what happens if an executor dies

dragon1234

Mojisola wrote: »

Yes, he can continue as a lone executor.

Thanks for the reply Mojisola - just to clarify - my uncle's widow is trying to get another executor to replace her deceased husband because she knows that if my dad is the only executor that the will is likely to go more in his favour. Can she insist on having another executor appointed or does she have no rights?

Thanks,

NAR

The whole idea of having two or more executors is to cover the situation of one or more of the executors dying before the will maker has died. dragon1234 your father is the only living executor named in the will and it will be his duty alone (if he accepts it) to execute the will. The uncle's widow has no rights.

The directions of the will have to be carried out to the letter, so can you explain further what is meant by " she knows that if my dad is the only executor that the will is likely to go more in his favour?"

LandyAndy

NAR wrote: »

The whole idea of having two or more executors is to cover the situation of one or more of the executors dying before the will maker has died. dragon1234 your father is the only living executor named in the will and it will be his duty alone (if he accepts it) to execute the will. The uncle's widow has no rights.

The directions of the will have to be carried out to the letter, so can you explain further what is meant by " she knows that if my dad is the only executor that the will is likely to go more in his favour?"

How about 'I leave my 12 gold sovereigns to my sons in the quantity of six each' Maybe six are very valuable and six much less so?

dragon1234

NAR wrote: »

The whole idea of having two or more executors is to cover the situation of one or more of the executors dying before the will maker has died. dragon1234 your father is the only living executor named in the will and it will be his duty alone (if he accepts it) to execute the will. The uncle's widow has no rights.

The directions of the will have to be carried out to the letter, so can you explain further what is meant by " she knows that if my dad is the only executor that the will is likely to go more in his favour?"

Great, thanks for the clarification. My grandparents died between 4 and 6 years ago now, and neither wills have been carried out because there has been disagreement between the 2 executors - my father and his brother.

There has been disagreement over a number of points, primarily about property. Firstly, there is a house which my uncle thought had been given to him a few years ago, however the deeds were never changed to his name and the will said that it should come to my dad. Secondly, there is a parcel of agricultural land which has been left to me and my sister in the will, however my uncle had been using this land for his business for a number of years, and so his wife is claiming that the land should be theirs because they had been using it for the good part of 10 years for their business and because they invested in the land by building a few service buildings on it.

We have been through 3 solicitors who have all charged £££ and not progressed at all with the matter so now we are trying to sort it out ourselves however it feels very complicated.

NAR

dragon1234 wrote: »

There has been disagreement over a number of points, primarily about property. Firstly, there is a house which my uncle thought had been given to him a few years ago, however the deeds were never changed to his name and the will said that it should come to my dad.

This is quite clear cut, the property is your fathers, it is clearly left to him in the will. I see no reason why you cannot change ownership now.

Secondly, there is a parcel of agricultural land which has been left to me and my sister in the will, however my uncle had been using this land for his business for a number of years, and so his wife is claiming that the land should be theirs because they had been using it for the good part of 10 years for their business and because they invested in the land by building a few service buildings on it.

This is obviously more complicated. Was he paying rent? Did he have permission to develop the site? (especially seeing as it is agricultural land)

We have been through 3 solicitors who have all charged £££ and not progressed at all with the matter so now we are trying to sort it out ourselves however it feels very complicated.

I'm not suprised. The bottom line is the land has been left to you and your sister, but your inheritance is getting quickly eradicated by solicitors' bills, which are not going to diminish unless you can come to some agreement. Where do you draw the line?

daska

NAR is right, your inheritance could ultimately be reduced to a pile of worthless paperwork.

If his widow shows signs of continuing to contest it may be cheaper to point out to her that the estate will have to sell the land to pay the legal bills and you should all consider compromising, maybe she would be satisfied with a life interest in the land so that it reverts to your sister and yourself when she dies?

dragon1234

Hi all, I have a quick follow up question, any advice appreciated...

Property was left to my father in my grandfathers will. However many years before his death, my grandfather gave the deeds to the property to my uncle so that he could borrow money from the bank, using the property as security.

We have requested the deeds back from my uncle (who recently passed away, his wife is administering his affairs) however they claim to have lost the documents. We think that they might still be borrowing money against the deeds, and that this might be why they can't give us the deed papers - because they are held by the bank.

My question - how can we find out if they are still using the property deeds as security against a loan?

Mojisola

Don't know for sure but I think if you start the process of registering the house at the Land Registry, saying that the deeds are lost which is what you have been told, any debts against the property will soon be flagged up.

I think you do need legal advice in difficult cases like this.

Crabapple

There is a possibility that if there was a secured loan then the lender has those deeds rather than the family.

If the property is registered (probably not in this case) then any secured borrowing would be on the title. Unregistered land - you can do a Land Charges search (I don't know if you can do this yourselves but check out the Land Registry website) to see if there is anything recorded against the names of owners or your uncle and aunt at the property.

If you apply for first registration on the basis of lost deeds that might unearth things, but you'd need to do those searches anyway. You'll also need to swear declarations regarding the ownership of the property so you will need to get legal advice to get the registration prepared.

dragon1234

My grandfather owned a property. Many years ago, my grandfather attempted to gift the property to my uncle but the registration failed because the bank wouldn't release the deeds because my father was borrowing against the property.

It was later registered in my fathers name as he was changing the bank that was lending the money against the property, and the registration went through and all documents signed by my grandfather.

Who know owns the property? Does my uncles estate have any claim?