Will Questions

[PinkSalad]

Recently, my mother passed away, and I’m one of two main beneficiaries appointed to communicate with the executor (her solicitor) plus there are another four beneficiaries.


My mother had the right to live in her deceased partner's house (now owned by his 3 sons). She lived there for 2 years after his death.


After my mother died, on the executor/solicitor's instruction I removed my mother's things and I left furniture/ornaments/pictures, and everything that belonged to her deceased partner. I did leave furniture she took with her when she first moved into the property 14 years ago, I was of the understanding I wasn’t allowed to touch it. She did replace some furniture with new furniture (after her partner died) when she lived there, so I decided to leave that furniture, but I did take a chest of drawers purchased after his death (mother’s partner). I was going in accordance of how I understood the Will (liferent) or thought I did.


I had mentioned I removed the chest of drawers to the executor/solicitor, and she just looked at me in an alarming way as if I did something wrong. Also told her I’d taken photographs, and she told me to keep them in case there were any problems. I told her I would pay for them if there was an issue.


This was just after I had continual contact with one of the sons and handed the keys to the solicitor, apart from one key. Unknown to the solicitor, I’d given the son the key as I was really keen on them accessing the house to do their part, so they could get on with clearing the house and put it on the market.


The son whom I was in continual contact with, asked occasionally if I’d collected all my mother's things. I replied ‘Yes’. I couldn't understand why he kept asking me this. I felt slightly perturbed that they’d put the house on the market and hadn’t done any clearing out of the house.


It wasn’t sitting easy with me, so I emailed the solicitor asking if we could be billed for the removal of the few pieces of furniture I'd left. By now, the solicitor knew the sons had access to the house. She never replied to that email. There was communication on other matters, to which I received a response.


The house went on the market and sold very quickly with everything still in it.


The son messaged me saying he’d been in to see the solicitor as now they needed the keys (as she still had them) as the house needed clearing now it had been sold, and she’d probably contact me in a few days to discuss some things.


I was very open and honest dealing with him (my mum’s deceased partner's son) but I was wondering what was going on. The solicitor never phoned, so I phoned her. The solicitor agreed to go 50/50 with the son on hiring a house-clearance company to remove my mother's things. I was confused and angry. I refused to accept this, as there were only a few pieces of small furniture, and I said we’d arrange to meet the son and remove the things. The solicitor had assigned me, agreed with me, to deal with the house at the beginning.


I went to the house only for him (son) to point to all the furniture and say it was all ours as his father willed it all to my mother. I disputed it, saying it was only for the time period my mother lived in the house, plus there were various disagreements over the removal of things when I was there.


They had removed all the valuable items, but it didn’t make sense as some of the items were similar to what they’d removed - valuable pictures and ornaments - he wanted me to clear the non-valuable pictures and ornaments. Gardening equipment and the washing machine have been included in the sale of their house.


That evening, I raked out a copy of their father's Will, and a different person explained it to me now. A year ago when there was a small dispute over the ornaments a non-legal person looked over it and that’s why I understood nothing in the house belonged to my mother apart from her things. The solicitor has the original as I gave it to her when I handed in all my mother’s things, plus she helped with that estate too but wasn’t the executor.


Another family member got someone else of a legal nature to have a look at their father’s Will too.


As it turns out My mother was bequeathed everything in the house, furniture, ornaments, and pictures plus everything in the outbuildings. We didn’t know this, and at no point in time did his son point this out to me. They obviously hadn’t fully understood the Will, but, did with the furniture.


If we had known, then we would’ve cleared the whole house before handing the keys, and in fact, it would’ve made things easier. This has caused upset and anger in how this has been handled.


I did inform the son and told him we are responsible for clearing the house, but he would need to return everything they’d taken from the house.


We don’t really want the things that were bequeathed from their father to our mother. We just want them to clear the house (as we feel badly treated) as we feel like they tricked us.


