2 years since death of both parents and wills have not even been submitted for probate = Despair !

happyhelston

Ill try to condense 2 years+ and open this up for anyone that might have something they can suggest.
Dad died Jun 21 - Mum died Feb 22. They were together 65+ years. Dad left money and property which went to Mum along with beneficiary splits between 4 siblings 49% 49% 1% 1% (I was a 1%).
As Mum lived after Dad she requested a new will. She had one prepared at an even 25% each. She had a 'contest this and get nothing clause'
One of the 49% siblings is not happy with this for so many reasons. Her husband is one of two executors. 

We have spent 2 years back and forth with solicitors and she has finally agreed to mediation in Sept but in the meantime offered me 1% so I dont feel she is serious about mediation.

We feel her husband should have submitted the will of both Dad immediately and Mum later but he hasnt as he is married to her and allowed her time to contact the solicitors. As far as we know there is not a caveat in place.

Our solicitor is keen on mediation - we are keen to get her to stop threatening court and get her to 'put up or shut up' - 

Does anyone have suggestions regarding how we can tackle a) the executor brother in law who is doing nothing b) anyone have any experience of CPR64.2 and how we might do this?

Estate is 600k and we have spent 50k - she has spent goodness knows how much using no win no fee. Anything we can do ourselves I am keen to do.

Thank you so much for reading and anything you can help with - thank you

elsien

 Who is the second executor and what are they doing about all of this? Do you know if Mum’s second will was properly signed and valid?

happyhelston

elsien said:

 Who is the second executor and what are they doing about all of this? Do you know if Mum’s second will was properly signed and valid?

Other executor is my sibling who was originally 49%. He thought he could make my sister see sense - we knew that would never happen. He is with me and my brother using the same solicitor as a group case but I think he is just unsure what to do - if it were me alone, Id have had this done months ago - !! He doesnt have the original will, its at my sisters solicitors.

Mums will was produced at home (i know it drives me nuts too!) - witnessed by neighbours who have known her for about 15 years - this is partly the issue, my sister is claiming she didnt know what she was doing but truth is Mum was told she needed urgent treatment/scans before she was moved to my sisters as they thought she may have cancer - my sister refused and when Mum went to live near her (seperate accommodation) she said she was just not eating properly - 3 months and she died. All very sad and very frustrating.

Marcon

happyhelston said:

Ill try to condense 2 years+ and open this up for anyone that might have something they can suggest.
Dad died Jun 21 - Mum died Feb 22. They were together 65+ years. Dad left money and property which went to Mum along with beneficiary splits between 4 siblings 49% 49% 1% 1% (I was a 1%).
As Mum lived after Dad she requested a new will. She had one prepared at an even 25% each. She had a 'contest this and get nothing clause'
One of the 49% siblings is not happy with this for so many reasons. Her husband is one of two executors. 

We have spent 2 years back and forth with solicitors and she has finally agreed to mediation in Sept but in the meantime offered me 1% so I dont feel she is serious about mediation.

We feel her husband should have submitted the will of both Dad immediately and Mum later but he hasnt as he is married to her and allowed her time to contact the solicitors. As far as we know there is not a caveat in place.

Our solicitor is keen on mediation - we are keen to get her to stop threatening court and get her to 'put up or shut up' - 

Does anyone have suggestions regarding how we can tackle a) the executor brother in law who is doing nothing b) anyone have any experience of CPR64.2 and how we might do this?

Estate is 600k and we have spent 50k - she has spent goodness knows how much using no win no fee. Anything we can do ourselves I am keen to do.

Thank you so much for reading and anything you can help with - thank you

I think your solicitor is best placed to help and advise you - and mediation sounds an excellent idea. Why are you not in favour of that (ie why are you asking here for alternative thoughts)? I appreciate that you'd like to save legal costs, and probably your own sanity(!), but it really isn't advisable to rely on input from random strangers based on a couple of paragraphs of 'information'. There is always so much more to take into account.

