Brother attempting to defraud beneficiaries?

purdita

Hi Looking for advice please. 
My MIL lost her mother in February 2020. She along with her brother were the executors and including their younger sister they were the 3 beneficiaries. 
None of the siblings are close and only the brother remained living near to the mother, the two sisters living several hundred miles away. 
When my MIL’s father died the brother took anything of value for himself and suddenly was able to buy a bungalow outright without selling his current property. 
This was several years ago and although the sisters knew exactly where the fathers savings went, nothing was ever done about it and whether anything could have been proved I don’t know. 
After MIL lost her mother, she went to help clear the house, but again everything of any value had been removed. 
She has contacted her brother on a few occasions to be told that things were “nearly sorted” and they could soon get on with probate etc. 
After hearing nothing, she phoned the solicitors last week to be told that they were not dealing with the estate and the brother had dispensed with their services last year and was dealing with it himself. 
This raised suspicions and I have now discovered that probate was granted in June 2020 with her brother mentioned as the sole executor along with “Power reserved to another executor” 
I see this refers to someone who has given up their position as an executor and that a PA25 form needed to be signed and independently witnessed to do this. 
At no time was she asked to stand down and she certainly never signed anything.
Probate was granted at just under £91,000 for the whole estate, but I’ve discovered that the house is currently on the market sold subject to contract at £110,000. 
With this information she phoned her brother who at first denied that the house was for sale, then when she said she’d heard otherwise he said it was on at 90,000. (The sum he submitted to probate) 
We are certain there were savings too but they will have no doubt disappeared.
We rang the Probate Office today and basically they don’t want to know. Said not much they can do.
She’s phoned a solicitor who said he thinks there is definitely a case to answer to and that he can reverse the power reserved, and have her reinstated as an executor and can also request bank details for the deceased to see what monies there were 
Do you think it’s worth pursuing the matter with a solicitor at this late stage or is it likely to cost her a small fortune for little gain and she should just settle for the third share of the house? 
Thankyou

thegreenone

As you are fairly sure Brother has plundered bank accounts now and previously, I would go ahead with being reinstated as executor and see the bank accounts.  Hopefully Brother will receive a much reduced share.  Solicitors costs would come from the estate.

Re Probate Office - fraud has been committed.

purdita

Has anyone here ever been reinstated and how long did this take?
We’ve spoken to the Estate Agent to try to find out how far down the line the house sale has progressed and what the selling price is, but because of data protection they won’t discuss any details as according to them the brother has complete authority. 

We were surprised that Probate Office didn’t want to get involved, but perhaps it’s because the value of the estate is under the tax limit? 

Marcon

purdita said:

We’ve spoken to the Estate Agent to try to find out how far down the line the house sale has progressed and what the selling price is, but because of data protection they won’t discuss any details as according to them the brother has complete authority. 

We were surprised that Probate Office didn’t want to get involved, but perhaps it’s because the value of the estate is under the tax limit? 

I'd make sure the estate agent has written confirmation (e-mail is fine) of your concerns, which should be enough to put them on notice that all may not be well...although if the house sale is going through at a decent figure, why stop it?

Not the Probate Office's role to investigate your particular concerns.

poppystar

purdita said:

We were surprised that Probate Office didn’t want to get involved, but perhaps it’s because the value of the estate is under the tax limit? 

Whilst I can see the Probate Office might not be interested in suspicions of money going missing they should be concerned that someone’s signature was forged to get power reserved. Approach them again and ask them what the procedure is for false signatures on documents submitted to them. They must surely have a policy that covers this eventuality.

Be specific on this issue and put aside the money one while this is first sorted. Then when you are clear on what happens on this it should be clearer what your options are on the missing money suspicions.