Executor has overpaid residual beneficiaries and wants it back

Beancounter1

A major firm of solicitors has admitted that it has overpaid the residual beneficiaries and so has requested a repayment.
Whilst i now recognise that this was unjust enrichment, I acted in good faith and made an outright gift to my spouse of half of it at that time, so could i claim a change of position and refuse to repay it?
The solicitors have offered a discount of £750 on the repayment as they made this error - but could i ask for more in lieu of a devastavit claim?

Keep_pedalling

A devastavit claim, is made against executors by beneficiaries who have lost out because the executors have failed to provide beneficiaries with their full inheritance, because they have disposed of assets for less than market value or have squandered estate assets during the probate process.

In your case you have been given more money than you were entitled to so I don’t see how such a claim could be made. Although you have gifted half your inheritance, the fact that it is to your wife should not present much of an issue in getting her share of the overpayment back.

Beancounter1

Thanks for the comments
If half of the estate has been passed outright to my wife surely I have no legal right to request it back to enable the refund to take place in full?

unforeseen

Possibly not but they have the right to request it all back from you. How you manage that is your problem, not theirs

getmore4less

Where was the error in the accounts?

Beancounter1

Thanks very much - I think it’s a ‘change of position’ defence, which could well avoid the repayment

Beancounter1

Yes and incompetence by the solicitors

gettingtheresometime

I take it you don't believe in karma.

Dox

andrew_hardwick wrote: »

A major firm of solicitors has admitted that it has overpaid the residual beneficiaries and so has requested a repayment.
Whilst i now recognise that this was unjust enrichment, I acted in good faith and made an outright gift to my spouse of half of it at that time, so could i claim a change of position and refuse to repay it?

Do you have a verifiable audit trail confirming that half of the amount you received was immediately paid to an account solely in the name of your wife? Could you have had any reason to suspect that you had been overpaid?

Change of position is a difficult defence to run successfully.

Beancounter1

Yes to the audit trail and no to the expectation that it was in error

Keep_pedalling

gettingtheresometime wrote: »

I take it you don't believe in karma.

Or have any morals.