Help about legal procedure and rights

missimaxo

I need some help about what should have happened after my mother in laws death as I believe the person dealing with it is not being honest. I have no experience of this.


My MIL died in August this year intestate. She owned a property as joint tenants with by brother in law, value c.£80-100k, mortgage c. £20k. She was divorced from my FIL and had 3 sons, eldest, middle (joint owner of property) and younger.


On her death the only known assets are balance in bank account £unknown, life assurance policy £5k, car £750 and aforementioned house. Known debts/ expenses funeral £3.6k, credit card £1.5k, house bills unknown (think they were all in her name!). I don't know if this make a difference but we only have a temporary death certificate at present and her inquest is this Wednesday.


Eldest brother so far has done the following:
1. Taken all paperwork from the house about all of her affairs.
2. Organised and paid for funeral on his credit card.
3. Cashed in life policy and used to pay his credit card debt from funeral (we have no issue with this).
4. Reregistered her car in his name, subsequently sold car for £750 and is supposedly holding £250 for my OH.


As for the rest he simply refuses to talk to us or provide any information. We downloaded the land reg document and confirmed house was joint owners not tenants in common. There is nothing registered on the government site about probate or letters of administration. At present no action has been taken about the house. We have asked for the following information:


1. Balance on her bank account
2. Exact details of all bills/ CC owed
3. Balance (if any) of estate.


Can anyone help me as to what legally he should or should not have done. With the value of the estate should LOA been applied for? If not what record is there that it has been administered correctly? Does the lack of "proper" death certificate so far change anything?


The ultimate plan is believed to be to sell the house and split the money 3 ways. I understand legally that it shouldn't be split 3 ways, that brother 2 is entitled to everything, but brother 1 basically dominates brother 2 and is "puppet master" so to speak. Neither have spoken to us for 4 weeks since we began asking for details. I would like to know what the legal situation is as we are likely to see them both at the inquest.


Thank you for any help or advice

getmore4less

Where does the joint owner live?

Yorkshireman99

missimaxo wrote: »

I need some help about what should have happened after my mother in laws death as I believe the person dealing with it is not being honest. I have no experience of this.


My MIL died in August this year intestate. She owned a property as joint tenants with by brother in law, value c.£80-100k, mortgage c. £20k. She was divorced from my FIL and had 3 sons, eldest, middle (joint owner of property) and younger.


On her death the only known assets are balance in bank account £unknown, life assurance policy £5k, car £750 and aforementioned house. Known debts/ expenses funeral £3.6k, credit card £1.5k, house bills unknown (think they were all in her name!). I don't know if this make a difference but we only have a temporary death certificate at present and her inquest is this Wednesday.


Eldest brother so far has done the following:
1. Taken all paperwork from the house about all of her affairs.
2. Organised and paid for funeral on his credit card.
3. Cashed in life policy and used to pay his credit card debt from funeral (we have no issue with this).
4. Reregistered her car in his name, subsequently sold car for £750 and is supposedly holding £250 for my OH.


As for the rest he simply refuses to talk to us or provide any information. We downloaded the land reg document and confirmed house was joint owners not tenants in common. There is nothing registered on the government site about probate or letters of administration. At present no action has been taken about the house. We have asked for the following information:


1. Balance on her bank account
2. Exact details of all bills/ CC owed
3. Balance (if any) of estate.


Can anyone help me as to what legally he should or should not have done. With the value of the estate should LOA been applied for? If not what record is there that it has been administered correctly? Does the lack of "proper" death certificate so far change anything?


The ultimate plan is believed to be to sell the house and split the money 3 ways. I understand legally that it shouldn't be split 3 ways, that brother 2 is entitled to everything, but brother 1 basically dominates brother 2 and is "puppet master" so to speak. Neither have spoken to us for 4 weeks since we began asking for details. I would like to know what the legal situation is as we are likely to see them both at the inquest.


Thank you for any help or advice

If the house is held as joint tenants then it now belongs to the other party. The house cannot be sold unless the pay agree. LOA may not be needed for the rest of the estate and in any case it is far too soon for the details to appear on the register.

Linton

Also the Life Assurance policy may well not be part of the estate. So when expenses and debts have been paid it looks like there may be nothing left. What makes you think the B-i-L has done anything wrong? There doesnt seem to be any money to be dishonest with. From what you have said nothing sounds amiss. There is no requirement to keep you informed.

TonyMMM

The temporary death certificate is not a problem - they are issued by the coroner in cases that go to inquest to allow a relative to start dealing with the funeral & estate. The actual registration of the death can't take place until after the inquest is completed, and is done by the coroner directly with the registrar.

missimaxo

Thanks... for clarification we have personal reasons for being suspicious and can't understand why if everything is above board he has refused to provide details like the balance of her bank account. For all we know there could have been a significant balance in there. He's also stopped talking to us since we asked the questions. Our view was that with 3 equal potential beneficiaries/ next of kin my oh should have been entitled to this information.

Yorkshireman99

missimaxo wrote: »

Thanks... for clarification we have personal reasons for being suspicious and can't understand why if everything is above board he has refused to provide details like the balance of her bank account. For all we know there could have been a significant balance in there. He's also stopped talking to us since we asked the questions. Our view was that with 3 equal potential beneficiaries/ next of kin my oh should have been entitled to this information.

It might be worth issuing a caveat so that if he does apply for LOA you will know and can challenge it.

sammy1234567

In cases where there is a will, (which is not so here) I believe only the executors are entitled to financial info, e.g sight of bank statements of deceased, but, just before distribution, the residuary beneficiaries would be entitled to see accounts. By analogy, maybe when this intestate estate is ready for distribution, the three main beneficiaries in the intestacy can get sight of accounts.
I believe anyone with an interest in the intestacy, or a professional, can apply to be administrator so if no one did so yet, there is nothing to stop one of the other siblings applying.
You could get some free legal advice from a solicitor using the usual 'first half hour is free'.