Issuing summons - estate accounts?

missmuffet

My father died intestate (that's another story as I believe he did write a will), and my brothers have lied for nearly 3 years now and refuse to explain how my inheritance is worked out. They 'sacked' the professional probate firm without telling me & took over themselves but continued to lie about who had the letters of administration. They have kept no records whatsoever. All I have are the original probate figures, which are way off. I'm supposed to just take their word for it. We are talking of approx half a million pounds cash plus other assets. Can anyone give me advice on issuing a summons. I believe I have to swear an affidavit too?

Keep_pedalling

When you say the probate figures are way off do you mean they under declared the value? If that is the case not only would they be robbing you, they could also be robbing HMRC.

As a residual beneficiary they are obliged to provide you with a copy of estate accounts, if they are refusing to do this, it sounds highly suspicious, and you really need to take legal advice.

missmuffet

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

When you say the probate figures are way off do you mean they under declared the value? If that is the case not only would they be robbing you, they could also be robbing HMRC.

As a residual beneficiary they are obliged to provide you with a copy of estate accounts, if they are refusing to do this, it sounds highly suspicious, and you really need to take legal advice.

Yes, it looks like they under-declared to keep down IHT

getmore4less

Report to HMRC. with your estimate based on what you know.

Yorkshireman99

missmuffet wrote: »

My father died intestate (that's another story as I believe he did write a will), and my brothers have lied for nearly 3 years now and refuse to explain how my inheritance is worked out. They 'sacked' the professional probate firm without telling me & took over themselves but continued to lie about who had the letters of administration. They have kept no records whatsoever. All I have are the original probate figures, which are way off. I'm supposed to just take their word for it. We are talking of approx half a million pounds cash plus other assets. Can anyone give me advice on issuing a summons. I believe I have to swear an affidavit too?

You need to give more details.

getmore4less

it is important to understand the limitations of an inventory and account request.

Although estate inventory & accounts can be useful in many cases and are relatively low risk/cost, you will need legal help to make sure you get the court to order disclosure of the relevant information needed make further investigations.

It will then fall on you to analyse and investigate suspected deficiencies them making further representation to the court for details.

one issue is you have no authority to make requests on institutions for information so they can refuse that can make further investigations harder.

Failure of the executors to produce an I&A may be useful if you need to get them removed, I suspect in a case like this the court would appoint a professional then they would probably be embarking on a time consuming job obtaining new details(bank statements etc) of all known assets and then investigating the missing ones.

missmuffet

update on this situation. I obtained a summons and court date. However it was vacated as supposedly interim accounts were available. I do have the option to have the case re-listed if I'm not happy with the other party's correspondence. They did not provide any accounts as per my summons.

Well, I've not received anything from them since I received this notice from the court. In fact, they refuse (but not in writing). In writing they claim to have informed me of everything. Because they claim to have sent me everything, I am struggling getting this re-listed.

This just tells me they are/have been up to something but I'm being painted a troublemaker and money grabber.

Tuesday_Tenor

Just checking: I assume you received 'an' inheritance, that brother executors say, verbally, was you share?

Your suspicion is that the estate has not been handled correctly, and that they have defrauded both you and HMRC?

If correct, this is a serious situation, and of course they are going to avoid giving you the accurate information. They are not going to send you anything that will give you your case that money has been stolen. If they send you accounts that support their stance, you are no futrther forward.

I suspect that the only way to get past this impasse is to report the situation to HMRC, with all the ramifications of that (possibe criminal convictions etc).

I suppose there is the initial stance of threatening to inform HMRC, in the hope that they will suddenly re-jiggle the figures, and, voila, you get more money, closer to what you 'deem' to be accurate, in their need for you to keep quiet. But the tax situation will remain fraudulent. Nasty all round.

You haven't said what legal advice you have sought. You definitely need legal support if you are going to take this further.

Margot123

Tuesday_Tenor wrote: »

Just checking: I assume you received 'an' inheritance, that brother executors say, verbally, was you share?

Your suspicion is that the estate has not been handled correctly, and that they have defrauded both you and HMRC?

If correct, this is a serious situation, and of course they are going to avoid giving you the accurate information. They are not going to send you anything that will give you your case that money has been stolen. If they send you accounts that support their stance, you are no futrther forward.

I suspect that the only way to get past this impasse is to report the situation to HMRC, with all the ramifications of that (possibe criminal convictions etc).

I suppose there is the initial stance of threatening to inform HMRC, in the hope that they will suddenly re-jiggle the figures, and, voila, you get more money, closer to what you 'deem' to be accurate, in their need for you to keep quiet. But the tax situation will remain fraudulent. Nasty all round.

You haven't said what legal advice you have sought. You definitely need legal support if you are going to take this further.

Putting myself in your shoes OP, I would now have reached the point where I would inform HMRC of a potential fraud case.
Don't give the administrators any warning you are doing it, they will simply ignore you thinking it is an idle threat, just go ahead.