One beneficiary is living in the family home . Will shares the property to the three children .

Keep_pedalling

LUTONTOWN1 said:

I can not share the email received along with the copy of the Will . In the email it is made clear that my brother and myself will not be considered .She intends to serve her own agender .This goes against the terms of the will .She will not be for filling her responsibility as a executor . Hopefully my brother will realise this  , she is  a control freak . Her attitude to me is unacceptable  ,and  I feel if a court were to see the messages between myself and her  could decide she is unfit to be an executor . My contention that she and her son pay rent until such time as a sale goes ahead is a fair request I feel .     

In your situation I would be threatening her with legal action to get her removed as executor. As she seems to have told you in writing what she plans to do then you have a very strong case to remove her. I would write a letter before action stating that unless she gets on with probate and marketing the house within 14 days you will be applying to have her removed through the courts.

I would spend a little money to have the letter come from a solicitor to make sure that this is not an empty threat. 

Sea_Shell

House aside for a moment.

Was their much cash or other assets in the estate do you know?     Has she said anything about this?    Is it possible that she has also taken this for herself, or has she agreed that this will be split 3 ways?

LUTONTOWN1

 No large amount of  cash or other assets . Although she did not tell the bank of the death for 3 1/2 weeks . I enquired if they had a copy of the will ,and  the bank automatically froze the account .  So I do not know if the account was used following my mothers death .  

Flugelhorn

Has anyone actually applied for probate yet? If not then you can start the process .

LUTONTOWN1

As I am not a executor, at this stage I can not . There is no time limit on applying for probate. But by sending the email she did ,she has been unwise ,lets say , and I intend to use her statement against her .    

Flugelhorn

LUTONTOWN1 said:

As I am not a executor, at this stage I can not . There is no time limit on applying for probate. But by sending the email she did ,she has been unwise ,lets say , and I intend to use her statement against her .    

sorry missed that in the first post, it is just your 2 siblings who are the executors. Up to your brother then to start the ball rolling

thegreenone

Your brother as executor can ask for bank statements.  He should be able to take the details of the account and a copy of the Will into a local branch to him.  He needs to step up otherwise he will lose out too.

TBagpuss

As others have said, i think you need to speak to your brother and show him the e-mail from your sister, so that he can put pressure on her to either renounce her role as executor or to carry it out correctly. Your brother can take legal advice if necessary. 

You can apply to have an executor removed, and for the court to substitute someone else, so you could look at whether it's appropriate to apply to have your sister removed so you an act in her place - especially if she is delaying or refusing to apply.

My understanding is that the initial application effectively allow the court to give her an ultimatum, to either apply for probate or to renounce so someone else can apply, actually removing her would be more difficult and you would have to show she was behaving dishonestly. 

What has your brother said or done so far? 

Sea_Shell

Even if the OP has his sister removed as executor, won't the other executors still have to force a sale through the courts if the sister won't agree to move out?

RetSol

The talk of legal proceedings is premature.  Mother died in January and the executors have now obtained probate. 

As of today, the OP has nothing to complain about even if it is taking longer than he would like for him to settle the estate.

I suspect that both the executors know their responsibilities. The sister wants to wind the OP up and she has succeeded. I would cease all email communication with her, at least for the time being.  It is too easy for both parties simply to react to one another. 

It does not seem likely that there is significant cash in the estate but the OP can ask how much there is and request an interim distribution of the cash (less the reasonable costs associated with the property pending sale). 

The sister and her son need to find somewhere else to live.  How easy is that going to be? 

I think that the OP may have to accept that this is going to take (a lot) longer and be (a lot) more trouble than he would like.  I would start by laying down markers, firmly but politely, as to what I want to happen.