Executors discover evidence of negligent activity of deceased. What to do ?

getmore4less

Protection of property is OK.

Going through the paperwork is OK.
(might as well do some sorting and boxing up)

Notifying is OK, just stick to "x has died"

Yorkshireman99

Fly_Guy wrote: »

Many thanks indeed to you all for this advice.

However, there is still a person at the heart of this - who is now a body in the hospital morgue, who deserves a funeral no matter how chaotic her final years may have been. There are also many neighbours who want to pay their respects.

No to mention a [rather dilapidated] house (ownership unclear), credit card debts, a current account, pension payments, utility bills, subscriptions etc.

Is the advice to just step away from the 'executor paperwork' or to do a runner and just ignore it all ?

Just walk away. Anything else could risk you being liable. The hospital will organise and pay for the funeral. If you instruct an undertaker you will have to pay. Just walk away!!!

jonesMUFCforever

It seems the house has never been registered so there has to be a set of deeds somewhere!
It has been compulsory to register house transfers since the 1980's so the house probably has not changed hands before this.
Whilst walking away may mean you lose whatever inheritance that may be due to - could you appoint one of those 'heir hunters' to go through the paperwork - sorry I have no idea of the cost for something like this.

theoretica

Fly_Guy wrote: »

We will seek professional legal advice [...]

This, in your first post, seems the best answer.

getmore4less

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

It seems the house has never been registered so there has to be a set of deeds somewhere!
It has been compulsory to register house transfers since the 1980's so the house probably has not changed hands before this.
Whilst walking away may mean you lose whatever inheritance that may be due to - could you appoint one of those 'heir hunters' to go through the paperwork - sorry I have no idea of the cost for something like this.

You are still due the inheritance, whoever ends up administering the estate has to pay out as per will intestate rules.

It could just sit there for a long time just locked up in the house.

The problem is no control over the costs.

There is also the issue that unless there is at least an estimate of assets finding a professional to take it on may be a problem.

If there are enough non secured assets then someone can take on the task and get paid before any creditors.

Even with insolvent estates as long as there is a clear asset that will cover the administration cost a solicitor will take it on.

Often where assets are unknown it means someone has to go through the task of trying to get an initial estimate.

getmore4less

If you feel a moral obligation to do something then I think you will have no option but to go through the house to at least secure any valuables and paperwork that may assist with process

If there is no will have you worked out who the residual beneficiaries are yet?

if more than one then they need to be engaged, many hands make light work of a house search.

What I would do is engage with a probate specialist(STEP) with the intention to probably hand over administration(to be paid out of the estate) or to use them when needed.
Get guidance on how much they need you to do before they will take on the job.
Also what you can and cannot do or say when dealing with anyone as you want to avoid intermeddling in the early stages untill the solvent status is known.

Are there any other people you could call on to help with the initial sort.
any family members that are time rich?

There are strategies to deal with mountains of what appear to be random paperwork that get an initial sort through done quite quickly.

How old are you kids, could they help?


one comment you made.

going through everything to understand what is going on would require many many months of detailed work.

Estates can take a long time and that is not a problem if you don't have a lot of time to work on this, another advantage of not rushing is it gives time for the unknowns to send letters to help build the big picture

I suspect that once the initial sweep is done a lot of things will fall into place quite quickly and can be broken down into sub group tasks that can tackled independently.
I do suspect this will need quite a bit of time

One thing that helps a lot with these sort of tasks is space.
If you did take it on do you have room where you can have everything needed all laid out at the the time so you can dip in out without having to get stuff out and pack away.

You are right not to underestimate the task here it could be very time consuming with the only reward being you did what you felt was right.

I think I would still do what I would call phase 0, which would be an initial pass over everything in the boxing up the paperwork and collecting any valuable and sentimental stuff for safe keeping.

Make a list of what has been found, take photos of stuff before it is moved as a reminder of where things were.

Make contact with the solicitor they worked with.
Engage with a solicitor with a view to them taking on the job.

Review the next step after the initial pass.

tealady

Hi. When you speak to the registrar ask about the "tell us once" service (details on the gov.uk website).
It means a lot of official bodies such as Council tax, benefits and state pensions can be dealt with in one go.
HTH

happyandcontented

Fly_Guy wrote: »

Many thanks indeed to you all for this advice.

However, there is still a person at the heart of this - who is now a body in the hospital morgue, who deserves a funeral no matter how chaotic her final years may have been. There are also many neighbours who want to pay their respects.

No to mention a [rather dilapidated] house (ownership unclear), credit card debts, a current account, pension payments, utility bills, subscriptions etc.

Is the advice to just step away from the 'executor paperwork' or to do a runner and just ignore it all ?

This paragraph tells me you that morally you don't feel you can just walk away.....so, given that, I would take the advice posted by those who say engage a professional to guide you and protect you from inadvertently doing something that will backfire on you.

Mojisola

getmore4less wrote: »

You can still do a funeral and pay for it or try to get a bank account to pay.

happyandcontented wrote: »

This paragraph tells me you that morally you don't feel you can just walk away

Arranging a funeral and sorting out such a mess (and potentially costing the OP a lot of time and money) are two different things.

Fly_Guy

Many thanks indeed to you all for your advice. Especially getmore4less. Very much appreciated.

We have appointments tomorrow to register the death, we have found a business card of a local solicitors office in aunties wallet who we will call, and have an appointment with a [different] solicitor to get legal advice. And a joiner is coming round to secure the front door. So hopefully we will have a better grasp of whats going on by the end of tomorrow.

getmore4less wrote: »

Protection of property is OK.

Going through the paperwork is OK.
(might as well do some sorting and boxing up)

Notifying is OK, just stick to "x has died"

Just to clarify - do you mean notifying people she was dealing with in a professional capacity or do you mean her current account, credit card, gas, water utilities etc ?

When telling the utilities is it ok to set ourselves up to take over paying her accounts or do we let them just cut off supply ?