Co-Executor of Will Problems

dunstonh

Thanks for the update Fenris. Hope your mums health improves and yours too.

It is very sad but an all too common scenario. Relatives can suddenly change when they see ££££. Keep on guard as you have been and keep us updated as it is always nice to know the outcome of situation posted on the board.

Fenris

Another update:

Things have been pretty awful here. Of course, after finding out that Mum consulted a solicitor, Uncle spat his dummy out. I won't go into details because I'm sure you can guess what it's been like! He was specifically told to address all communications to the solicitor, but he called and e-mailed instead. As Mum isn't tech-savvy I've been first to see any e-mails he's sent and they're not the nicest. It's not outright aggression though, it's subtle unpleasantness.

I've always been the "black sheep" of the family and am used to being metaphorically spat on on a fairly regular basis, but in a letter he e-mailed over he's effectively accused me of stealing from my Aunt. He's not said it outright, but it's heavily implied and Mum was not impressed! It's all getting very nasty, so much so that he's basically ruined Christmas for my Mum.

Anyho, yesterday (Friday) Mum received a bundle of paperwork in the post. It's the Oath that needs signing. Now, this is what's really making me angry: Mum's solicitor told us he was contacting the probate people to get an Oath for Mum to sign here, getting her solicitor to countersign, which we'd then send directly to the probate team. Uncle was explicitly told this. So what does he do? Sends the Oath paperwork (which he's presumably been sitting on for the last few weeks!), unsigned by him and told Mum that she has to sign it, send it back to him where he'll sign it and forward it to the probate team. Why he didn't sign it before sending to Mum is anyone's guess.

He's determined to do everything HIS way, despite the solicitor telling him otherwise! I'm now convinced he's hiding something from Mum because this is not the behaviour of a man who's got nothing to hide!

I want to stop him funnelling the money into his personal bank account as, once it's there, we'll never see it again, I'm sure. I mean, if he won't let Mum see the paperwork she's entitled to see, there's no way she'll get to see his bank account!

So we're off to see the solicitor again on Monday to see what can be done.

I'll be back!

LHW99

Good luck, no real constructive comments to make, but so sorry for your situation at this time of year.

Fenris

Hi again all,

Haven't updated this thread in ages as, between Mum being ill, me being ill and Uncle making both of our lives a misery, I've not had the time/energy to update. Sorry for that.

So, here's how things stand as of today:

We had a buyer for the house! Notice the word had there? It's been another nightmare thanks to the Uncle from Hell.

The house was sold stc way back in April or May (sorry, I can't remember exactly when). But the Probate hadn't been granted, so we (and the potential buyers) had to wait a few weeks for it to come through. When it came time to sign it Mum did so at her solicitor's office. It wasn't until we got home and I read through the will I noticed it wasn't the correct will; Uncle had sent an older will though which had since been superseded with one dated a month after the one Mum and he had sent for Probate. Wonderful. As there was something in the older will that was removed from the correct, later one, we had to start the process all over again. *Sigh*

Once again, Uncle took his sweet time getting the paperwork sorted and it wasn't until mid June it arrived at Mum's solicitor to be signed, which she did on the Friday and was sent back to Uncle's solicitor on the following Monday. We waited.

And waited...

And better waited. (You see where this is heading, don't you?!)

It took him a further three weeks to sign and return to his solicitor!

By the time the correct Probate was granted, the potential buyers pulled out of the sale. Mum was, understandably, gutted.

Now, we knew that the buyer had gone though the usual steps of doing the searches and surveys, so we figured a reduction in the price would lure them back. So Mum called Uncle's solicitor late August to suggest that. Guess what we did then? Yup, waited some more!

Mum called today and, oh surprise surprise, Uncle hadn't responded to his solicitor's letter. I mean... Words fail me.

Thankfully the solicitor now knows Mum's an executor so she called Uncle for her. Apparently Uncle hadn't bothered to respond to the letter as he had been told by the estate agent that the buyer had pulled out for health reasons. Nice of them to to contact Mum, eh?

So here we are gain; Uncle is still being obstructive; won't communicate with Mum at all and now doesn't even respond to letters from HIS solicitor!

I've been reading that you can't just remove an executor for being a pain in the backside (shame!), but that you can if they're "wasting or mismanaging the estate". We feel this may be the case, due to the above and other issues relating to the liquidation of my Aunts estate. E.g, he refuses to lower the price of the house.

