Brother not contributing financially now wants to force sale three years on

paddyz

What costs are you expecting him to contribute too? If it’s fixing up the property he might not want to and you can’t force him to do that either,  you really need to just put the property on the market as it is and as soon as possible as he’s made it clear what he wants and send him a copy of every bill so far regarding the house as he is equally responsible for utilities and council tax,  plus cost of removing parents belongings 

My advice is keep things as simple as you can and ask for estate agent to copy both owners into all correspondence so you are not shouldering everything 

charliemuppet

Thanks Keep pedalling, I'm pretty much onboard with all you say there but which two mistakes are you referring two,I get signing the property over was one but what would the second be?
And thanks paddyz,the cost I'm referring to are purely utility's,house insurance,council tax and such.

Savvy_Sue

charliemuppet said:

Thank you sue,but wouldn't a conveyor be unlikely to involve themselves in a family dispute?
Charlie

You're not asking them to get involved in the family dispute. You're instructing them to sell a house. You're instructing them what to do with the proceeds. Unless your brother counter-instructs them, there is no dispute. If your brother counter-instructs them, make sure he knows the consequences. If the conveyancing solicitor won't do anything but divide the proceeds evenly, then follow K-p's advice above. 

charliemuppet

Thank you Sue,I understand but what consequences are there exactly should he counter instruct?

Keep_pedalling

charliemuppet said:

Thanks Keep pedalling, I'm pretty much onboard with all you say there but which two mistakes are you referring two,I get signing the property over was one but what would the second be?
And thanks paddyz,the cost I'm referring to are purely utility's,house insurance,council tax and such.

The other one was failing to tell you what they had done. Had you known what they had done you would never have employed a solicitor to handle probate, and you would probably have got the house sold a lot faster. 

Savvy_Sue

charliemuppet said:

Thank you Sue,I understand but what consequences are there exactly should he counter instruct?

I don't know precisely. If I recall, you are both named as executors and you don't yet have probate, without which you cannot sell the house. I don't know whether the conveyancing solicitor will require joint instruction (ie you both have to sign to say "yes please, please deal with the house sale") because you are joint executors. The ideal would be for your brother to sign something which says "Please sell the house and accept charlie's instructions in this matter." 

If you both have to accept any offer and sign any paperwork, there is a risk of it all dragging on, but the conveyancing solicitor does not, IMO, have to be 'involved' in the family dispute. You say yes to an offer, your brother says no or nothing: nothing happens. You say no to an offer, your brother says yes: nothing happens. 

If that happens, you (or perhaps your solicitor) write(s) to your brother along the lines of "I thought you were keen to sell the house, I'm keen to sell the house, every time a sale falls through it costs another £X000, every month we don't sell it the utilities cost £Y00, it's already cost £Z000 and at this rate there will be nothing left in a year" and hope he comes to his senses. 

Keep_pedalling

Savvy_Sue said:

charliemuppet said:

Thank you Sue,I understand but what consequences are there exactly should he counter instruct?

I don't know precisely. If I recall, you are both named as executors and you don't yet have probate, without which you cannot sell the house. I don't know whether the conveyancing solicitor will require joint instruction (ie you both have to sign to say "yes please, please deal with the house sale") because you are joint executors. The ideal would be for your brother to sign something which says "Please sell the house and accept charlie's instructions in this matter." 

If you both have to accept any offer and sign any paperwork, there is a risk of it all dragging on, but the conveyancing solicitor does not, IMO, have to be 'involved' in the family dispute. You say yes to an offer, your brother says no or nothing: nothing happens. You say no to an offer, your brother says yes: nothing happens. 

If that happens, you (or perhaps your solicitor) write(s) to your brother along the lines of "I thought you were keen to sell the house, I'm keen to sell the house, every time a sale falls through it costs another £X000, every month we don't sell it the utilities cost £Y00, it's already cost £Z000 and at this rate there will be nothing left in a year" and hope he comes to his senses. 

But the house is not part of the estate, which consists of just a small amount of cash, so probate not required..

iloveraindrops

The property was turned over to two brothers

xylophone

I don't know precisely. If I recall, you are both named as executors and you don't yet have probate, without which you cannot sell the house.

I think there is some confusion here.

The OP and his brother legally and beneficially own the property. It was signed over to them seventeen years ago, which was fourteen years before either parent died. They do not need probate to sell their own property.

All that is left in the estate of his father (the second to die) is a couple of thousand pounds - the bank is likely to release this to the OP and his brother on presentation of the death certificate.

The OP (and presumably his brother) were unaware that they owned the property because their parents didn't tell them.

For the past three years, the OP has been paying to maintain the property - it seems that his brother more or less vanished off the scene after the father's funeral.

The brother  now wishes to sell the property which is just the job.

But, the OP in fairness is owed more than half of the sale proceeds because of the expense to which he has been put in respect of the property over the last three years.

One would hope that the brother would agree this with the solicitor acting on behalf of the brothers in the sale.

If he doesn't, then as an earlier poster said, once the property has been sold and the OP receives some cash, he  could make a claim against his brother in the small claims court for the brother's share of the maintenance.

Savvy_Sue

Ah right, I should probably stop reading threads late at night ... 

But presumably brother could sign something to say "I'm happy for charlie to get on with the sale", and a letter along the lines I suggested earlier might be helpful / needed?