Will she lose her home. Executor (solicitor) not responding after 4 years

mummydtothreeboys

Can anyone please help me? My friend lost her husband 4 years ago.  His mother died 2 days before him.  Her mother in law and husband both had their solicitor as the executor.  The executor isn't replying to any correspondence and she now has taken on a new solicitor but still they aren't getting anywhere. She isn't on the mortgage and was advised not to pay the mortgage until the house is in her name (she is the sole beneficiary). 4 years on and and she has been given 7 days to pay the mortgage or bailiffs will be instructed.  The Halifax won't speak to her. She has taken the will, probate and death certificate in to them numerous times and they say they can only speak with he executor.  He hasn't paid the mortgage for her and she is in a terrible panic. Can anyone advise her on what to do please.  Thanks

Brie

Has she tried talking to the bereavement team for the bank?  Someone in a branch may not know how best to deal with these types of situations and will just follow normal procedures.  A person who is used to dealing with bereavements and all that entails will know what can be done that is outside the standard procedures but still within best practice.  

If the executor is supposed to be paying the mortgage then presumably there is money somewhere for this to be done.  Does she know where that is and how much is available?  That might be useful information to pass along to the bank so they better understand that the mortgage will be paid.  Frankly getting the bailiffs involved is expensive and a bank will not want the bad publicity of seeing "Halifax drags grieving widow from home" type headlines.

Keep_pedalling

This seems a very strange case. Has she seen her husbands will?

tls123

Is her solicitor trying to get the executor to rescind as executor? Has probate been granted? If she was married how was the house registered on land registry? Was there life insurance to pay off the mortgage on his death? 4 years seems along time how has she been told to pay by the Halifax if the Halifax won’t speak to her?

mattojgb

Unless there was very little equity in the property and the mortgage was not affordable I can't think of why it would be a good idea not to continue paying a mortgage when the person concerned was sole beneficiary and intending to continue to live in the property.

Whether it is now worth paying off the mortgage is a different question depending on how much equity is left in the property. As well compounding interest there will no doubt be charges added to the mortgage.

tls123

The Halifax gives beneficiaries/ family 14 months to get probate on their help pages. If probate has been granted then I am not sure of the delay with the beneficiary taking ownership of the property, once probate has been granted if there is not sufficient monies to pay the mortgage wouldn’t the property need to be sold to pay off the debts and any remainder passing to beneficiary. If she has her own solicitor have they considered court action against the executor if they are failing in their responsibilities to administer the estate. Without more facts it’s hard to advise. 

badmemory

Is the problem that the completion of the mothers estate is holding up the completion of the husbands with the deaths being so close it could be causing issues.  If no-one will tell you about the mother-in-laws will it is possible to check for it on the website.

msb1234

This doesn’t make complete sense. First of all, it’s important to know what the will says. If it says the house is left to the widow then that’s straightforward. It just needs to be transferred over on the Land Registry. However, and this is very important, if there is an outstanding mortgage charge against the property this has to be settled before the Land Registry transfer can be completed. 

I suspect you haven’t got the full information from your friend here - the mortgage company will have sent her lots of communications regarding the mortgage arrears before it got to this stage. 

doodling

Hi,

mummydtothreeboys said:

Can anyone please help me? My friend lost her husband 4 years ago.  His mother died 2 days before him.  Her mother in law and husband both had their solicitor as the executor.  The executor isn't replying to any correspondence and she now has taken on a new solicitor but still they aren't getting anywhere. She isn't on the mortgage and was advised not to pay the mortgage until the house is in her name (she is the sole beneficiary). 4 years on and and she has been given 7 days to pay the mortgage or bailiffs will be instructed.  The Halifax won't speak to her. She has taken the will, probate and death certificate in to them numerous times and they say they can only speak with he executor.  He hasn't paid the mortgage for her and she is in a terrible panic. Can anyone advise her on what to do please.  Thanks

If the Halifax won't speak to her the why are they telling her to leave?

What has already happened with respect to the house?  Bailiffs are involved at the end of a legal process, not at the start so if the bank thinks that it can instruct them there may already have been a court case.

If there is legal certainty that she will be the sole beneficiary then I don't see why she shouldn't pay the outstanding mortgage money - her new solicitor should he able to give a view on that very quickly.

The big issue here is the original executor.  At this point she (or her solicitor) needs to get hold of them and find out what has happened.  Finding solicitors is relatively easy - the SRA would be a good place to start but her new solicitor will know that.

Does she know anything about her MiL's will?  It is possible that arguments about that could have delayed execution of her husband's but there really isn't any excuse for the lack of communication from the executor.