Probate and executors ( Scotland )

Ollie01

Hi my late wifes mother passed away about 4 years ago and my late wife and her sister were executors of her estate . Some background information may help . My wife and I were planning on buying out her sisters half of a house and moving to Scotland as my wife had lived in England for almost 30 years and wanted to go back home . Sadly my wife passed away last year and since then I have tried to buy my sister in law's 50% but she is unwilling to sell it for some reason . My sister in law hasnt worked for the best part of her adult life apart from a few cash in hand jobs . She told my lawyer when I was sorting out my wife's estate that she wanted to sell the home as soon as possible to stop the bills mounting up but 12 months later she has done nothing to the home or garden ( which is now well over grown ) and hasn't been lived in for the past 4 years since the passing of their mum . I have offered her what I think is a fair price for the home but she still wants more . I did try to get 3 estate agents to come and value the home last Oct but my sister in law told me it was nothing to do with me and that she is the executor which I suppose is right but I want her to sort the garden out and at least put it up for sale so I can at least put in my offer for it . she wont get off her butt and do anything about the garden and hasn't even been over to it for almost 12 months now ( she has only been over to the home 3 times in the last 18 months ) 
I guess all I am asking for is a little advice on what I can do ( if anything ) to get her to buck up her ideas and sort the home out one way or another . She needs the money from the sale to live on as she wont get much of a pension from the govt due to not working most of her adult life so its really for her benefit to sort things out one way or the other .

Keep_pedalling

It has everything to do with you as you now own half the house after inheriting from your wife, and if you MILs estate has still not been wound up, as your wife’s executor you now have the same authority as you wife had to finalise and distribute the estate.

In you position I would forget about trying to buy out her share and insist the house is sold on the open market ASAP. You may need to take legal action to have her removed if she won’t cooperate. 

Do you know if confirmation (Scottish version of probate) has actually been applied for and granted?

Ollie01

Keep_pedalling said:

It has everything to do with you as you now own half the house after inheriting from your wife, and if you MILs estate has still not been wound up, as your wife’s executor you now have the same authority as you wife had to finalise and distribute the estate.

In you position I would forget about trying to buy out her share and insist the house is sold on the open market ASAP. You may need to take legal action to have her removed if she won’t cooperate. 

Do you know if confirmation (Scottish version of probate) has actually been applied for and granted?

yes confirmation of my mother in law's estate has been completed but I was under the impression as the only executors had any legal right to deal with the estate and those were my late wife and her sister has they were the named executors in their mums will 

RAS

If an executor dies before the estate is finalised, their executor gains the legal responsibility to finalise the estate. I'm not sure how you or the solicitor sorted out your wife's estate without finalising her mother's? 

That's English law anyway, maybe @buddy9 might advise if this is the same in Scotland?

Savvy_Sue

Except it seems that if you are now owner of half a house, following your wife's death, then it would be for your wife's executor to take some action.  Apparently not, see below, but the rest of what I said still stands. 

but I suspect you're going to need 'proper' legal advice from someone with a knowledge of the process in Scotland to push this forward. 

To give her some tolerance, your sister-in-law has lost her mum and her sister, and may resent your desire to move north when her sister can't. I'm not saying she's right (she's not), but she may be struggling to take that final step of separation. 

buddy9

Where there is a co-executor scenario and a Grant of Confirmation has been issued, if one executor then dies, the office of executor sits only with the surviving executor.

The dispute over the house value has presumably influenced the resolution and extended the timescale. As KP says, perhaps you should push for the house to be sold on the open market.

Ollie01

buddy9 said:

Where there is a co-executor scenario and a Grant of Confirmation has been issued, if one executor then dies, the office of executor sits only with the surviving executor.

The dispute over the house value has presumably influenced the resolution and extended the timescale. As KP says, perhaps you should push for the house to be sold on the open market.

Thanks @buddy_9 My sister in law told my lawyer in Oct last year when my late wife's estate was sorted that she wanted to put the house on the open market as she didn't want the bills to mount up but has done nothing in order to do that ( either tidy up the garden/house ready for it to go on sale ) . I honestly think she is just waiting for me to up my offer for the house without doing any work whatsoever but with the amount of work the garden/house needs I have reached the max I am prepared to pay ( which is £25k above what it was valued 4 years ago for her mother's estate ) . My wife and I paid for an alarm system as the house was burgled after my mother in law passed away because my sister didnt tell us the home insurance had ran out , We also put in a new boiler , upgraded the fuse board to cope with a new shower which we also paid to be installed and I'm still paying for the internet which is needed for the alarm system .

Ollie01

Savvy_Sue said:

Except it seems that if you are now owner of half a house, following your wife's death, then it would be for your wife's executor to take some action.  Apparently not, see below, but the rest of what I said still stands. 

but I suspect you're going to need 'proper' legal advice from someone with a knowledge of the process in Scotland to push this forward. 

To give her some tolerance, your sister-in-law has lost her mum and her sister, and may resent your desire to move north when her sister can't. I'm not saying she's right (she's not), but she may be struggling to take that final step of separation. 

Thanks for your input @Savvy_Sue I understand what you are saying about losing her sister but her mother passed away towards the end of covid and while my wife and I went up for the funeral we both resided in England . To give you an idea of what sort of person my sister in law is she has not collected her mothers ashes yet ( a number of years after the covid restrictions have ended) . My sister in law has been over to the house a total of 3 times in the last 18 months and that was to get some of my wife's possessions that I had taken up to the house for her as she came down by train to the funeral ( the last time being in Oct last year ) . But as I have said previously her parents kept her and paid all her bills for her up until her mother passed away and even then my wife paid her £1000 per month for about 12 months until my wife found out about her illness . My sister in law thinks the world owes her a living while doing nothing to get a job or earn her own money and she was desperate for the money from the sale of the house as it was her "pension" and supposed to be an income in her old age . 

Yes I may seem petty but I have to be honest I am angry that she thought my wife was going to take over and pay for her to sit on her bum and do nothing for the rest of her life .