Can my aunt sell my nannas house without asking my mum

TripleH

With Estates, to avoid vast timescales required to complete all paperwork on selling a property (particularly if executors are all living far from each other), I understand there are rules enabling one to take the lead. However there are safeguards in place to stop that one person acting improperly.

Mojisola

bjwilce said:

The probate names my aunt and under that says power of reserved to another executor. That is my mother. 

As the only executor with probate, your aunt can sell the house and do whatever else is necessary to finalise the estate.

Your mother either signed the reservation of power forms without realising what she was doing or - would this be likely? - your aunt forged her signature.

minorman

Probably not worth arguing about as the amount is divided up between them  but tell your mum to be sneaky. 1. Make sure your aunt gets s*d all from your  her estate.  2. As a reserved executor your mum should ask for a detailed financial account once the estate is wound up including a list of all assets.  I had to do this on behalf of my mother in law who was ripped off in the distribution of her great aunts estate. The executor (a cousin) withheld the will and  "sold" the flat to his daughter for a well under valued knock down price. Other assets including gold jewellery and sovereigns were described as old coins and cosmetic jewellery .. again sold off cheaply to a family member. Etc etc.    I got a copy from the probate office myself and asked for accounts .  Developed into some very interesting phone conversations !  Ma in law decided  not to pursue it.   Pity, I like this sort of sport !

AdrianC

Thrugelmir said:

bjwilce said:

Yeah I do understand that. But was wanting to know how she could sell the house without my mum agreeing to reserve her power to the estate. 

Your Aunt lied. .

Option B. Mum signed without reading - or without thinking about the effects, because she didn't want the hassle.

greatcrested

bjwilce said:

My mum said she never got anything from the probate office. 

I'm not clear that the Probate Office would have written to the executer with power reserved. Does anyone know for sure?

The probate application form itself (linked in my previous post) puts the onus on the executer submitting the application to inform the executer whose power is being reserved that that is what is being submitted.

So mum may have had a letter from aunt which she filed or did not fully understand....

If the aunt genuinely never informed mum, then the application for Probate was fraudulant.

bjwilce

TripleH said:

With Estates, to avoid vast timescales required to complete all paperwork on selling a property (particularly if executors are all living far from each other), I understand there are rules enabling one to take the lead. However there are safeguards in place to stop that one person acting improperly.

We don't my mum and aunt homes are about half mile apart. 

bjwilce

AdrianC said:

Thrugelmir said:

bjwilce said:

Yeah I do understand that. But was wanting to know how she could sell the house without my mum agreeing to reserve her power to the estate. 

Your Aunt lied. .

Option B. Mum signed without reading - or without thinking about the effects, because she didn't want the hassle.

My mum never signed anything

bjwilce

greatcrested said:

bjwilce said:

My mum said she never got anything from the probate office. 

I'm not clear that the Probate Office would have written to the executer with power reserved. Does anyone know for sure?

The probate application form itself (linked in my previous post) puts the onus on the executer submitting the application to inform the executer whose power is being reserved that that is what is being submitted.

So mum may have had a letter from aunt which she filed or did not fully understand....

If the aunt genuinely never informed mum, then the application for Probate was fraudulant.

My mum knew my aunt applied for probate but was never told her power was reserved until now. 

greatcrested

bjwilce said:

AdrianC said:

Thrugelmir said:

bjwilce said:

Yeah I do understand that. But was wanting to know how she could sell the house without my mum agreeing to reserve her power to the estate. 

Your Aunt lied. .

Option B. Mum signed without reading - or without thinking about the effects, because she didn't want the hassle.

My mum never signed anything

See my post above!

And read the relevant section of the Probate application form.

GDB2222

bjwilce said:

greatcrested said:

bjwilce said:

My mum said she never got anything from the probate office. 

I'm not clear that the Probate Office would have written to the executer with power reserved. Does anyone know for sure?

The probate application form itself (linked in my previous post) puts the onus on the executer submitting the application to inform the executer whose power is being reserved that that is what is being submitted.

So mum may have had a letter from aunt which she filed or did not fully understand....

If the aunt genuinely never informed mum, then the application for Probate was fraudulant.

My mum knew my aunt applied for probate but was never told her power was reserved until now. 

I think you are maybe making too big a thing of this, as you’re naturally defensive of your mum. She and her sister have had a lifetime to get along together and they must know each other pretty well. If mum's sister said she was applying for probate then your mum probably understood that her sister meant she was applying in her own name.  There’s no point making a big deal of it.

Bear in mind that if your mum wants to start acting properly as a co-executor, that’s an awful lot of work. She needs to turn up for every meeting with every estate agent, keep all the books completely accurately,  etc. It’s no good letting sister do all the work and then wanting to veto everything sister has arranged at the last minute. 

It’s a mug's game being executor, with loads of work and no thanks, and your mum should be grateful her sister is prepared to take it on.