Flugelhorn

Trying to understand this - was it case of your Dad's will saying "all to mum but if she predeceased him then the 49/49/1/1 split?" 
If so then probate may not have been needed for your Dad as all went to mum

then mum changed her will to 4*25% ? which she is perfectly entitled to do 

Apart from the fact that your Dad's will left everything to mum it is now not relevant - what needs to be sorted is your mum's will and  so long as it is valid everything gets split 4 ways 

what is the disagreement about? 

happyhelston

Marcon said:

happyhelston said:

Ill try to condense 2 years+ and open this up for anyone that might have something they can suggest.
Dad died Jun 21 - Mum died Feb 22. They were together 65+ years. Dad left money and property which went to Mum along with beneficiary splits between 4 siblings 49% 49% 1% 1% (I was a 1%).
As Mum lived after Dad she requested a new will. She had one prepared at an even 25% each. She had a 'contest this and get nothing clause'
One of the 49% siblings is not happy with this for so many reasons. Her husband is one of two executors. 

We have spent 2 years back and forth with solicitors and she has finally agreed to mediation in Sept but in the meantime offered me 1% so I dont feel she is serious about mediation.

We feel her husband should have submitted the will of both Dad immediately and Mum later but he hasnt as he is married to her and allowed her time to contact the solicitors. As far as we know there is not a caveat in place.

Our solicitor is keen on mediation - we are keen to get her to stop threatening court and get her to 'put up or shut up' - 

Does anyone have suggestions regarding how we can tackle a) the executor brother in law who is doing nothing b) anyone have any experience of CPR64.2 and how we might do this?

Estate is 600k and we have spent 50k - she has spent goodness knows how much using no win no fee. Anything we can do ourselves I am keen to do.

Thank you so much for reading and anything you can help with - thank you

I think your solicitor is best placed to help and advise you - and mediation sounds an excellent idea. Why are you not in favour of that (ie why are you asking here for alternative thoughts)? I appreciate that you'd like to save legal costs, and probably your own sanity(!), but it really isn't advisable to rely on input from random strangers based on a couple of paragraphs of 'information'. There is always so much more to take into account.

Absolutely understand that it is incredibly complex and also only my side but I was looking to see if there were any avenues we have missed over the last two years of letters back and forth and not much else that would 'encourage' the executor to act or something we may have missed.
We have attempted mediation from the beginning but the 50k we have paid out has definitely proven to be draining so finding another 25k with no guarantee of a resolution is something we had hoped to avoid.

Sea_Shell

happyhelston said:

Ill try to condense 2 years+ and open this up for anyone that might have something they can suggest.
Dad died Jun 21 - Mum died Feb 22. They were together 65+ years. Dad left money and property which went to Mum along with beneficiary splits between 4 siblings 49% 49% 1% 1% (I was a 1%).
As Mum lived after Dad she requested a new will. She had one prepared at an even 25% each. She had a 'contest this and get nothing clause'
One of the 49% siblings is not happy with this for so many reasons. Her husband is one of two executors. 

We have spent 2 years back and forth with solicitors and she has finally agreed to mediation in Sept but in the meantime offered me 1% so I dont feel she is serious about mediation.

We feel her husband should have submitted the will of both Dad immediately and Mum later but he hasnt as he is married to her and allowed her time to contact the solicitors. As far as we know there is not a caveat in place.

Our solicitor is keen on mediation - we are keen to get her to stop threatening court and get her to 'put up or shut up' - 

Does anyone have suggestions regarding how we can tackle a) the executor brother in law who is doing nothing b) anyone have any experience of CPR64.2 and how we might do this?

Estate is 600k and we have spent 50k - she has spent goodness knows how much using no win no fee. Anything we can do ourselves I am keen to do.

Thank you so much for reading and anything you can help with - thank you

Sorry if I haven't followed this correctly, but how can anyone know what a 25% share of mums estate amounts to, if Dad's hasn't been administered yet.

Why would a "49%er" be unhappy?

They would get their original 49% of the residuary of Dads estate, PLUS now 25% of Mum's estate.

Are they arguing they should get 49% of everything?!?

Keep_pedalling

The husband of the sibling contesting the will should no longer be able to act in that capacity with his spouse contesting it. You can’t administer an estate and challenge the will at the same time. The same applies if the executor’s spouse is challenging it. 

BreakfastTea18

I have a slightly similar situation (estate similar amount)  in that my brother who will be co executor is challenging ownership of a plot of land (mum didn't leave a will) and therefore shouldn't be in a position of administration of the estate due to a conflict of interests.   How come this hasn't been challenged by your solicitor? 

