Aunty has stolen the inheritance

housea

Hi, my children have just found out that their aunty has fraudently taken all their late father  estate and may have shared it with his girlfriend. There was no will ,no probate and she has refused to give them any information. They cannot afford to pay a solicter and do not even know how much it was. There was also a house in Portugal  that now may be lost to sqwatterd..  how can they find out what their aunty did ? They though she was dealing with it all leagally but now do not know if she went to any court or what she used to take the money. Any help will be greatly apreciated.  Thanks for reading.

elsien

What did the estate consist of - house, savings, pension, any other assets?

Did his girlfriend live with him and if there was a house have they checked how it was owned? They can check this with the land registry for a small fee.
If the house was owned as joint tenants between the two of them then she will have automatically inherited his share on his death. Ditto any joint accounts. 

You need to give more information to get any sensible answers. 

Thrugelmir

How did she access the estate's assets without obtaining probate? 

housea

They simply do not know, there was a large pension pot and the house was in his name only. They may have obtained a fake marriage cirt which we are checking out. But nothing is easy to find out.

Flugelhorn

the key is to find the assets and who genuinely owned them - was there a house in the UK and have you checked how it was owned?

elsien

The pension pot may be outside of the estate and could go to whoever he named as beneficiary. 

What makes you think any marriage certificate might be fake and they weren’t genuinely married. My father remarried without telling any of his children .

Grumpy_chap

housea said:

Hi, my children have just found out that their aunty has fraudently taken all their late father  estate and may have shared it with his girlfriend. There was no will ,no probate and she has refused to give them any information. They cannot afford to pay a solicter and do not even know how much it was. There was also a house in Portugal  that now may be lost to sqwatterd..  how can they find out what their aunty did ? They though she was dealing with it all leagally but now do not know if she went to any court or what she used to take the money. Any help will be greatly apreciated.  Thanks for reading.

How did the children find this out?
What is the timescale?  Resolving an Estate is not a necessarily quick process.
Administering an Estate where there is property involved will require probate which is a matter of public record.

housea

They may have had a Buddhist wedding in thailand which is not legal.  He died 3 years ago, they kept checking probate but nothing so contacted their aunt to find out what was going on. All bank accounts have been emptied and house in Portugal has just been left. His girlfriend lives in a different country.  They need to know where to go to find out how their aunt got permission to deal with everything without probate but are finding it tricky.  That's about all we know

Grumpelstiltskin

The UK property is it in England or Wales?

If so have you checked ownership on the Land Registry?

Search for property information from HM Land Registry - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

housea

The house is in Portugal and is 100% in his name,  he rented in the UK. I have been over and talked to the sqwatterd there and nothing has been done so they are getting it put in their name as its been abandoned. The aunty said she was going to sell it for them. 

Thrugelmir

housea said:

The house is in Portugal and is 100% in his name,  he rented in the UK. I have been over and talked to the sqwatterd there and nothing has been done so they are getting it put in their name as its been abandoned. The aunty said she was going to sell it for them. 

Without probate, or whatever it's called there, she couldn't. Up to the children to deal with the matter themselves now.