My Partner Inherited a Home/Solicitor is Executor What are Their Duties?

myboyollie

My partner is a UK citizen but lives in the US. He flew back when his mum fell ill. She died in January. He stayed there for a month and took care of all of her belongings, cleaned and painted and repaired the house to get it ready to sell. A solicitor is the executor of the will. He met with her several times. She had him giver her the keys to the house, all of her bills and account numbers etc. She told him that they would take care of everything...pay her bills, list the house, distribute some money she left to a few relatives. After he flew back to the US everything seems to have changed and has now become a bit of a nightmare. For some reason, while he was there the hospital was too backlogged to issue a death certificate. They finally did AFTER he was back here. The funeral home couldn't cremate her until there was payment. He paid for it with his credit card even though the solicitor said they would take care of the payment with money from the estate. He was also under the impression that they were paying the utilities. He just found out that they haven't been. He got an email from a different solicitor at the same firm telling him that he actually had legally owned the house from the date of her death and that it had been his responsibility to be paying the bills all along. We are in a bit of a pickle and are not sure what to do. We don't have any of her account numbers. The utility companies won't give us any information like if the power is even still on because the house isn't in his name. The solicitor wants him to pay them $500 to deal with the power company and won't answer any of his questions about if they have distributed any of the payouts to his nieces and nephews. Can anyone tell me what the solicitor is actually supposed to be doing as Executor? They listed the house but never sent us a copy of the contract they signed with the agent. My partner hasn't been happy with his handling of marketing her house and wants to switch agents but we are getting very little to no information from the solicitor. Any information or advice would be greatly appreciated!

doodling

Hi,

Unless the house was jointly owned by your partner then in fact, the executors owned it from the point of death.

If the executors have listed the house for sale whilst claiming that they don't own it then it might be worth pointing out to them that they are trying to sell something they say they don't own.

It is the executors job to sort out the estate so even if your partner did own the house from point of death then the executor should have closed the deceased's utility accounts and notified your partner that they should take them over.

I feel a complaint to the solicitors might be appropriate.

Marcon

Has probate been granted? You can check here, free, if you aren't sure: https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate 

myboyollie

Probate has been granted but hasn't finished yet. He can't register the house in his name until probate is done. He has tried to complain but the solicitor's office is basically ignoring him. He can't even get the utilities to tell him if the electricity is still on because the house is not in his name. They also haven't answered his questions about whether the disbursements have been made. I have read dozens of articles about probate. Some say that the house is his from date of death and some articles say it isn't his until it is registered with the land registry.

RAS

The "estate of mum" is the legal owner of the property and is responsible for insurance, meeting the insurance requirements, Council Tax and utilities.

It is normal for the funeral directors to send the bill directly to the bank holding the deceased's money and your partner should have known the details because he should have informed the bank that she had died. It is the one bill that banks routinely pay before probate is granted.

The "estate of mum" is managed by the executor(s). So they should have informed the utilities that the "estate of mum" is the account holder from the date of death.

Apart the insurance, all the accounts expect to be paid before the estate is distributed. There may also be DWP debts if overpayments were made after death. Which is quite possible if the death certificate was delayed as normally the DWP learn from the Tell Us Once facility that can be activated when the death is registered.

Solicitors are always much slower that private probate cases. Generally they wait at least 6 months after probate is granted. If you read threads here you will learn that executors have no duty to keep beneficiaries informed, and that because the executors are lawyers every contact your partner makes will incur high fees. 

There's a sort of old thing about the executor's year, so it's not really sensible to contact the solicitors until a year after probate was granted. 

You mention that some money is to be distributed to relatives? Does your partner know roughly what his status is in the will? Is he to receive a specific bequest, or is he a residual beneficiary?

Has he checked Rightmove to find out if the property has been put on the market? There may be CGT to pay after the sale, so the executors won't even know the value of the estate until the sale is finalised.

molerat

Why is he trying to get the house in his name ?  It would be far simpler for the executors to sell the house from within the estate, saves a lot of complications.  As for the household bills, if the house is not owned by him then the executor is responsible for paying the bills.  As above, a complaint is justified.  An executor has a legal duty and a solicitor should be more held to account as they should know what is expected of them.

