Selling late father's house

smk77

Looking for some advice. My father passed away last year and his estate is split 3 ways between me, my brother and sister. We have had an offer on his house and a solicitor has started to move things forward.

I was asked in a questionnaire if I had my bank account for more than 12 months. I changed bank in February 2024 so answered no.

I am now being told that they can't pay the proceeds directly into my bank account because the account has been open less than 12 months. Therefore, I must collect the cheque from their office. The problem is, it would require me to make an inconvenient 500 mile round trip.

I had a look online and found this which, whilst not the same, does present similar circumstances.

https://www.lawsociety.org.uk/contact-or-visit-us/helplines/practice-advice-service/q-and-as/where-should-property-sale-proceeds-be-sent-if-the-seller-lives-abroad

The important bit being:

This requirement has been included in the protocol following Dreamvar (UK) Limited v Mischon de Reya (and others) [2018] EWCA Civ 1082 to give added protection that the sale proceeds are transferred to the correct person.

Use of the protocol is mandatory for Conveyancing Quality Scheme (CQS) firms and is considered preferred practice to all others.

However, solicitors are bound by professional obligations to their clients throughout the transaction.

There may be instances where a solicitor should use their professional judgement, as they are required to act in the best interests of each client. Those obligations will take precedence over the protocol.

Having skimmed the court cases, it looks like the protocol was put in place to protect the vendors solicitor (i.e. mine) and of course, the vendor (me). Bearing in mind there are 3 executors, 2 of which will get their payments electronically, I am not sure how this situation could possibly be me acting in a fraudulent way.

The final paragraph in the section I have copied above does say that they should use their professional judgement and are required to act in my best interests. Given my circumstances, I am not sure the expectation that I should do a 500 mile round trip is in my best interests. On the professional judgement side, there are 3 of us. If this was fraudulent, they'd happily pay out to 2 of the 3 of us. I am not even sure if they will / can actually check how long their accounts have been opened. I completed the questionnaire in full so they are probably taking my word for it. 

Any thoughts?

Bookworm105

solicitors must be, by definition, risk averse regarding client monies, so "hiding" behind that ruling is wise in their eyes and probably based on their own professional indemnity insurance criteria.

can your force them to ignore it, unlikely. Can you keep at them over what is your "best interest", yes of course you can.

born_again

Have you tried ringing them & explaining the situation. If you can prove old account with the same details, they may make a judgement call & pay direct.

smk77

born_again said:

Have you tried ringing them & explaining the situation. If you can prove old account with the same details, they may make a judgement call & pay direct.

thanks for the reply. When you say "prove old account" what do you mean? That it wasn't opened recently for this specific purpose? I could certainly show them it's an active account with my salary going in and my many outgoings. I will be in the area before the the property is sold. I could pop into their office, then go to the Greggs around the corner, buy a sausage roll and take it back to them. They'll see the transaction on my account

p00hsticks

smk77 said:

born_again said:

Have you tried ringing them & explaining the situation. If you can prove old account with the same details, they may make a judgement call & pay direct.

. I could pop into their office, then go to the Greggs around the corner, buy a sausage roll and take it back to them. They'll see the transaction on my account

I'm not sure that that would be helpful - in fact I suspect it might work against you. As you are not the only beneficiary, I'm a bit surprised that the solicitor is agreeing to pay it into an account in your sole name at all, as opposed to an executors account (I assume you are the sole executor?).

They might just be persuaded that the account was set up in your name specifically for the purposes of handling the estate funds in your role as executor and is only being used solely for that purpose (and you might use that an explanation for why the account was only recently set up) but if they see it  being used for other unrelated things like salary being paid in, sausage rolls being bought I think that would make them less, not more, likely to agree to any transfer into that account. 

And if they do make a payment by cheque, don't be surprised if it is made out to 'the executor of.....' 

Are the solicitors aware that this is a probate sale ?
Have they asked to see a copy of the will and/or grant of probate to confirm who the executor and beneficiaries are ?

smk77

p00hsticks said:

smk77 said:

born_again said:

Have you tried ringing them & explaining the situation. If you can prove old account with the same details, they may make a judgement call & pay direct.

. I could pop into their office, then go to the Greggs around the corner, buy a sausage roll and take it back to them. They'll see the transaction on my account

I'm not sure that that would be helpful - in fact I suspect it might work against you. As you are not the only beneficiary, I'm a bit surprised that the solicitor is agreeing to pay it into an account in your sole name at all, as opposed to an executors account (I assume you are the sole executor?).

They might just be persuaded that the account was set up in your name specifically for the purposes of handling the estate funds in your role as executor and is only being used solely for that purpose (and you might use that an explanation for why the account was only recently set up) but if they see it  being used for other unrelated things like salary being paid in, sausage rolls being bought I think that would make them less, not more, likely to agree to any transfer into that account. 

And if they do make a payment by cheque, don't be surprised if it is made out to 'the executor of.....' 

Are the solicitors aware that this is a probate sale ?
Have they asked to see a copy of the will and/or grant of probate to confirm who the executor and beneficiaries are ?

We are all executors. I was under the impression (from MSE forums) that people don't really bother with executors accounts nowadays as they're not really required. I thought most banks didn't bother.

They haven't asked for will and.or grant of probate yet but this sale only just started last week. I have had some forms through the post but I've not had a chance to look at them.

The questionnaire asks:

Do all Executor’s have UK bank account?

So, they clearly will pay into our individual accounts. Also, in the email they wrote:

If you do have an Executors account or a bank account in your sole name that has been open for over 12 months, we can pay into either of these accounts.

Also:

We will issue cheque, and you can collect if local and then where you bank this cheque is up to you.


