Executor has substance abuse problem and is refusing to cooperate or communicate

Retrojetter

 I am a named beneficiary on my late mother's will. There are 4 siblings in total.  My mother's will dated 1984 has stated that everything be divided equally between myself and my younger brother, Mitchell. Our two older sisters Jennifer and Caroline were named as executors. My eldest sister (Caroline) has been trying to collate all documents in order to apply for probate - the other sister (and fellow executor, Jennifer) has a long standing substance abuse issue and has been reluctant to comply with the process. She has held back documentation, has lied about whether she has been in receipt of documents. And has left numerous aggressive and paranoid messages on our group probate chat.   She has also distributed at least £800 of the estate to my brother without agreement from Caroline. 

In a period of 6 months proceeding my mother's passing - over £3000 of money has also gone missing from my mother's bank account. 

Caroline was unable to freeze the bank account until then because Jennifer and Mitchell would not produce a death certificate so we had to wait 6 months to order another death certificate so that Caroline could freeze the bank account. It was at this point we noticed the discrepancy.  

In July I received a solicitor's letter on behalf of my brother offering to buy out my interest in the estate for the sum of £30,000. We have had mum's house valued at £90,000 for a quick sale and her bank account held just over £7000 at the time of her passing. There was two life insurance policies one of which paid out around £5000 and one my sister Jennifer stated would not pay out as the company had gone out of business.

It is now more than 12 months since my mother's passing and nothing has seemingly happened until last week. Feeling frustrated with how things were going I contacted a solicitor to ask what my options were. My solicitor has advised that she could send a letter to both executors expressing concern at the length of time that the process is taking and ask them to account for their actions as executors to date. 

I messaged both of my sisters to inform them to expect a letter as I didn't want either of them to be taken by surprise. Jennifer the middle sister has now said that she has started the probate process herself and that she will no longer be communicating with either myself or Caroline and will not be in touch until Probate has been granted. 

I am concerned that Jennifer and Michael are trying to circumnavigate the will by neglecting to mention its existence (and subsequently the existence of myself and my sister Caroline) and possibly using a forged will instead. I have tried to search for a more recent will but I have heard nothing so far and it is my understanding that If I am not named as a beneficiary or an executor I won't be informed about the existence of another will until after probate has already been granted. I don't know if I should be doing anything to safeguard my position. To make matters worse my eldest sister Caroline has just discovered that she has breast cancer and so is understandably distracted at the moment. 

Is there anything I can do to find out where I stand. If another later genuine bill has been found and I am not named as beneficiary then I never had a claim to the estate in the first place and I can live with that. I just want to know where I stand in all of this as I feel as if I am being conned but am unable to do anything about it. 
Thanks in advance

Retrojetter

I should mention that Michael should be Mitchell - my phone autocorrected

p00hsticks

Retrojetter said:

I should mention that xxxxx should be yyyyyyy - my phone autocorrected

to be honest I'd redact the names (assuming they are the real names) and just use A,B, C and D as your post is going to make people easily identifiable, which may come back to haunt you. You should see a 'cog wheel' at he top right of your post - if you click on it you will get the option to edit the post.

kayleighali

I'm not sure if things are different in Scotland but can your eldest sister not deal with things through a solicitor? I would also be dubious about the life insurance policy where the company has gone out of business. Normally this would be taken over by another organisation, some googling should tell you if this was the case - for example, my mum had a policy with Alliance and Leicester that was taken over by another company when they went out of existence.

Not sure why it took 6 months to get a copy of the death certificate - you should be able to phone the local registry office and order a copy (although this may only be the case in Scotland so apologies if it is)

I think your eldest sister needs to get legal advice as quickly as possible. You can accompany her if she is not up to taking things in at this point in time which would be understandable

thegreenone

May I ask why your sisters were made executors but not beneficiaries?

Keep_pedalling

thegreenone said:

May I ask why your sisters were made executors but not beneficiaries?

Just asking for trouble making a will like that.

Pennylane

Are you sure you have the correct info OP?  Wondering how the two sisters who are executors but not beneficiaries are feeling about being left out but having to fulfil their roles? 

Marcon

p00hsticks said:

Retrojetter said:

I should mention that xxxxx should be yyyyyyy - my phone autocorrected

to be honest I'd redact the names (assuming they are the real names) and just use A,B, C and D as your post is going to make people easily identifiable, which may come back to haunt you. You should see a 'cog wheel' at he top right of your post - if you click on it you will get the option to edit the post.