GDB2222

You can clear up some of the confusion by downloading the title of the property at the land registry. Cost is £7, and can see immediately who the registered owner is. 

https://www.gov.uk/search-property-information-land-registrySearch for land and property information - GOV.UK

Why not start with this, and then we can help with the next step. 

msb1234

The house doesn't need to be put in his name - in fact it’s better not to. The Land registry transfer will be done from the deceased to the buyer upon completion of the sale. 

myboyollie

Hello...thank you all for responding. This has been the problem all along...conflicting information...even from the solicitors office. His mum left him everything...which basically was the house, valued at around 200K. She had a small amount of money in the bank, roughly 18K. 8K of that is to be distributed to four of her grandchildren, his nieces and nephews. We were assuming the rest was being used for taxes and utilities and solicitor fees. We have been paying for lawn maintenance. His mum thought she was doing the right thing by making the solicitor the executor. She didn't want to be a burden on my partner after her death.

myboyollie

molerat said:

Why is he trying to get the house in his name ?  It would be far simpler for the executors to sell the house from within the estate, saves a lot of complications.  As for the household bills, if the house is not owned by him then the executor is responsible for paying the bills.  As above, a complaint is justified.  An executor has a legal duty and a solicitor should be more held to account as they should know what is expected of 

He thought the solicitor, as the executor, was paying her bills as that is what he was told when he met her in her office when he was there. Last week a different solicitor from the same firm emailed him and told him that they were not responsible for paying her bills as he actually is the owner of the house at date of her death. He had left all of the bills, account numbers...with them. None of the utilities...etc. will deal with him because the house is not in his name. The solicitor had the house listed but won't pay the bills and because the house is not in his name he can't even find out if the electricity is still on.

myboyollie

RAS said:

The "estate of mum" is the legal owner of the property and is responsible for insurance, meeting the insurance requirements, Council Tax and utilities.

It is normal for the funeral directors to send the bill directly to the bank holding the deceased's money and your partner should have known the details because he should have informed the bank that she had died. It is the one bill that banks routinely pay before probate is granted.

The "estate of mum" is managed by the executor(s). So they should have informed the utilities that the "estate of mum" is the account holder from the date of death.

Apart the insurance, all the accounts expect to be paid before the estate is distributed. There may also be DWP debts if overpayments were made after death. Which is quite possible if the death certificate was delayed as normally the DWP learn from the Tell Us Once facility that can be activated when the death is registered.

Solicitors are always much slower that private probate cases. Generally they wait at least 6 months after probate is granted. If you read threads here you will learn that executors have no duty to keep beneficiaries informed, and that because the executors are lawyers every contact your partner makes will incur high fees. 

There's a sort of old thing about the executor's year, so it's not really sensible to contact the solicitors until a year after probate was granted. 

You mention that some money is to be distributed to relatives? Does your partner know roughly what his status is in the will? Is he to receive a specific bequest, or is he a residual beneficiary?

Has he checked Rightmove to find out if the property has been put on the market? There may be CGT to pay after the sale, so the executors won't even know the value of the estate until the sale is finalised.

When he was there, he was told by the solicitor at a meeting in her office that they needed all of the information on her bills, bank account etc. He had a second meeting with her and gave her all of her bills, which were just things like utilities...her checkbook and savings book, the keys to the house. She told him that he could donate her belongings and get the house ready for sale, but they would take care of everything else. He was there for a month. He cleaned, painted, and made repairs to the house. Arranged all removal of her belongings, except for some of the furniture so it would look good for showings. He did all of this at his own expense. They did not reimburse him at all out of her money. The hospital was really backed up so she was in their morgue until after he got home. The solicitor said they would pay the funeral home, but they didn't so we did.  I believe when he was there he cancelled her cell phone and internet...closed some of her accounts like Asda and Amazon. She died on Boxing Day. Last week he got an email from a different solicitor from the same office telling him that he had owned the house since the date of her death so he had been responsible for all of the bills this whole time. He left everything with them so he doesn't have any of the account numbers and the utility company won't talk to him because the house is not in his name. This has all been very upsetting. His mum thought she was being less of a burden by naming the solicitor as executor. About the money disbursements. She left 8K to her grandchildren, from whom she was estranged. This was on advice of this same solicitor. She said that they wouldn't be able to contest the will if she did that. She left everything apart from the 8K to my partner...this consists mainly of the house valued at around 200K. There was less than 20K in her bank account that we thought the solicitor was using for the bills and their fees.