debt the clock restart. It sounds as though they accept that they owe you the money, the issue is the timing.

I'd suggest that you look for a specialist in dealing with contentious probate, trusts and litigation and go from there. If you have not already done so, apply for a copy of your grandmother's will so you know exactly what it said.

pendragon_arther

Nice parents.