Can 1 beneficiary force sale against 3 beneficiaries wishes?

elsien

What all need to consider, is what "staying there as long as she needs to" means in practice. 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, 5 years?
If it is unlikely that aunt will ever be able to afford a property of her own, then at some point she will need to move out and find somewhere to rent. That could drag on for potentially quite a long time if aunt is struggling with the concept of having to leave her home of 15 years.
If any of the beneficiaries need to claim means tested benefits, then owning a property they are not living in would also impact on that.
It's all very new and raw at the moment, and people do react to grief in different ways, but the beneficiary who wants their share isn't being unreasonable in wanting a timescale that's a bit clearer than as long as she needs.
Although probate and finding a buyer could potentially take a while anyway. Could they agree a date to review and see what's happening once funeral is over and everyone has had time to properly think about their options?

Malthusian

Moneybear said:

No I don't believe so. My mum and uncle both want to sell in the future but don't want to put a time limit on it or to force my aunt out. They are happy for her to get in a better financial position before they consider the sale. 

If it hasn't happened in the last 15 years it's probably not going to. Aunt 2 is doing her siblings a favour by playing the part of the wicked sister, rather than delay the issue until the other two have decided enough is enough, and all three of them gang up on her. When Aunt 1 will be older and less able to cope with a move.

Mojisola

Moneybear said:

My aunt who lives there and mother are the executors of the will. 
Whereas Aunt 2 has asked about how quickly this can be sorted and wants to provide account details already.
The funeral is on Monday

Aunt 2 has no rights to see anything until the executors have produced the final accounts. 
Asking about financial stuff before the funeral says a lot about her!
As long as the executors make reasonable progress with the estate, there is nothing Aunt 2 can do to hurry things along - although she could waste money getting a solicitor to write letters to the executors. 
It can take a year or so to get an estate sorted and a house sold. 

Moneybear

@xylophone - I agree. It would have been much easier if she had included it but sadly as with many in this situation, it is too late for anyone to change now. Good point about the council schemes. I will suggest this to her after the funeral. 
@elsien - This is the difficulty. There is no specific timescale being discussed right now. I believe this is because my mum/aunt are waiting until after the funeral to start looking into it. I believe between them they discussed 2 years would be fair. They've struggled to find a church for the funeral so attention has been focussed on this tbh. I will suggest that they agree a time for all siblings to reconvene and discuss after the funeral.
Malthusian I can't deny that I haven't had the same thought process. She hasn't left beforehand so when will be ready? 
@Mojisola - That is correct. I read about it earlier on today but it is too late now. My mum shared the paperwork with her on Sunday. She also has no plans to attend the funeral so my mum felt like she had to share it on that phonecall. There is a real worry from my mum that Aunt 2 will be awkward and try to complain about the executors or causing more hassle than is needed. 
It's funny because for the last few years my grandmother had wanted to write my aunt and her children out of the will. They haven't visited her for years and only ever called when they wanted money. I was one of the grandchildren telling her not to exclude her and none of us wanted her money. 

Thank you all again. I'm trying to keep emotion out of this and help my mum where possible. This has really highlighted to me the importance of putting things in writing! 

Spendless

A few years ago, my extended family had a similar issue.

A Great Aunt died and her house was left split to her 4 adult children. However child3 lived with her and had done for several years, as did one of child3's children, who had turned 18 less than a month before his Grandmother died.
The will said that child3 could live there 'for as long as was needed' (or whatever the correct wording is)  

About a year later child3 met a bloke and decided to move away with him, but not taking her son with her. This left Grandson living in the house, but without his Mum.

Child1,  didn't wish to turf his nephew out, whilst he was still in his teens on an apprenticeship and not earning much. Child1 is quite well off and didn't need the money.

Child4 took the same view as her eldest sibling. She has a professional job, her kids were young and she was happy to wait for any inheritance to come at a later date.

Child2 took a different view, She didn't see why 1 Grandchild was occupying any inheritance when there were 9 other Grandkids now that Child3 had moved out and the house was 'no longer needed;by them as their Mum's will had stated. She wantd to be able to help her own kids out financially using her share of Mum's house.However child3 wasn't prepared to force the sale either.

Stalemate happened for several years whilst the siblings fell out about it, especially child1 and child2. 
Eventually Grandson, met someone, had a baby and moved out and then the house was sold and split.

I know this isn't the same situation as yours, but what I always thought about the above story, was the siblings should have met up, and discussed a timescale for Grandson to be out and what they could do to ensure he was ready to leave by that point.
It will depend on the reason/s why your Aunt was living with her Mum for this amount of time, to see what options would suit her best for alternative accommodation.