Beneficiaries Dispute

Tarkus69

My late mother’s estate is currently being managed by the appointed Executor. Two of the three beneficiaries to her estate have now blocked the sale of her property as they suspect the third beneficiary has abused his position as Power of Attorney whilst my mother was alive.
Are the two beneficiaries allowed to do this without the consent of the Executor?

Keep_pedalling

How have they blocked the sale? (I assume probate has already been granted). 

SeniorSam

Is the third beneficiary the executor?
A sale could be stopped if beneficiaries suspect that the executors are not acting correctly or they suspect some improper action has been taken.

getmore4less

Tarkus69 said:

My late mother’s estate is currently being managed by the appointed Executor. Two of the three beneficiaries to her estate have now blocked the sale of her property as they suspect the third beneficiary has abused his position as Power of Attorney whilst my mother was alive.
Are the two beneficiaries allowed to do this without the consent of the Executor?

Who are the legal owners of the property.

How have they blocked the sale.

If the beneficiaries are already legal owners (say as trustee of a life trust) they can block the sale.

If the executor is not a legal owner and there is a surviving legal owner the executor does not need to be involved.

Tarkus69

Probate has been granted appointing a solicitor as executor of the estate. Two of the three named beneficiaries have stated that they do not wish the house sale to proceed until the third beneficiary provides details of an equity release loan that was taken out whilst he was the sole power of attorney over my mother’s financial affairs.

Tarkus69

Keep_pedalling said:

How have they blocked the sale? (I assume probate has already been granted). 

Probate has been granted appointing a solicitor as the executor. Two of the three beneficiaries have advised the solicitor that my mother’s property should not be sold until the third named beneficiary has provided details of an equity release loan that was taken out against the property whilst they were the sole Power of Attorney to my mother’s financial affairs.

Keep_pedalling

Tarkus69 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

How have they blocked the sale? (I assume probate has already been granted). 

Probate has been granted appointing a solicitor as the executor. Two of the three beneficiaries have advised the solicitor that my mother’s property should not be sold until the third named beneficiary has provided details of an equity release loan that was taken out against the property whilst they were the sole Power of Attorney to my mother’s financial affairs.

I can understand their concerns about the ER, but it should not delay the sale as the ER loan needs paying ASAP. The solicitor can then pay off the ER company but delay distribution of the rest until the dispute is settled.

BooJewels

Maybe I have an overly suspicious mind @Keep_pedalling, but my interpretation of the brief information from the OP was that the ER loan was potentially taken out for the benefit of the Attorney at the time, secured on the house and the other beneficiaries don't see why the settlement should come out of the estate at all?

In clearing my parents' house I found a whole slew of ER information, quotes etc and my heart sank.  I think that was just that they'd made a brief enquiry and then been inundated by very persistent sales teams.

doodling

Hi,

Keep_pedalling said:

Tarkus69 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

How have they blocked the sale? (I assume probate has already been granted). 

Probate has been granted appointing a solicitor as the executor. Two of the three beneficiaries have advised the solicitor that my mother’s property should not be sold until the third named beneficiary has provided details of an equity release loan that was taken out against the property whilst they were the sole Power of Attorney to my mother’s financial affairs.

I can understand their concerns about the ER, but it should not delay the sale as the ER loan needs paying ASAP. The solicitor can then pay off the ER company but delay distribution of the rest until the dispute is settled.

Agreed.  If I was a beneficiary I would be pressing the solicitors to proceed with the sale but would agree that the proceeds (once the ER loan / estate agent / etc. is paid off) could be retained in their client account until a satisfactory agreement has been reached on the distribution to beneficiaries.  I would note to them that the estate would be suffering a loss (as a result of the interest on the ER loan) if the sale was delayed - they are obliged to minimise such losses.

The solicitors should only refuse to proceed with the sale if they believe that the house sale itself is not in the interests of the beneficiaries - e.g. it is contrary to the will, or appears to be at less then market value - is there any reason why they might believe that?

Brie

I think it might depend on how much the ER was for - if it was a large percentage of the house value I'd want to be a bit more sure of what was happening.  But I am not a lawyer.

TBagpuss

I suspect that whatever the situation, the ER loan will have to be repaid. If it is shown that the Attorney obtained it for their own benefit then the executor on behalf of the estate might be able to take action against them to recover the money, but I don't think it is likely that they could do anything about the loan, as if the person was acting as attorney they have legal authority to deal with the lender, so I can't see that there would be ny grounds to stop the lender recovering the debt.

It is likely to be in everyone's interests for the sale to go through and loan to be cleared, as presumably interest continues to build up until it is paid unless, I suppose, property prices are rising faster than the interest is!) 

The beneficiaries would certainly be entitled to ask that no funds re paid out to any beneficiary until the issue of the loan has been investigated and I would have thought that as they have a duty to get in all the assets and deal with any debts they would be entitled to ask for copies of the records the attorney has kept so they can satisfy themselves that everything has been accounted for .

What does the attorney say the loan monies were used for?