We thought getting our own solicitor involved would make him see that he has to work WITH Mum, but he's just carried on doing what he wants, when he wants, without consulting her; she's had to chase his solicitor and the estate agent to get any information; no-one's contacting her!

Mum just wants this whole thing over with now as it's been dragging on for so long and she's spent so much on her own solicitor's fees. Getting him removed may be the only way this thing gets wrapped up and we can all go on with our lives instead of this limbo he's put us all in.

I hope to get through to Mum's solicitor on Monday, see what he says about removing Uncle.

Until then!

dunstonh

Thanks for the update.

If the executor is failing in their duties then a petition to remove them is possible. A court order can be applied for to remove them.

However, before that is possible, you must first ask the executor to make an account of the estate's administration. They are required to respond to this.

Some of the most common examples of misconduct a court is likely to consider is when the executor:

is stealing from the estate
fails to keep accurate accounting records
does not obey a court order
wastes or does not manage the estate properly

Fenris

Hi all,


It's been a while since I updated this as, frankly, nothing's happened! And that's the current issue.


OK, so we employed a solicitor to get things moving. At first he was very helpful and things looked like they were coming to a close. However, when we got the Estate Accounts there were some discrepancies. And this is where things fell apart. To make a long story short, I've been doing all the detective work and our solicitor has basically been copy/pasting all of my info and sending it over to the other solicitor. Then they respond to him, he sends it to us, I do more legwork, rinse, repeat. This has been going on for months now!



To get things moving again I suggested to our solicitor that we request an interim payment, less a mutually agreed sum that covers the amounts in dispute. Last Friday he called and spoke to my Mum (I wasn't around) and it seemed that the other solicitor had agreed to this. Yippie! Movement!


Yeah, no.


Today we get a bundle from our solicitor and it's just the same stuff we keep getting! No sign of confirmation of an interim payment and only one concession to the dozen or so points we've been trying to clear up.



I'm at the end of my tether now. As I said, I'm doing all the work and our solicitor is getting money for doing practically nothing! Worse still, I've now asked about half a dozen times for fully itemised bills and he keeps ignoring those requests. He's also never around when we call him, it's always "He's in a meeting, can he call you back?" Oh yeah, so he can charge us for phoning! And that's if he even bothers to phone back. He won't respond to e-mails either.



My Mum's spent so much money with this solicitor now it's eye-watering. And we're no closer to getting any money. Lying Uncle is claiming all his expenses back from the estate but our solicitor says we can't claim all Mum's expenses back, so she's paying twice!



I just don't know what to do now, I'm going around in circles. Does anyone have any advice? Is it worth getting another solicitor? Should we just cut our losses? (I don't want to do this because it means lying out-house Uncle wins and that fills me with Hulk-like rage!)


Regarding our solicitor, is it wise to put in a complaint? I genuinely feel like he's purposely dragging this out to make more money. Either that or he's grossly incompetent! Either way, we're wasting money.


As always, thanks in advance for any advice.



Fen.

xylophone

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/for-the-public/using-a-solicitor/complaints/

System

Your poor mum - she can do without her brother's shenanigans. I hope that she is on the mend.

When Probate is applied for, copies of the most recent Will and any codicils have to accompany it, so if your mum was a named executor in the Will, it will be clear to the Probate Office who the executors are (or at least should it be clear).

It seems from your post that your Uncle has employed the services of a solicitor to sort out the Probate. I am beginning to wonder whether perhaps there was a previous Will, in which your Uncle was appointed sole executor, and your Mum was added by way of a Codicil or a later Will which your Uncle has now "lost". It seems odd that if your Mum was named as an Executor in the Will that everyone dealing with it seems to have overlooked that fact.

Do please keep this thread updated, as I am really hoping this ends up as a straightforward matter, marred by selfishness rather than out and out dishonesty and underhandedness for your mum's sake. It's heartbreaking when families fall out when they should be giving each other support and time to grieve.

I am not sure how easy it is to get an executor removed once the Probate process has started, but certainly ensuring that the solicitor dealing with the Probate on behalf of your uncle is aware that there is a co-executor who needs to be copied in on all correspondence is an absolute priority.