Inventory and account

Chubbyg

Does anyone know how I would go about starting an inventory and account claim? I need to view my late grandmothers bank statements and my auntie (executor) will not show them to us and got very defensive when we asked about it. My auntie has not shared out the money which my mum (her sister) is entitled to and has confirmed by text that she kept the money because of the responsibilities she had to do at the end of my grandmothers life. We believe there is no will (she has not informed us of anything) therefore, I am under the impression that the  rules of intestacy means she has to pay all beneficiaries? I believe she is hiding something from us and feel we have been stupid for trusting her. Any advice would be appreciated. Thank you. 

GSS20

You need to seek professional advice. If there was no Will then your aunt cannot be executor unless she applied for letter of administration. Regardless of the responsibilities she had she cannot decide that only she was entitled to the money despite how unfair it may seem to her. If she died intestate then the estate If solvent would need to be divided equally between all siblings assuming your grandmother was not married/was widowed. 

p00hsticks

If there is no will then she can't be an executor. 

You first need to establish if there is a will, and if so who is named as executor and what mention there is of your mother.

If there is no will then ask your aunt whether she has applied for letters of adminstration to deal with the estate.

Is there property involved ?

Roughly what size of estate do you think your grandmother left ?

How long ago did your grandmother die ?

If lines of communication have completely ceased, I'd suggest getting a solicitor to write a letter might get some results, but ideally I'd be trying to keep it within the family if possible to avoid any unnecessary antagonism and fallout.

Chubbyg

Oh right ok thank you for your help. 

There is no property involved. She sold her house in 2019 and moved Into rented accommodation. We were told there would be around  23k in her bank account after bills and funeral arrangements. We are only going by what we were told by my auntie. There could have been more or less money. 

I have looked on the gov website to see if there was a will. Is there any where else I can look? 

My grandmother died 30th October 2020 and my auntie hasn’t spoken to us since the death. As the anniversary was coming up that’s what prompted us to contact her about it. They live in the north and we live in the south so we don’t see each other and she’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to speak to us again. She’s angry that we weren’t there at the end of my grandmother’s life however there were very good reasons to why my mum couldn’t be there and my grandmother understood.

Chubbyg

p00hsticks said:

If there is no will then she can't be an executor. 

You first need to establish if there is a will, and if so who is named as executor and what mention there is of your mother.

If there is no will then ask your aunt whether she has applied for letters of adminstration to deal with the estate.

Is there property involved ?

Roughly what size of estate do you think your grandmother left ?

How long ago did your grandmother die ?

If lines of communication have completely ceased, I'd suggest getting a solicitor to write a letter might get some results, but ideally I'd be trying to keep it within the family if possible to avoid any unnecessary antagonism and fallout.

Oh right ok thank you for your help. 

There is no property involved. She sold her house in 2019 and moved Into rented accommodation. We were told there would be around  23k in her bank account after bills and funeral arrangements. We are only going by what we were told by my auntie. There could have been more or less money. 

I have looked on the gov website to see if there was a will. Is there any where else I can look? 

My grandmother died 30th October 2020 and my auntie hasn’t spoken to us since the death. As the anniversary was coming up that’s what prompted us to contact her about it. They live in the north and we live in the south so we don’t see each other and she’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to speak to us again. She’s angry that we weren’t there at the end of my grandmother’s life however there were very good reasons to why my mum couldn’t be there and my grandmother understood.

thegreenone

I think a solicitors letter asking aunt to provide proof of her 'responsibilities', receipts and a copy of the Will.  

Only if Aunt had access to grandmother's bank account would she be able to plunder.  A bank would need to see a Will for Aunt to empty and close it.  Very suspicious and whilst I understand keeping it in the family, your Aunt has effectively stolen from your Mum.

p00hsticks

Chubbyg said:

p00hsticks said:

If there is no will then she can't be an executor. 

You first need to establish if there is a will, and if so who is named as executor and what mention there is of your mother.

