No will - 4 siblings - 1 not agreeing to solicitor and probate 31 August 2022 at 1:33PM in Deaths, funerals & probate 18 replies 1.5K views

krs77

Looking for a little advice please, in a nutshell re the above, 1 sibling is being an absolute gem and point blank refuses to agree to a solicitor until questions regarding the funeral (happened over a month ago) are answered.
There are no savings and only a property with minimal value with no will in place, very straightforward in reality with the property to be split 4 ways.
1 sibling lives in the property and has done for approx 7 years because of marriage breakdown, they want to buy out the other siblings, no reason for any of the above other than the siblings don't see eye to eye and one in particular has to be in control and feels by doing this they are still in control.
Would appreciate any feedback on this, surely you can't just leave it for years and years because one doesn't agree?

Malthusian

Are all 4 beneficiaries executors / administrators?
Is the recalcitrant sibling different from the one occupying the home?
Is the occupying sibling offering a fair price?
Making a few assumptions: Assuming the answers are all "yes", the obvious way forward is for the other (3?) executors to go see a solicitor together, in order to start proceedings to remove the recalcitrant sibling as executor.
The end result will be that either the recalcitrant sibling is removed as executor, or they back down and either play along or "reserve their power".

krs77

Malthusian said:

Are all 4 beneficiaries executors / administrators?
Is the recalcitrant sibling different from the one occupying the home?
Is the occupying sibling offering a fair price?
Making a few assumptions: Assuming the answers are all "yes", the obvious way forward is for the other (3?) executors to go see a solicitor together, in order to start proceedings to remove the recalcitrant sibling as executor.
The end result will be that either the recalcitrant sibling is removed as executor, or they back down and either play along or "reserve their power".

Thank you for your response, yes is the response to all, can you remove them as an executor as in effect they're not an executor as no will?

Flugelhorn

if there is no will then there are no define  executors. it is up to one or more of the siblings to apply for letters of administration - I don't think you need permission of the others so any one of you could get on with it now 

Keep_pedalling

You don’t need a solicitor to apply for letters of administration, I would suggest that you and one of your other sensible siblings just go ahead and do it. Once you have letters of admin strati on you will have the authority to sort out the estate,

krs77

now one of the siblings was advised by Co-Op Funeral services that in order to proceed with them to apply for probate they needed to all be in agreement otherwise it would go to contentious probate, my understanding was that it couldn't as there was no will so there's nothing to contest? If anyone can point me in the right direction of the exact laws then that would be great, so many differing opinions and who knows if they're being told correctly by Co-Op, who quoted around £5k for probate which is extortionate for such a simple estate 

p00hsticks

Keep_pedalling said:

You don’t need a solicitor to apply for letters of administration, I would suggest that you and one of your other sensible siblings just go ahead and do it. Once you have letters of admin strati on you will have the authority to sort out the estate,

Although you may need to take acccount of the fact that two going ahead and applying for letters of adminstration without informing the other could cause them to take further umbrage and dig their heels in even more - only the OP is likely to know what their reaction would be to such a move.

getmore4less

Why does it need solicitor expenses?

Who is the registered owner(s) of the property

What's missing is who has died and the pecking order.

Was the deceased living in the property.

krs77

Why does it need solicitor expenses? Unsure, i think the person is not comfortable doing it themselves

Who is the registered owner(s) of the property the deceased

What's missing is who has died and the pecking order. The mother has died and leaves 4 children (all adults) so no pecking order as such

Was the deceased living in the property. yes

getmore4less

In the absence of other relatives Children are first in the pecking order

siblings have equal pecking order.

Any deceased siblings?

If any of the siblings happy to deal with the Estate they can it's not compulsory for others to be involved

If the only significant asset is the house pretty easy to get valuation and get the occupier to pay out the others shares

Occupier takes over all the property costs if they plan to stay.

krs77

So what they are being told by Co-op is incorrect? They can just apply for probate themselves without agreement from the other siblings?