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P2P

Can anyone advise please.

My brother is the executor of my fathers estate. I stored items from my previous property at my parents which was still there when they died. He has locked the property and now changed the locks but left the storage area under the house unlocked and now items of mine have gone missing. The acting solicitor has advised my brother is responsible for the properties security but he has paid no attention to ensuring my property is secure and the solicitor has confirmed my brother knew this area was unlocked.

What can I do?

Keep_pedalling

Your brother is responsible for assets belonging to the estate, but you are responsable for your own property.

Yorkshireman99

P2P wrote: »

Can anyone advise please.

My brother is the executor of my fathers estate. I stored items from my previous property at my parents which was still there when they died. He has locked the property and now changed the locks but left the storage area under the house unlocked and now items of mine have gone missing. The acting solicitor has advised my brother is responsible for the properties security but he has paid no attention to ensuring my property is secure and the solicitor has confirmed my brother knew this area was unlocked.

What can I do?

What did the solicitor sdvise you to do? Your brother may have some liability as he is a bailee of your property. Have you attempted to secure or remove your property?

Yorkshireman99

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

Your brother is responsible for assets belonging to the estate, but you are responsable for your own property.

Wrong.! The brother is a gratuitous bailee and does have some responsibility.

martinthebandit

P2P wrote: »

Can anyone advise please.



What can I do?

It depends on the value of the missing items and what sort of relationship you have with your brother.

Bottom line is though, yes your brother has some responsibility but, they were your items so, at least a fair bit of the responsibility is yours.

Generally the most cost effective option is to suck it down and move on

Keep_pedalling

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Wrong.! The brother is a gratuitous bailee and does have some responsibility.

The OP stored his items in an unsecured location not his brother, he was also asked to remove these items over a month ago but failed to do so, and took no action to protect his own property in the mean time, so I still say that is down to the OP.

Margot123

OP, you made the erroneous assumption that your property (that you were/are responsible for) was locked away.

You also say "solicitor has confirmed my brother knew this area was unlocked". Did they really say that? Nearly every solicitor I know of would not make that sort of comment as they don't get involved in that sort of thing. Plus how would they know the facts?

The executor only has a duty to protect estate assets, not those left carelessly behind in a convenient storage facility by someone else.

Sorry to be blunt, but that is where your responsibility lies.

Yorkshireman99

Margot123 wrote: »

OP, you made the erroneous assumption that your property (that you were/are responsible for) was locked away.

You also say "solicitor has confirmed my brother knew this area was unlocked". Did they really say that? Nearly every solicitor I know of would not make that sort of comment as they don't get involved in that sort of thing. Plus how would they know the facts?

The executor only has a duty to protect estate assets, not those left carelessly behind in a convenient storage facility by someone else.

Sorry to be blunt, but that is where your responsibility lies.

Sorry but you are also wrong. You should research bailment that is a very basic legal concept. The basic principle in such a situation is that the goods should be given the same care as if they were the brother's own i.e. he does have some responsibility. The OP has some as well but has not said if he has taken any steps to secure or remove them.

Margot123

There in lies the issue.

Doesn't bailment require there to be some sort of agreement or contract? This appears to be a casual agreement whereby there is no proof there was anything in storage at all, let alone who was responsible for it.

I'd like to see how many successful claims there have been based on bailment with anything writing.

Yorkshireman99

Margot123 wrote: »

There in lies the issue.

Doesn't bailment require there to be some sort of agreement or contract? This appears to be a casual agreement whereby there is no proof there was anything in storage at all, let alone who was responsible for it.

I'd like to see how many successful claims there have been based on bailment with anything writing.

Bailment does not require a formal written contract. Gratuitous bailment is what you need to research. The most common time is probably when someone takes a car to a garage for repair and does not collect it for a while.

Keep_pedalling

Any agreement would originally been between the OP and his father, and providing the OPs brother did nothing to make the property less secure than they were previously he has nothing to answer for.