No will left and died intestate...now family has imploded!

endaf

thepurplepixie said:

MoneySeeker1 said:

Brother isn't a youngster then at that age.

I'm wondering if the background as to why brother was "living off" father so much might be relevant as to what his chances might be of claiming "financial dependency". Is he mentally ill/physically ill/of very low intelligence/or what?

Or is he just plain lazy and has been enjoying having a free ride to date?

At a very "practical" level might he try arguing he was a carer to your father?

Or maybe the father didn't want to live alone and the other two siblings were happy to leave the responsibility to the brother?

No i can guarantee it wasnt that kind of relationship, if anything it was my sister who helped him the most out of the 3 of us. (it was a daddy's girl, mummy's boys type of scenario if that makes sense!) 

xylophone

My brother and sister have stated that apparently my father had said verbally to them and 2 family friends who i dont know that he wanted certain things to happen after his death. Unfortunately he didnt leave an official will with those wishes though and of course each party has a completely different version of what those verbal wishes were! 

Irrelevant - there was no will.

Even had there been a will which set up Trusts, and an accompanying statement of wishes,  the Trustees  would not be bound to act in accordance with the SoW - the ultimate decisions are theirs under the Trust document. 

thepurplepixie

OP has your brother done maintenance on the property, paid for any improvements?  I know someone who did this in a relatives house and they did in fact get a larger share of the estate, I think it was because they could prove the property would have been worth less if the work they did hadn't been done.  They had some sort of legal thing on the house which prevented anyone selling it until it was sorted out.  The problem was that virtually the whole estate ended up going to the various solicitors involved.  

endaf

thepurplepixie said:

OP has your brother done maintenance on the property, paid for any improvements?  I know someone who did this in a relatives house and they did in fact get a larger share of the estate, I think it was because they could prove the property would have been worth less if the work they did hadn't been done.  They had some sort of legal thing on the house which prevented anyone selling it until it was sorted out.  The problem was that virtually the whole estate ended up going to the various solicitors involved.  

No, nothing like that, quite the opposite if anything, The house had become quite dilapidated over the years since my mother left and no money was put in to the property at all. Now to be fair my brother had made some small improvements to the garage that he was working out over the years. trouble is all parties had basically agreed that he could have the garage as morally we felt it was his but now that agreement has gone to the wind as he insists he now owns everything! Probably not relevant but its a large 5 bedroom house with outbuildings, 6 or so acres of land with a very large outbuilding right next to the house that serves as the "garage" which in a way would make it quite difficult to sell with him retaining ownership of the garage. Ive been leaving hints to both ever since the relationship between both of them started to go down hill that in reality it is best to sell the whole estate as is and everyone go their separate ways even when we were all keen to try and keep the estate in the family. but my suggestions were ignored and now its come to this! 

xylophone

So im guessing id be right in thinking the solicitor we hired otherwise we would have elected for all 3 of us to be named......

Have you  seen the  Grant of Representation?  Who is actually named as Administrator?

endaf

xylophone said:

So im guessing id be right in thinking the solicitor we hired otherwise we would have elected for all 3 of us to be named......

Have you  seen the  Grant of Representation?  Who is actually named as Administrator?

physically seen, no but it certainly not just on my brothers name etc......

thepurplepixie

Be prepared for it all to go in legal fees if you can't persuade them to be reasonable.

endaf

thepurplepixie said:

Be prepared for it all to go in legal fees if you can't persuade them to be reasonable.

unfortunately that is the way i see it going as i dont see either my sister or brother "giving in" as that is how they will see it but thats the way the cookie crumbles! In a way i wasnt expecting anything from the estate as i was semi estranged from my father but its certainly sad to see a legacy left for the children disappear in legal fees! 

xylophone

physically seen, no but it certainly not just on my brothers name etc......

Are you saying that your solicitor has the Grant?
Ask him to send you a copy.

xylophone

The Grant should say something along the lines that  X Y Endaf died on .....2019 intestate and that  administration of the estate was granted by the High Court to...........