Beneficiary refusing inheritance share, please help!

charlysays85

Hi, I would be really grateful for some advice please.
My mum's cousin died in July 2019, having left no will.  My mum and I have been dealing with the estate and probate etc. Unfortunately he wasn't discovered for 2 weeks in the height of Summer and, needless to say, it was all pretty horrible. Mum and I had to get specialist cleaning company in to deal with all of the flies etc. I didn't sleep for months... It was a total nightmare. As he left no will, the intestacy laws meant that Mum was next of kin, and her other cousin's children would inherit his share as he had passed away.  Mum employed a solicitor to deal with probate and they advised they needed to employ a finder's company to see if any relatives could be found in Latvia (where deceased's father came from). Mum's cousin had never been to Latvia and his Dad left there after the 40s.  It was sold to my mum that this was a legal necessity.  To my limited understanding, I believe a notice in the Gazette for 6 months would have sufficed?  The finders company (which I believe have a nice deal going with the solicitor) have taken over a year and a half to locate relatives. They have found two individuals but I believe this was done a year ago.
It now transpires that one beneficiary does not want to accept the money, I think they are well off and suspicious. This has been going on for far too long. When mum spoke to her solicitor today, apparently the money that they would have received will go into the Solicitor's Benevolent Fund. I have been reading up and can see that the beneficiary can disclaim their interest but this has to be done within 2 years of the death. Seems highly suspicious it has been just over 2 years and they suddenly say this. It doesn't feel at all like the solicitor has been working for my Mum, rather against her. It genuinely seems they are doing everything possible to ensure the family that actually knew the deceased get as little as possible.  
Where does mum stand? Is it legal that the refused money does not go to the other beneficiaries?  
Any advice would be hugely appreciated. My poor mum has really been through it and I have just had enough of feeling as if the solicitor is behaving unethically.

MalMonroe

As with most legal issues, this is quite complex. And it sounds as if everything has been an ordeal.

As far as I am aware, though, if someone does not want their inheritance and decides to disclaim their interest - especially when there is no will, they don't have any right to say where it must go instead. (Certainly not to any Solicitor's Benevolent Fund!) It probably will just be redistributed amongst those who do accept their inheritance. However that does need to be clarified.  

There's some information here from Citizens Advice -

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/who-can-inherit-if-there-is-no-will-the-rules-of-intestacy/

This matter has been dragging on for far too long though - it might be time to report your solicitor for total incompetence, give them the heave-ho and get some decent representation. The solicitors regulation authority can help with that. Here's the link -

https://www.sra.org.uk/

You could also complain here -

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/en/public/for-public-visitors/using-a-solicitor/complain-about-a-solicitor

or here - https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/

charlysays85

Thank you MalMonroeT, I really appreciate. The links are very helpful, I will certainly look into it.

Keep_pedalling

The solicitor’s were correct to carry out searches, a notice in the gazette is not sufficient to find missing beneficiaries. 

The beneficiary who declines an inheritance can either simple refuse it in which case their share should be distributed to the other beneficiaries in accordance to intestacy rules, alternative they can do a deed of variation within 2 years of the death to redirect the inheritance to whoever thy wish. 

The problem for executors is that the beneficiary must put this in writing, if they don’t do that the money can’t simply be distributed and leaves the executors with a major headache. It certainly cannot be given to a benevolent fund unless the beneficiary did a DoV to that effect.

charlysays85

Thanks very much for that Keep-pedalling and for clarifying about the searches. We had no idea there was any other family, nobody had any clue any existed until now, hence why I wasn't sure the searches were necessary, good to know that though. Really helpful advice about the need to put in writing. Hopefully we can get this sorted asap.

TBagpuss

The situation with the solicitors benevolent fund is that they have an arrangement where unclaimed money (which might include a situation where a beneficiary is refusing an inheritance but won't confirm this formally) can be donated to the fund on the basis that the SBA  undertakes to repay it if the funds are later claimed.

It's a method that lets solicitors to close a file rather than having to keep it open and hold money indefinitely, and it protects them from the risk of someone later claiming the funds and their being unable to pay. .