Since then, on talking to people we know with a legal background I emailed the solicitor on behalf of all beneficiaries and asked her to construct an offer for the brothers, they can get all the things they’ve taken from the house and what’s in the house and in return they can clear the house. Otherwise, we’ll clear the house and seek the return of everything that’s been removed.


There has been no response from the solicitor. We then just went ahead and gave the brothers the offer, and they also have not responded. We are assuming both the solicitor and the brothers have been in contact.


Furthermore, we are now in limbo and getting all sorts of information from different people. As I understand it, she (solicitor) does not need to tell us very much apart from present us with a copy of the Will and accounts. Another person has said she needs to keep us updated. It has also been said we should go to another solicitor for advice, that I would like to do, but I know solicitors are not keen on giving advice on something another solicitor is seeing to. It has also been suggested we should get another solicitor to send her a letter. Another person has said that’s not a good idea.


I/we are confused and are not completely sure of our rights as beneficiaries or what to do next.


We were only looking to sort things out and make things good, and we have no idea why she has gone cold on us, as there is no communication from her now. We are not looking to fight the solicitor either, but we don't want her costing our mother's estate.

[sederunt]

You say mother died recently. The solicitor as executor will not make any payment to beneficiaries until at least 6 months has passed - so it may be of little benefit asking for updates within this time scale. And 12 months is a commonly experienced timescale. Any engagement with the solicitor may be logged as time spent on the administration of the estate and ultimately increase the solicitor’s fees deducted against the estate.

Engaging another solicitor might be considered to be a poor strategy and counter productive at this stage.

As executor, the solicitor has full control of the estate and decision making and has no responsibility to update beneficiaries. The responsibility to beneficiaries is for accounts and payment at the distribution stage.

[PinkSalad]

That reply is very general to what is on the internet already.

I am aware we will not be paid out for at least six months, although the final pay out isn't quite the issue. I need to be responsible to the other members of the family, as my mother would want that, and I know she wouldn't have wanted this process if she'd fully understood it.

Of course, we don't mind paying for being updated on the estate, even if it's on a monthly basis. Initially, contact is needed to hand everything in that's required to see to her estate, as I doubt the solicitor wanted to use her time to go through my mother's things. For her to communicate and then not to communicate at all without any warning is very inhuman and not giving solicitors a good reputation.

She did agree with me to empty the house and did advise me to remove mother's things and take notes of what was removed. That advice wasn't fully correct, as all the things belonged to my mother in the house - unknown to us and she didnt' seem to know that either, but should have, so surely there has to be some kind of responsibility on her part. Now she's going to remove all the things in the house that belonged to my mother we didn't know about to a clearance firm, at a cost to the estate. Surely we are entitled to those things as beneficiaries? If this is the case, whoever wants a solicitor to be an executor of the family estate? Luckily, I have been warning people.

[PinkSalad]

You say mother died recently. The solicitor as executor will not make any payment to beneficiaries until at least 6 months has passed - so it may be of little benefit asking for updates within this time scale. And 12 months is a commonly experienced timescale. Any engagement with the solicitor may be logged as time spent on the administration of the estate and ultimately increase the solicitor’s fees deducted against the estate.

Engaging another solicitor might be considered to be a poor strategy and counter productive at this stage.

As executor, the solicitor has full control of the estate and decision making and has no responsibility to update beneficiaries. The responsibility to beneficiaries is for accounts and payment at the distribution stage.

Hello, to update you on my understanding, the solicitor does have a duty to keep us updated otherwise the solicitor can be reported for their conduct. I understand it's a very confusing issue as the information on this, on the web is hugely conflicting.

[Pezza54]

The most difficult task of the executor's duties is completing IHT forms for probate if there is IHT to pay. The executor can employ a solicitor or accountant to carry out this task on a lump sum basis.
The other executor duties, opening an executor's bank account, selling or disposing of assets, requesting the transfer of money from the deceased's bank and savings accounts and distributing the estate to beneficiaries are usually straight forward.
The testator should think seriously about the necessity to appoint a solicitor as executor and ask close relatives, or friends they can trust, if the are willing to be named as executor.