How have you run up 50k worth of legal bills,? Is that just through correspondence ? This terrifies me as I'm at the start of a momumental battle to obtain letters of administration with an obstructive joint administrator and beneficiary. 

Flugelhorn

Sea_Shell said:

happyhelston said:

Ill try to condense 2 years+ and open this up for anyone that might have something they can suggest.
Dad died Jun 21 - Mum died Feb 22. They were together 65+ years. Dad left money and property which went to Mum along with beneficiary splits between 4 siblings 49% 49% 1% 1% (I was a 1%).
As Mum lived after Dad she requested a new will. She had one prepared at an even 25% each. She had a 'contest this and get nothing clause'
One of the 49% siblings is not happy with this for so many reasons. Her husband is one of two executors. 

We have spent 2 years back and forth with solicitors and she has finally agreed to mediation in Sept but in the meantime offered me 1% so I dont feel she is serious about mediation.

We feel her husband should have submitted the will of both Dad immediately and Mum later but he hasnt as he is married to her and allowed her time to contact the solicitors. As far as we know there is not a caveat in place.

Our solicitor is keen on mediation - we are keen to get her to stop threatening court and get her to 'put up or shut up' - 

Does anyone have suggestions regarding how we can tackle a) the executor brother in law who is doing nothing b) anyone have any experience of CPR64.2 and how we might do this?

Estate is 600k and we have spent 50k - she has spent goodness knows how much using no win no fee. Anything we can do ourselves I am keen to do.

Thank you so much for reading and anything you can help with - thank you

Sorry if I haven't followed this correctly, but how can anyone know what a 25% share of mums estate amounts to, if Dad's hasn't been administered yet.

Why would a "49%er" be unhappy?

They would get their original 49% of the residuary of Dads estate, PLUS now 25% of Mum's estate.

Are they arguing they should get 49% of everything?!?

I am not sure if I get it either but suspect that both wills said the estate went to each other but if one predeceased the other then the estate was split 49/49/1/1 - The mother changed this to 25% shares so the 49% ers miss out - if this is the case then surely they have to prove that the second  will was not valid?

Sea_Shell

Flugelhorn said:

Sea_Shell said:

happyhelston said:

Ill try to condense 2 years+ and open this up for anyone that might have something they can suggest.
Dad died Jun 21 - Mum died Feb 22. They were together 65+ years. Dad left money and property which went to Mum along with beneficiary splits between 4 siblings 49% 49% 1% 1% (I was a 1%).
As Mum lived after Dad she requested a new will. She had one prepared at an even 25% each. She had a 'contest this and get nothing clause'
One of the 49% siblings is not happy with this for so many reasons. Her husband is one of two executors. 

We have spent 2 years back and forth with solicitors and she has finally agreed to mediation in Sept but in the meantime offered me 1% so I dont feel she is serious about mediation.

We feel her husband should have submitted the will of both Dad immediately and Mum later but he hasnt as he is married to her and allowed her time to contact the solicitors. As far as we know there is not a caveat in place.

Our solicitor is keen on mediation - we are keen to get her to stop threatening court and get her to 'put up or shut up' - 

Does anyone have suggestions regarding how we can tackle a) the executor brother in law who is doing nothing b) anyone have any experience of CPR64.2 and how we might do this?

Estate is 600k and we have spent 50k - she has spent goodness knows how much using no win no fee. Anything we can do ourselves I am keen to do.

Thank you so much for reading and anything you can help with - thank you

Sorry if I haven't followed this correctly, but how can anyone know what a 25% share of mums estate amounts to, if Dad's hasn't been administered yet.

Why would a "49%er" be unhappy?

They would get their original 49% of the residuary of Dads estate, PLUS now 25% of Mum's estate.

Are they arguing they should get 49% of everything?!?

I am not sure if I get it either but suspect that both wills said the estate went to each other but if one predeceased the other then the estate was split 49/49/1/1 - The mother changed this to 25% shares so the 49% ers miss out - if this is the case then surely they have to prove that the second  will was not valid?

That makes more sense.

Mum inherited everything on her husband's death.