Not contacted as beneficiary, what to expect ? 29 June 2022 at 7:22AM edited 29 June 2022 at 7:27AM in Deaths, funerals & probate 22 replies 3.1K views

Tommyjw

This is for my other half. 

To try and not spend too much time explaining, two sides of the family, her father never wanted to know her and his side of the family were only on rare occasion accepting of her as a family member. Except her gran (his mum) who she saw quite often.

Over time my other half saw her gran less and less but remained close enough the gran still kept pictures of her on her mantle and things my other half made for her when at school and college etc on display, and she still sent Christmas and birthday cards. The reverse stopped and she wondered why didnt hear from her anymore so took a drive and saw the house was for sale. She messaged a few people on her fathers side, nobody replied but they had read the messages.

Over half a year later after nobody replied to us i said we should look for copy of will as possible she had died which we found as probate had been granted. Turns out the gran had died just over 2 years ago, nobody had let my other half know, and even ignored messages asking how she is, which in itself is horrible.

So it turns out my other half is in the will (for a 4% share). We rung the solicitors involved who werent too happy to take her information to look into it but she did give away that money has all been paid out, house had been sold etc, so they considered it "case closed" on all matters as far as they were aware, couldn't give more information until she verified her identity which we understand.

She hasn't moved, has the same number,  can be found on social media, many people have her mums number and address if not hers. Surely the executors cannot simply have ignored her being in the will ? 

We are waiting to hear from the solicitors but can anybody advise what the next steps may be. Can we ask to see a record of all the money in the estate, and who and when it was paid? Can we ask about her belongings and where they are as theres many my other half would like to keep (sentimental things like photos) ? Is there anything we need to concern ourselves with that the executors seem to have just ignored the will such as regulations/laws ? Is it possible they can still just ignore us and if so would they be small claims court or needing our own solicitor ?

Thanks for any help

Flugelhorn

So your other half was left 4% from gran's estate ?  Were the solicitors the only executors ? If so they should have contacted all the beneficiaries, maybe her  money is still there?
After 2 years I am afraid the belongings are probably all gone unless the house is still full of stuff. 

PS was it written as 4% or an amount of money?

Choirgrl

Residuary beneficiaries have a right to see the estate accounts - these show the flow of money into and out of the Estate. From what you say, it sound like your OH is a residuary beneficiary (assuming the 4% is 4% of the residue of the Estate) so she is entitled to a copy.

Was the solicitor an Executor of the Estate, or did they just assist with the application for Probate - do you know? The Executor is personally liable if they haven’t distributed in line with the Will, so if there was money that should have come to your OH then there is action she can take. Of course, it may be that once all the debts of the Estate were paid plus any specified sums/items, there wasn’t any residue left. 

As for the personal items, pictures etc, your OH probably needs to make peace with the fact that they are gone. Unless she was specifically left them in the Will she doesn’t have a legal right to them, it sounds like the rest of the family wouldn’t respect any moral right, and the chances are that after two years they are sadly long gone.

Keep_pedalling

As a minor beneficiary your partner has no right to see a copy of the estate accounts, or to be given any estate assets not mentioned in the will.

Your partner should write to the executor(s) asking for a progress report on when they can expect to be paid their inheritance. If she does not get a satisfactory answer the next step is to write a letter before action giving a deadline for payment or she will take legal action.

If that fails to work then she can go through the money claim online process which does not require the use of expensive legal representation.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/money-claim-online-user-guide/money-claim-online-mcol-user-guide

BooJewels

Keep_pedalling said:

As a minor beneficiary your partner has no right to see a copy of the estate accounts, or to be given any estate assets not mentioned in the will.

That's not my understanding - as a residuary beneficiary, the OPs other half does have a right to see how their share was derived and calculated, by seeing the accounts.  I don't think the size of the percentage of the bequest has any bearing on this.  As long as it was a percentage, rather than a specified amount.

Choirgrl

Keep_pedalling said:

As a minor beneficiary your partner has no right to see a copy of the estate accounts, or to be given any estate assets not mentioned in the will.

Your partner should write to the executor(s) asking for a progress report on when they can expect to be paid their inheritance. If she does not get a satisfactory answer the next step is to write a letter before action giving a deadline for payment or she will take legal action.

If that fails to work then she can go through the money claim online process which does not require the use of expensive legal representation.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/money-claim-online-user-guide/money-claim-online-mcol-user-guide

If she’s been left a 4% share of residue, is she not classed as a residuary beneficiary? Residuary beneficiaries have a right to see Estate accounts. Even if she weren’t a residuary beneficiary, if there were a reason why her legacy couldn’t be paid in full (such as insufficient assets in the Estate) wouldn’t she be entitled to see the accounts in those circumstances?

shiraz99

Keep_pedalling said:

As a minor beneficiary your partner has no right to see a copy of the estate accounts, or to be given any estate assets not mentioned in the will.

What are you defining as a "minor beneficiary", imo, the only thing that term applies to are beneficiaries that are under 18, rather than a beneficiary that is of less importance. 

Marcon

Tommyjw said:

This is for my other half. 

To try and not spend too much time explaining, two sides of the family, her father never wanted to know her and his side of the family were only on rare occasion accepting of her as a family member. Except her gran (his mum) who she saw quite often.