Nothing about it being paid to the executor of...

smk77

p00hsticks said:

smk77 said:

born_again said:

Have you tried ringing them & explaining the situation. If you can prove old account with the same details, they may make a judgement call & pay direct.

. I could pop into their office, then go to the Greggs around the corner, buy a sausage roll and take it back to them. They'll see the transaction on my account

I'm not sure that that would be helpful - in fact I suspect it might work against you. As you are not the only beneficiary, I'm a bit surprised that the solicitor is agreeing to pay it into an account in your sole name at all, as opposed to an executors account (I assume you are the sole executor?).

They might just be persuaded that the account was set up in your name specifically for the purposes of handling the estate funds in your role as executor and is only being used solely for that purpose (and you might use that an explanation for why the account was only recently set up) but if they see it  being used for other unrelated things like salary being paid in, sausage rolls being bought I think that would make them less, not more, likely to agree to any transfer into that account. 

And if they do make a payment by cheque, don't be surprised if it is made out to 'the executor of.....' 

Are the solicitors aware that this is a probate sale ?
Have they asked to see a copy of the will and/or grant of probate to confirm who the executor and beneficiaries are ?

The point about the sausage roll is that I turn up with my passport, driving licence, copy of the will (which they actually held and I collected it) and Grant of Probate, bought a sausage roll and it showed up on the account I provided the details of, it's clearly me who will be getting the proceeds....and a sausage roll :

Olinda99

i suspect that the way conveyancing is going, your account will have been open a lot longer than a year when it comes to.pay the money over !

p00hsticks

smk77 said:

p00hsticks said:

smk77 said:

born_again said:

Have you tried ringing them & explaining the situation. If you can prove old account with the same details, they may make a judgement call & pay direct.

. I could pop into their office, then go to the Greggs around the corner, buy a sausage roll and take it back to them. They'll see the transaction on my account

I'm not sure that that would be helpful - in fact I suspect it might work against you. As you are not the only beneficiary, I'm a bit surprised that the solicitor is agreeing to pay it into an account in your sole name at all, as opposed to an executors account (I assume you are the sole executor?).

They might just be persuaded that the account was set up in your name specifically for the purposes of handling the estate funds in your role as executor and is only being used solely for that purpose (and you might use that an explanation for why the account was only recently set up) but if they see it  being used for other unrelated things like salary being paid in, sausage rolls being bought I think that would make them less, not more, likely to agree to any transfer into that account. 

And if they do make a payment by cheque, don't be surprised if it is made out to 'the executor of.....' 

Are the solicitors aware that this is a probate sale ?
Have they asked to see a copy of the will and/or grant of probate to confirm who the executor and beneficiaries are ?

We are all executors. I was under the impression (from MSE forums) that people don't really bother with executors accounts nowadays as they're not really required. I thought most banks didn't bother.

That's true - but while the estate is being wound up it is recommended practice that an executor keep the estate assets completely separate from their own personal finances - so even if it isn't formally badged as an 'executors' account it's very clear what income and expenditure relates to the estate and it's not mixed up with the personal expenditure of the executor. It's especially important where there is more than one beneficiary that good records are kept.  

Who's been paying for things like the house insurance for you fathers house until now ? and what's happened to any saving he might have ? It won't get over the problem of the account being less than 12 months old, but I really recommend that you set up a separate account (possibly joint with the other executors) that you use specifically and only for the estate finances. 

smk77

p00hsticks said:

smk77 said:

p00hsticks said:

smk77 said:

born_again said:

Have you tried ringing them & explaining the situation. If you can prove old account with the same details, they may make a judgement call & pay direct.

. I could pop into their office, then go to the Greggs around the corner, buy a sausage roll and take it back to them. They'll see the transaction on my account

I'm not sure that that would be helpful - in fact I suspect it might work against you. As you are not the only beneficiary, I'm a bit surprised that the solicitor is agreeing to pay it into an account in your sole name at all, as opposed to an executors account (I assume you are the sole executor?).

They might just be persuaded that the account was set up in your name specifically for the purposes of handling the estate funds in your role as executor and is only being used solely for that purpose (and you might use that an explanation for why the account was only recently set up) but if they see it  being used for other unrelated things like salary being paid in, sausage rolls being bought I think that would make them less, not more, likely to agree to any transfer into that account. 

And if they do make a payment by cheque, don't be surprised if it is made out to 'the executor of.....' 

Are the solicitors aware that this is a probate sale ?
Have they asked to see a copy of the will and/or grant of probate to confirm who the executor and beneficiaries are ?

We are all executors. I was under the impression (from MSE forums) that people don't really bother with executors accounts nowadays as they're not really required. I thought most banks didn't bother.

That's true - but while the estate is being wound up it is recommended practice that an executor keep the estate assets completely separate from their own personal finances - so even if it isn't formally badged as an 'executors' account it's very clear what income and expenditure relates to the estate and it's not mixed up with the personal expenditure of the executor. It's especially important where there is more than one beneficiary that good records are kept.  

Who's been paying for things like the house insurance for you fathers house until now ? and what's happened to any saving he might have ? It won't get over the problem of the account being less than 12 months old, but I really recommend that you set up a separate account (possibly joint with the other executors) that you use specifically and only for the estate finances. 

I have been paying house insurance and broadband. My brother is now paying CT as we are 6 months past probate.

All his investments were collected and distributed once we got probate. An amount has been kept aside for emergency costs and reimbursing insurance, broadband and CT which is in a savings account. Everything is tracked in a spreadsheet we all have access to and all under control.

Just the property to go and that's simply split 3 ways and paid out that way.

smk77

Olinda99 said:

i suspect that the way conveyancing is going, your account will have been open a lot longer than a year when it comes to.pay the money over !

Probably be November, but tbh, I feel like telling them they can distribute in February with interest.