Completely agree that using real names isn't a good idea. Use fake names - trying to follow a long thread with just initials becomes a real pain.

Retrojetter said:

In July I received a solicitor's letter on behalf of my brother offering to buy out my interest in the estate for the sum of £30,000. We have had mum's house valued at £90,000 for a quick sale and her bank account held just over £7000 at the time of her passing. There was two life insurance policies one of which paid out around £5000 and one my sister Jennifer stated would not pay out as the company had gone out of business.

Highly unlikely. See https://www.fscs.org.uk/making-a-claim/claims-process/failed-ins-co-next/

Retrojetter said:

Feeling frustrated with how things were going I contacted a solicitor to ask what my options were. My solicitor has advised that she could send a letter to both executors expressing concern at the length of time that the process is taking and ask them to account for their actions as executors to date. 

Sounds like your solicitor might be suggesting something known as 'Inventory and Account' ?

You've got a solicitor, so your best route is to tell her what's going on and follow her advice. Nobody here can do anything but speculate (and sympathise!).

MalMonroe

I'm sorry for your loss and also for traumas both your sisters are experiencing right now.

It's not surprising that things are moving slowly, given the very strange circumstances here. That really is a very strange will indeed. I always used to think it was awful when families argued about the contents of wills, especially when a parent has died - but I'd be a bit miffed if I was expected act as an executor for my siblings with no benefits for me . . .  Unless your mother knew that all four of you were going to share the proceeds fairly. That's the only way I'd want to proceed here, whether I'd been named as a beneficiary or an executor.  And I'd really have to get my sibs together so we could have a jolly good discussion about what's going on. Any chance you could all just say never mind about a will, we'll split it all four ways? You are family, after all. 

Manxman_in_exile

While the will might seem a bit unusual (assuming the OP has described it correctly) I'm not sure it's that strange - I can think of several explanations and situations pretty much straightaway where older siblings might be executors but not beneficiaries and be perfectly content with that.  (I'm not saying they would necessarily be good reasons but the OP hasn't indicated any resentment from the executors.)

Anyway, if the two older sibling executors are unhappy with the terms of the will they should renounce their executorships and - if they want to - challenge the will.  Unless of course the two beneficiaries are happy to split everything equally with them.

What does seem very odd to me is the other beneficiary's offer to buy the OP out for £30k.  Why would they do that and why would they expect the OP to accept such a low offer?  (By my reckoning it should be more like £45k and unless the OP is known to be absolutely desperate for cash I can't see why they'd be expected to accept such a low offer).

Also I don't see how one of the executors could take £3k out of the deceased's bank account without proper authority over a period of up to 6 months after the death?  Surely that's wrong?

Like an earlier poster, I also don't understand why it would take as long as six months to get a copy death certificate and would have thought the insurance should have been picked up by someone else.

If the troublesome executor remains intransigent it looks like a solicitor's letter may be required.

kayleighali

Manxman_in_exile said:

While the will might seem a bit unusual (assuming the OP has described it correctly) I'm not sure it's that strange - I can think of several explanations and situations pretty much straightaway where older siblings might be executors but not beneficiaries and be perfectly content with that.  (I'm not saying they would necessarily be good reasons but the OP hasn't indicated any resentment from the executors.)

Anyway, if the two older sibling executors are unhappy with the terms of the will they should renounce their executorships and - if they want to - challenge the will.  Unless of course the two beneficiaries are happy to split everything equally with them.

What does seem very odd to me is the other beneficiary's offer to buy the OP out for £30k.  Why would they do that and why would they expect the OP to accept such a low offer?  (By my reckoning it should be more like £45k and unless the OP is known to be absolutely desperate for cash I can't see why they'd be expected to accept such a low offer).

Also I don't see how one of the executors could take £3k out of the deceased's bank account without proper authority over a period of up to 6 months after the death?  Surely that's wrong? It could be that the executor never informed the bank of the death and was able to lift money from a cash machine?

Like an earlier poster, I also don't understand why it would take as long as six months to get a copy death certificate and would have thought the insurance should have been picked up by someone else. I don't understand either of these points either. When we had to get a copy of my partner's grandfather's death certificate it came through the post a few days after we phoned, definitely shouldn't have taken 6 months

If the troublesome executor remains intransigent it looks like a solicitor's letter may be required.

I think the OP will need to come back with some more information before any further advice can be given...but it definitely appears that the legal route is the correct one in this case!