Over time my other half saw her gran less and less but remained close enough the gran still kept pictures of her on her mantle and things my other half made for her when at school and college etc on display, and she still sent Christmas and birthday cards. The reverse stopped and she wondered why didnt hear from her anymore so took a drive and saw the house was for sale. She messaged a few people on her fathers side, nobody replied but they had read the messages.

Over half a year later after nobody replied to us i said we should look for copy of will as possible she had died which we found as probate had been granted. Turns out the gran had died just over 2 years ago, nobody had let my other half know, and even ignored messages asking how she is, which in itself is horrible.

So it turns out my other half is in the will (for a 4% share). We rung the solicitors involved who werent too happy to take her information to look into it but she did give away that money has all been paid out, house had been sold etc, so they considered it "case closed" on all matters as far as they were aware, couldn't give more information until she verified her identity which we understand.

She hasn't moved, has the same number,  can be found on social media, many people have her mums number and address if not hers. Surely the executors cannot simply have ignored her being in the will ? 

We are waiting to hear from the solicitors but can anybody advise what the next steps may be. Can we ask to see a record of all the money in the estate, and who and when it was paid? Can we ask about her belongings and where they are as theres many my other half would like to keep (sentimental things like photos) ? Is there anything we need to concern ourselves with that the executors seem to have just ignored the will such as regulations/laws ? Is it possible they can still just ignore us and if so would they be small claims court or needing our own solicitor ?

Thanks for any help

The next step is wait to hear from the solicitors, which may avoid the need to consider anything further.  It's hard to see where this one went wrong if they had sight of the will (possibly they relied on the executors distributing the funds appropriately and simply weren't aware that hadn't happened), so it may be a little while before they are able to reply fully.

If she's been left 4% of the estate, then it sounds as if she was not entitled to any specific items/belongings, so I'm afraid there is nothing to be done there after so long has passed.

Tommyjw

Flugelhorn said:

So your other half was left 4% from gran's estate ?  Were the solicitors the only executors ? If so they should have contacted all the beneficiaries, maybe her  money is still there?
After 2 years I am afraid the belongings are probably all gone unless the house is still full of stuff. 

PS was it written as 4% or an amount of money?

It is written that it will be divided into 100 'shares', she gets 4 of those shares, and it splits out what others get. 

It lists family memebrs as executors, not the solicitors themselves.

The family members are her father, and her auntie, both of which wanted nothing to do with her since birth and ignored any attempts at contact.The father even went to a solicitor many eyars ago (this same company) and got them to write a letter to her saying never to contact him and if she wants anything to ask the granmother in question! so they clearly knew about contact between them.

My 1st thought prior to contact was simply it wasnt all sorted yet, 2 years is less time than my single experience with an estate, which is why we went with an initial enquiry as toi the status first rather than guns glazing saying why hadnt she been contacted. But where the solicitor themselves stated they thought case was closed, they've had to wait to contact us back for someone to "re-open the file", they are unsure why she was never contacted and a few other things that seemed to imply otherwise.

They stated they would need to contact the executor to ask them "what they'd like to do", which seems a little odd to be, as it shouldnt matter what they'd like to do if it goes against the will.

Choirgrl said:

Residuary beneficiaries have a right to see the estate accounts - these show the flow of money into and out of the Estate. From what you say, it sound like your OH is a residuary beneficiary (assuming the 4% is 4% of the residue of the Estate) so she is entitled to a copy.

Was the solicitor an Executor of the Estate, or did they just assist with the application for Probate - do you know? The Executor is personally liable if they haven’t distributed in line with the Will, so if there was money that should have come to your OH then there is action she can take. Of course, it may be that once all the debts of the Estate were paid plus any specified sums/items, there wasn’t any residue left. 

As for the personal items, pictures etc, your OH probably needs to make peace with the fact that they are gone. Unless she was specifically left them in the Will she doesn’t have a legal right to them, it sounds like the rest of the family wouldn’t respect any moral right, and the chances are that after two years they are sadly long gone.

Thank you for the comment - as above unless i'm mistaken the solicitors weren't the executors themselves. 

It is good to know it sounds like we are entitled to information about the accounts. At this moment in time we were just looking for some background as to what she is entitled to know/do on the chance that the executors don't play ball which is essentially how they've acted up to this point.

Choirgrl

They stated they would need to contact the executor to ask them "what they'd like to do", which seems a little odd to be, as it shouldnt matter what they'd like to do if it goes against the will.

I wouldn’t take the solicitor’s phrasing as suggesting that the executor has a choice about what they  do in relation to the or legal responsibilities in administering the Estate. In fact, I suspect the contact could very well make reference to the duties and liabilities of an Executor. The question of what they’d like to do is in relation  to how they want to respond to your OH’s approach to the solicitor. To  take two extremes, that could be sending her the Estate Accounts and a cheque for what they show she is owed, or it could be doing nothing and leaving it to your OH to take action.

I very much hope that, now your OH knows about the Will, the Executors do the right thing, however begrudgingly and belatedly.

Flugelhorn

So it doesn't sound as though the solicitors are actually the executors? or are they? the will named family members and maybe they just got probate for the actual executors and then handed it over to them - if that is the case, the solicitors are probably thinking you need to contact the execs directly and won't known what has happened after they closed the file