I think the rule is that the solicitor has to have first taken all reasonable steps to pay the money to the person who it belongs to, so they can't just use it to avoid hassle. 

It sounds as though the beneficiary hasn't actually rejected the money (if they had, it would fall back into the estate and go to the other beneficiaries) but isn't accepting it either, so the solicitors are suggesting the SBA to allow the estate to be finalised and the file closed. But your mum should ask them to clarify as it sounds as though they perhaps haven't explained it very clearly!

Given tat it was clearly quite complicated, with the need to look for relatives in Latvia, it doesn't sound as though the solicitors have taken excessive amounts of time or behaved inappropriately, however if your mum is not happy with the service then her first  first step would be to make a formal complaint direct to the firm, using their complaints procedure (she should have details of this from her original client care letter and it should also be available via the solicitors website, if they have one) If she is not happy with their response then she can make a complaint to the ombudsman.

The SRA is not the right route for complaint about poor service, they deal with serious misconduct and there is nothing at all in what you have posted to suggest that there is any misconduct at all here. Equally the Law Society doesn't deal with complaints. 

Marcon

Keep_pedalling said:

The beneficiary who declines an inheritance can either simple refuse it in which case their share should be distributed to the other beneficiaries in accordance to intestacy rules, alternative they can do a deed of variation within 2 years of the death to redirect the inheritance to whoever thy wish. 

The problem here, of course, is that the two year mark has already been passed.

Keep_pedalling said:

The problem for executors is that the beneficiary must put this in writing, if they don’t do that the money can’t simply be distributed and leaves the executors with a major headache. It certainly cannot be given to a benevolent fund unless the beneficiary did a DoV to that effect.

Please see Bagpuss's post above.

OP, there's one piece of information missing here. As there was no will, there won't be executors; there will be an administrator. Has anyone actually applied for letters of administration?

charlysays85

Thanks TBagpuss and Marcon.

OP, there's one piece of information missing here. As there was no will, there won't be executors; there will be an administrator. Has anyone actually applied for letters of administration?

Yes, all done a while ago and mum is the administrator. There was no mention of the Benevolent Fund until just after the 2 years, despite the Latvian person declining for some time, at least 6 months. Mum has struggled to get hold of the solicitor, after leaving countless messages over the past few months and not responded to. I can't seem to find any information on what happens after 2 years...struck me as slightly iffy they are now suddenly keen to move on.

Marcon

charlysays85 said:

Thanks TBagpuss and Marcon.

OP, there's one piece of information missing here. As there was no will, there won't be executors; there will be an administrator. Has anyone actually applied for letters of administration?

Yes, all done a while ago and mum is the administrator. There was no mention of the Benevolent Fund until just after the 2 years, despite the Latvian person declining for some time, at least 6 months. Mum has struggled to get hold of the solicitor, after leaving countless messages over the past few months and not responded to. I can't seem to find any information on what happens after 2 years...struck me as slightly iffy they are now suddenly keen to move on.

Two years is the deadline for making a Deed of Variation. After that time a beneficiary can still decline their inheritance, but they can't direct to whom it should go instead. 

If your mother has left 'countless messages', and had no reply, I'd be tempted to make one more attempt and this time leave the message that if she doesn't get a reply within five working days, she'll be making a formal complaint to the firm in question. It would be helpful if she can remember how many 'countless' is and include that number in the message.

Mrs_pbradley936

We had something similar but the people finder we used advised us to take out an insurance policy in case relatives surface at a later date. If any do turn up they would be Polish but those records are hard to search. Plus I thought that if a person declined then their share stayed with the Estate and the other beneficiaries got their share. Most people accept it then donate it if they don't want it because you either accept or decline - you don't have the option to say where it goes unless you want it to bypass you and go to your children. They can do that.

Mojisola

Mrs_pbradley936 said:

Plus I thought that if a person declined then their share stayed with the Estate and the other beneficiaries got their share.

That's true. 

The problem is when the executors can't get the beneficiary to actually reject their inheritance.  If the beneficiary just refuses to communicate, the executors are left in limbo.

An insurance policy seems to be the way to go.