Executors expenses dispute

barrytiptree

Hi

I am one of three executors on my father's estate. (Executors being myself, and my two brothers)

We have been granted probate and are completing on the sale of my fathers house.

One of the three executors (my brother) has put in around £400 in expenses for petrol
saying he drove some 100 miles to the house on numerous occasions to clear the property
of furniture etc. I can see no evidence of the property being cleared.

If as an executor I dispute the petrol expenses of one of the executors
can the third executor outvote me ?

Two executors against one (one being the person making the claim for petrol expenses).

Any help or advice much appreciated.

barrytiptree

All three executors are siblings.

Yorkshireman99

Your brother needs to provide proof that the expenditure was reasonable and provide dates and reasons. What rate is he claiming? Sounds like a real try on to me.

SevenOfNine

ALL income & expenditure should be properly accounted for & above board.

On the one hand I'd agree he should have receipts, dates, reasons, mileage etc, on the other I'm wondering what £400 is in the grand scheme of the estate assets I presume you 3 will be dividing equally (??).

Certainly not justifying his possible attempt to inflate his expenses, but is it worth falling out over? Really?

Only you can judge, but maybe if you listed every task/expense each of you has undertaken &/or spent in time & money, might that lead you to rethink the fairness of his claim?

There may not be an amicable outcome to this which could be a shame but sadly not uncommon. If the £400 is sort of a 'drop in the ocean', could you think about just being the bigger person.

Good luck & my condolences.

PasturesNew

£400, the death of parents, the sale of a house, distance.

In the big scheme of things, let it go ..... £133 of that would be his anyway if it weren't down as expenses.

People grieve in different ways...maybe he cleared some junk, but not a lot as he was too sad to face much alone. And/or, maybe he actually needs the money right now and did drive there/back but can't prove it.

£400 divided by 3 ..... house sale .... not worth it. Peanuts.

nom_de_plume

When I dealt with an estate I claimed mileage allowance rather than fuel and used the HMRC figure of 45p a mile. Given that cars cost much more than just the cost of fuel to run, I was comfortable with this.

Yorkshireman99

I tend to agree but just wonder what else he might have been up to such as removing valuable items from the house? Grief often turns to greed.

Malthusian

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

I tend to agree but just wonder what else he might have been up to such as removing valuable items from the house? Grief often turns to greed.

If I was going to remove valuable items from the house I wouldn't put in a mileage claim for it. Why hand my brothers evidence that I was in the house when they disappeared?

OP - tell your brother that it's not fair if he does all the work so the two of you will do your share of the house clearing from now on. Then make the equivalent claim for mileage.

Brighty

Did you visit the house yourself at all? If so, put in your own claim and get your other sibling to do the same. There, all square

barrytiptree

Hi. Thanks for the info. Yes my brother who is claiming Petrol expenses has already taken everything of value (cash / Jewelley) including a gold watch that was left to me in the will. It went missing apparently! Surprise.

Think I will be claiming for my visits also as I have visited but wasn’t aiming to claim.

Malthusian

I could tell you that you could sue your brother for the misappropriation of the watch / cash but you probably already know that, and unless it's worth five figures or more and he's walking about with the watch on his wrist it's probably not worth it.

I assume that the house proceeds is the part of the inheritance that really matters and he can't steal that from under your nose.