Can a person who is owed money from a beneficiary of an estate make a claim?

JessWebster78

Hi everyone, 

My dad died intestate nearly 2 years ago. The estate has not been “wrapped up” yet but we are expecting this to happen within the next few weeks

The estate is being distributed between 4 siblings. It has recently come to light that my mum (divorced from my dad years ago) has given my brother approx £50k in the last 3 years. Some of that has been given willingly and some has been “taken” with the promise to pay some back. He has wiped my mums savings out and basically left her with nothing. 

She has only asked for £8k back. He has made several promises to do this over the last few months but hasn't so far. 

My question is: can my mum claim from the estate?  (my brothers portion) 

thanks in advance  

MattMattMattUK

JessWebster78 said:

Hi everyone, 

My dad died intestate nearly 2 years ago. The estate has not been “wrapped up” yet but we are expecting this to happen within the next few weeks

The estate is being distributed between 4 siblings. It has recently come to light that my mum (divorced from my dad years ago) has given my brother approx £50k in the last 3 years. Some of that has been given willingly and some has been “taken” with the promise to pay some back. He has wiped my mums savings out and basically left her with nothing. 

She has only asked for £8k back. He has made several promises to do this over the last few months but hasn't so far. 

My question is: can my mum claim from the estate?  (my brothers portion) 

thanks in advance  

No. She can make a claim via the courts to recover the money from your brother. 

DE_612183

Or she can ask the brother to pay off his debts out of the his inheritance.

Incidentally why has your mother not get any money from the estate?

JessWebster78

DE_612183 said:

Or she can ask the brother to pay off his debts out of the his inheritance.

Incidentally why has your mother not get any money from the estate?

Parents divorced over 40 years ago. Both had remarried. Estate has been split equally between his children 

I think at this point he’s not going to. He’s now ignoring her. We’ve had several distributions from the estate already so he could have paid her back months ago if he wanted to 😞

MattMattMattUK

JessWebster78 said:

DE_612183 said:

Or she can ask the brother to pay off his debts out of the his inheritance.

Incidentally why has your mother not get any money from the estate?

Parents divorced over 40 years ago. Both had remarried. Estate has been split equally between his children 

I think at this point he’s not going to. He’s now ignoring her. We’ve had several distributions from the estate already so he could have paid her back months ago if he wanted to 😞

Court action is the route she needs to go down to recover the funds. 

JessWebster78

Thanks for the replies 

Marcon

There are some rather glib 'court action' replies, which surely isn't the preferred route where mother and son are concerned - unless they relationship has deteriorated to the point where she wouldn't care about the fall out?

Court action isn't guaranteed to succeed unless she can demonstrate the money was a loan and/or he 'acquired' it without her consent. Can she?

JessWebster78

Marcon said:

There are some rather glib 'court action' replies, which surely isn't the preferred route where mother and son are concerned - unless they relationship has deteriorated to the point where she wouldn't care about the fall out?

Court action isn't guaranteed to succeed unless she can demonstrate the money was a loan and/or he 'acquired' it without her consent. Can she?

The relationship has completely broken down. He has treated her appallingly (not just in relation to this) I have only found out the extent of it recently. Unfortunately, she gave him her debit card whilst she was in hospital in addition to other cash and he’s completely wiped her out. There won’t be much written proof, if any tbh other than text messages so I don’t think court is an option either . I wondered if it was an “easier” option or could be used to apply some pressure but obviously not a viable option either 

thank you again 

Keep_pedalling

Who is actually administering the estate? 

otb666

Make sure you get both sides of story as may not be the case at all. This comes from experience of relative making false claims against my hubby.   Its like Chinese whispers where every time their version is retold the amounts get bigger. I would be asking for proof from mums bank statements that large amounts were coming out whilst she was in hospital. It may be a ploy for mum to have some inheritance from her ex. Mothers do play off their children against each other sometimes unfortunately. 

madbadrob

In relation to the intestate estate.  No your mum cannot make a claim against the estate to recover her monies.  Being divorced she lost any rights to that.  Your late fathers estate does not owe the debt therefore its nothing to do with it.

In relation to your reply to Marcon re your mum giiving brother debit card alas you will need to get solicitors advice on this because she as  given him her pin number and I guess permission to remove funds from her account to pay for bills etc.  If he has used money for other things she could make a claim to the police for theft and they would look into it however I suspect your mm wouldnt want to go down this route.  

I guess the real question then is does your mum want to pursue this down the legal route?  If not then maybe you could get your mum to put it in writing in her will for example that your brothwer has had sums of xxx and that this is to be paid back to the aagreed 8k level before he is to get anything from her estate. 

I wish you all the luck in the world and condolences on losing your dad

Rob