Probate & Wills Trust`s

Kibil_Cat

Dear Forum Members,

I am a novice Executor for both my late parents and hope the collective audience on this forum can give me some guidance on my situation. I am being very careful to perform my duties correctly but finding the legal costs mounting up when the estate has insufficient cash and only the property to cover debts.

I have already contributed significant finance to my parents for care costs and repaid the mortgage off on their property between the first and second deaths. I am not likely to be able to reclaim that significant sum without selling their home, which was not their intention and why probate was delayed on the first death as the second parent could not repay me this money. I am now dealing with a double probate, with the same problems. However they had mirror wills and it is intended that the property is held in a non-beneficiary trust for the benefit of their grandchildren. I am having difficulty understanding who is responsible for the ongoing cost of their property, utilities ect, as the trust is not yet in place and from what point in time ?. is that the date of the second death or the end of the two months and one day after publishing the death ? which will be May 2018.

I should be grateful they both made wills and that no tax is due on the estate but the few hundred left in the executors bank account will not cover around £10,000.00 debt of legal cost and utilities. As I will be one of the non-beneficiary trustees do I have to pay these debts from my own funds ?

I could sell my own home and move into theirs but I am not sure that I would have a secure position if the family change their view on not selling the house as both the wills dictate.

My negotiating skills are running thin with the utility companies who are threatening enforcement action for non payment of the utilities and I am not sure what steps to take next ?.

I would be most grateful for any advise on my situation please.

Keep_pedalling

The house will need to be sold to pay the dept owed by the estate including the dept to you for the mortgage payment (unless this was an outright gift by you to them)

I can’t understand how you have run up large legal costs without getting the basic information on how you are going to have to distribute the estate now that the bequest of the house is going to fail.

Savvy_Sue

Who's living in the house at the moment?

If no-one, what's the benefit to the grandchildren?

It may be worth speaking to the solicitors who drew up the will and getting some legal advice about a) what the intention was and b) how you can achieve it or change it!

Kibil_Cat

Thank you Savy Sue & Keep Pedlin... for responding
Sadly it is the Solicitors who wrote the will and wish to act as co executor that have sent the big bills, difficulty being first death/will places half the house in the trust anyway and I cannot sell half a house to pay the estate debt.

Recent ruling in the high court indicates that mirror wills have to be honored.
The house should sit in the trust and be rented to produce income for the trust and maintenance of the property. managed by the trustees, that was the intention of both deceased but I am struggling to achieve it.

troubleinparadise

If you knew the intention of the Wills (to place the house in trust for the grandchildren) I am unclear as to why you would have spent your own money paying off the mortgage, care fees, etc, when you knew there was no way of recouping those sums, and yet are somehow still trying to work out how to get your money back?

It was surely obvious some years ago that there was no cash in the estates, and that no provision nor planning had gone into the issues of maintenance etc?

I’m sorry, that is of no help to you, but perhaps a fresh set of legal eyes might point you in some sort of direction. What a can of worms...

Margot123

I think the situation here is that the OP looked too far ahead when paying off the mortgage and for the care costs.
The intention at the time was to preserve the parents' wishes as dictated in their wills, and not to deal with the situation in hand.

Many people make the mistake of doing this, mainly guided by the testator saying things such as 'make sure my grand kids get the house when I'm gone' etc. It is a difficult situation to be in when you have to deal with a loved one's emotions as well as finances.

The OP's actions at the time, although well-intentioned, may not have been the best for them personally, and now they are caught between a rock and a hard place.

Perhaps independent financial advice is called for here, rather than consulting the solicitors who are clearly making a lot of money out of the current predicament. They are only making the OP's situation worse.