Executor(s) not executing

Bigphil1474

Apologies if this has been covered elsewhere, but I couldn't find a similar thread.

The tale so far: My mum unfortunately died in May 2017. Her and my dad had 4 sons, of which I am one. They divorced in the 1970's and mum remarried and had another son - so mum had 5 sons.
Fast forward to last year, and she died after an illness. We had the funeral which all went smoothly. About a month after, I raised the issue of mum's will with step brother (SB) who I had been told had a copy of it, and also asked about any nic-nacs as a keep sake etc. He said he'd have a look through what he had in his garage and also see if he could find his copy of the will as he said he was an executor. Anyway, didn't hear back for a couple of months, and pretty much every other month since, I've had the same conversation. My other brothers have had the same sort of response, so none of us have seen any will or even been able to access any of her stuff - which has little monetary value, mostly old photos, bits and bobs.


Bearing in mind I've never seen mum's will, I am pretty sure that she would have had some message and or gift to give us all. A year after the funeral, and no progress, it got to the stage where it was the 4 of us against SB demanding that he provide a copy of the will. His response was pretty much that everything was going to his dad and we weren't mentioned in the will anyway, and we should stop obsessing about mum's will.
Fortunately, we did eventually get him to let slip that mum and her husband had produced mirror wills which left their half of the estate (which is mostly the property worth about £300k) to the other, on the basis that the property passed on equally to the 5 of us on the second persons death. Don't know the exact wording, but it was clear that all 5 of us are named as beneficiaries.


We managed then to find out that the will was being held by a local solicitors and contacted them in September this year. They told one of my brothers that they hadn't been informed of mums death, and that her husband was named as executor, and our SB was 2nd executor if 1st executor was unable to execute the will. We couldn't have a copy of the will only the executors. I sent the details of the solicitors to SB and asked him to let his dad know to contact the solicitors. A couple of months went by and no action.


So, a couple of weeks ago, the 4 of us sent a letter by registered post to mum's husband asking him to execute the will and gave him the solicitors details. We haven't heard anything yet (not holding breath).
So, the question is, if the executor has done nothing in 18 months, appears to not be intending to do anything, what is the next step? I'm presuming we'd need a solicitor to apply to have him removed as executor? Would that be reasonable grounds for having him removed.
The worry is that mum's will is going to be ignored completely. To be honest would have just liked to have seen it to know what she said about us all, but knowing that the 2 of them seem to be conniving to disinherit the 4 of us, its become a matter of principle now.
Thanks if you can help.

AnotherJoe

Get a solicitor to take action.

Flugelhorn

It could well be that as everything is going to your stepdad then there really isn't any need for probate / executor etc at present

nom_de_plume

Flugelhorn wrote: »

It could well be that as everything is going to your stepdad then there really isn't any need for probate / executor etc at present

To add to that there's a risk that stepfather could now change his Will in favour of his son only so perhaps best not to antagonise him.
What's the relationships like now between you all?

paddy's_mum

The child your mother had with her second husband (your stepfather) is your half brother not stepbrother.

I mention it only to help you to avoid creating confusion in the minds of your advisers in the future.

Good luck with sorting it all out.

Kynthia

So he's your half-brother? Plus you are only possibly beneficiaries once your step-father passes away and he is the beneficiary? So what actions are you waiting for that you feel haven't happened?

Mojisola

Bigphil1474 wrote: »

Bearing in mind I've never seen mum's will

Fortunately, we did eventually get him to let slip that mum and her husband had produced mirror wills which left their half of the estate (which is mostly the property worth about £300k) to the other, on the basis that the property passed on equally to the 5 of us on the second persons death. Don't know the exact wording, but it was clear that all 5 of us are named as beneficiaries.

It's possible that she has left everything to her husband and has trusted him not to change his will after her death and cut you out of his will or she may have left him a life interest in the property which means you will definitely inherit her share.

Bigphil1474

Thanks for all your replies.
Flugelhorn - we are fairly confident that it won't all be going to her husband, although we might be surprised by the actual will, but highly unlikely.
nom de - we only put up with him for sake of our mum. None of us have a good word for him to be honest. He was a mean so and so when we were kids, and hasn't improved any. We haven't actually fallen out with him, just none of us have spoken to him since the funeral and are unlikely to either.
paddys mum - yeah, not sure why I said stepbrother. Mind melt. He is blood.
Kynthia - the concern is that whatever my mum's wishes were, they might not come to light if her husband lives another 20 years and then his will passes the property on to his son (our half-brother). Far as I know it should go through probate given the size of the estate. Also, don't mind if mum left him everything, but would like to know it said that in the will. I also think that mum may had her own investments, as she'd asked my advice about some govt. funded savings scheme for old people a few years ago. Not sure what's happened to that, but I seem to remember she was talking about a few £k. We were all close with mum (all of us live in the same area apart from one brother living abroad), so I'd be shocked if none of us were at least gifted a keepsake or a bit of dosh towards a slap up meal at least. I'm pretty sure I was her favourite as well.
Mojiola - I think it's likely that she did the latter. Mum was pretty savvy, unfortunately not savvy enough to give us all a copy of her will. As it happens, I'm the executor of my dad's will, but he gave all of us a copy at the same time and we all know what's in it. Plus he keeps reminding us all cos he reckons he's ready to go.
Thanks for the advice, we'll give it a couple of weeks, then look at solicitors.

Flugelhorn

... the concern is that whatever my mum's wishes were, they might not come to light if her husband lives another 20 years and then his will passes the property on to his son (our half-brother). Far as I know it should go through probate given the size of the estate................ so I'd be shocked if none of us were at least gifted a keepsake or a bit of dosh towards a slap up meal at least. I'm pretty sure I was her favourite as well.
.

I am not sure that it would go to probate if they jointly owned the house and also if other amounts of money in the account were under a certain amount (depends on the bank etc)

also re gifts and keepsakes - the problem with wills is that people tend to make them and then put them away for decades. My in-laws got round to changing theirs when they realised that it still contained guardianship details for their sons (now in their 50's!). so any gifts listed tend to change and apart from odd items of jewellery, promised things may no longer be around or even wanted by the beneficiary.

TBagpuss

I don't think you would need probate if the house was held as Joint tenants, as it would pass automatically to the spouse. If it was held as TinC which would have to be the case if she set up a life interest and left her share to her children, subject to her spouse's right to occupy) then I think it probably would have to.
but this is something you need to get some proper advice about.

basil181

There is a risk that your step dad could change his will now or in the future, or re-marry, in which case his current will would be invalidated. If you want keepsakes that are in the house & to be kept in the loop about what is happening you may have to change (by that I mean fake) your attitude to your step dad & step brother. You & your brothers can share the burden but gradually you need to get in contact with them & play nice - don't always talk about wills but reminisce about your Mum & gently enquire about life events - you will catch more flies with sugar!
My sister was executor of my Dads will & we loathed each other all our lives but after Dad died my husband told me to suck it up & do this & I was able to get camera shots of the will etc & got lots sorted (photos & keepsakes) until quite recently but by then I had lots of info. It sounds horrible & devious & is hard to swallow your pride - only you & your brothers can decide if it is worth it but Christmas is coming so wouldn't hurt to send a card if you want to try.