If there is no will then ask your aunt whether she has applied for letters of adminstration to deal with the estate.

Is there property involved ?

Roughly what size of estate do you think your grandmother left ?

How long ago did your grandmother die ?

If lines of communication have completely ceased, I'd suggest getting a solicitor to write a letter might get some results, but ideally I'd be trying to keep it within the family if possible to avoid any unnecessary antagonism and fallout.

Oh right ok thank you for your help. 

There is no property involved. She sold her house in 2019 and moved Into rented accommodation. We were told there would be around  23k in her bank account after bills and funeral arrangements. We are only going by what we were told by my auntie. There could have been more or less money. 

I have looked on the gov website to see if there was a will. Is there any where else I can look? 

My grandmother died 30th October 2020 and my auntie hasn’t spoken to us since the death. As the anniversary was coming up that’s what prompted us to contact her about it. They live in the north and we live in the south so we don’t see each other and she’s made it clear that she doesn’t want to speak to us again. She’s angry that we weren’t there at the end of my grandmother’s life however there were very good reasons to why my mum couldn’t be there and my grandmother understood.

As there's no property involved and assuming the bank was happy to release the money to your aunt without her having to apply for probate / letters of administration then there won't be a public record, whether there was a will or not. (Your aunt would have had to fill in something for the bank to say that she was entitled to the money as next of kin and/or executor of the will). Given that your mother and aunt aren't speaking then the only things that I think you can do is pay a solicitor to write to a letter to your aunt asking her to provide a copy of the will if there is one and a statement of accounts for the estate. Your mother could try contacting the bank at which your grandmother had her account and ask what information your aunt provided in order for them to release the money, but I'm not sure the bank will necessarily be able to help.

Keep_pedalling

thegreenone said:

I think a solicitors letter asking aunt to provide proof of her 'responsibilities', receipts and a copy of the Will.  

Only if Aunt had access to grandmother's bank account would she be able to plunder.  A bank would need to see a Will for Aunt to empty and close it.  Very suspicious and whilst I understand keeping it in the family, your Aunt has effectively stolen from your Mum.

A bank does not need to see a will before they will release funds. Where no will exists they will release funds on production of a death certificate and proof that the person asking is someone entitled to administer the estate. A spouse or child of the deceased is likely to achieve this without too much difficulty providing the amount in the accounts does not exceed the limit banks apply before they also require letters of administration.

getmore4less

One trail you have is how much the house sold for in 2019.

Sea_Shell

Chubbyg said:

p00hsticks said:

If there is no will then she can't be an executor. 

You first need to establish if there is a will, and if so who is named as executor and what mention there is of your mother.

If there is no will then ask your aunt whether she has applied for letters of adminstration to deal with the estate.

Is there property involved ?

Roughly what size of estate do you think your grandmother left ?

How long ago did your grandmother die ?

If lines of communication have completely ceased, I'd suggest getting a solicitor to write a letter might get some results, but ideally I'd be trying to keep it within the family if possible to avoid any unnecessary antagonism and fallout.

There is no property involved. She sold her house in 2019 and moved Into rented accommodation. We were told there would be around  23k in her bank account after bills and funeral arrangements. We are only going by what we were told by my auntie. There could have been more or less money. 

Sadly, we read of cases like this too often on here!!

Do you know if there was any other money left over from the sale of the house, or is the c.£23k the total of her estate.

If it is, then by all means try the Solicitors letter route, if she is still ignoring you all, but then after that, if it has no response, I'm not sure what your next move would be, as your mum could easily and quickly burn through her share of the inheritance, by pursuing this further, legally.    Does you Mum have the money to pay for legal help up front?

If the Aunt has already spent or used the money, then it could be even trickier, if it's not just sitting in an account, waiting to be distributed.

Even if the money has been "stolen", we've read of other similar cases, and the police are very reluctant to get involved either.

Good luck.