Deceased brother

[Paul1962]

Peridot

Thanks for the information

[Paul1962]

An update to this case.

The brother with the administration was being uncooperative, so a barrister was consulted.

Their advice was to give 7 days to comply with certain undertakings, or an injunction would be applied for

That did the trick and he then went to solicitors and complied.

The three surviving brothers took DNA samples last week.

Results came in that myself and brother 2 years older had a likelihood of 730 million to one we were full sibling. Myself and brother with administration was much lower, however the conclusion was we were more likely to be full sibling than half.

My solicitors have now requested the estate accounts, and details of where the funds are.

[Peridot]

Thanks Paul1962 for the update. Always interesting to see how things have progressed. All the best going forward.

[Paul1962]

This is still ongoing, and will give a complete update when I have more time to do so.

However in the meantime it looks like we will be going to court, firstly for an injunction on a bank account which in July contained most of the value of the estate.

However that could now have been dissipated, does anyone know if the injunction will give access to establish how much is still in the account

[Peridot]

Hi Paul1962,
I suspect you’d need an order from the court to order the bank to disclose bank statements for a specific period of time. Im not sure if you can request that as part of the injunction ordering the bank to disclose bank statements. I will have a hunt about tomorrow and see if I can find any pointers.

[2222]

What happened to the house sale proceeds?

[Paul1962]

What happened to the house sale proceeds?

They were released to the brother by his solicitors within a couple of days of completion.

[Paul1962]

An update to this case.

The brother with the administration was being uncooperative, so a barrister was consulted.

Their advice was to give 7 days to comply with certain undertakings, or an injunction would be applied for

That did the trick and he then went to solicitors and complied.

The three surviving brothers took DNA samples last week.

Results came in that myself and brother 2 years older had a likelihood of 730 million to one we were full sibling. Myself and brother with administration was much lower, however the conclusion was we were more likely to be full sibling than half.

My solicitors have now requested the estate accounts, and details of where the funds are.

Update from my last post following initial DNA tests.

The original testing only compared myself with the other 2 surviving brothers, which produced the results stated above.

The brother with the funds then got a further test done on deceased brothers clothing against himself, which conclude there was a full sibling relationship. He then stated that myself and other brother were half siblings and therefore not eligible to claim a share of the estate.

My solicitors then got the DNA assessed by an expert, who concluded that the initial test was biased and unfair, as it did not do a full cross match test. However looking at the markers, he concluded that all four samples, the 3 surviving brothers, and deceased clothing sample were in fact all full siblings.

We then went back the the DNA testing facility for their confirmation of this. They then confirmed that they also had the same result that we are all full siblings.

The brother with the estate funds then asked further questions of them, and again they came back with the same result, all full sibling.

At this point we gave him 7 days to produce the accounts for approval and agree to distribute the estate. The 7 days is up today, and as of posting this we have not received any reply from him or his solicitors, who have been allowing him to use them as and when he feels like it. And also writing directly to DNA testing facility etc.

I anticipate that there will not be a reply today, so the next step is to go to court, and firstly obtain injunction to hopefully protect assets of the estate in bank accounts, and then proceed from there to get the estate distributed and ideally him removed as the administrator.

[Phaeton]

Paul1962 You have to do this but unfortunately the only winners will be the solicitors, it's so sad, my feelings are with you.

[Peridot]

It does seem unfair, not only is the administrator apparently being somewhat underhand. The manner in which they have dealt with this has also created stress in respect of wondering about parentage. It is beyond me how hurtful some people can be. I suppose we don't know the full story from his side, maybe he had genuine doubts from information he had but following DNA you'd think he'd deal with the estate appropriately after that!

If the lawyers are any good they will point out that potentially this will cost the estate which in turn reduces the residue available for distribution. The lawyers do have to advise you on likely costs but of course if the other side wishes to cause issues it can of course increase costs. It seems that the brother needs removing as administrator and the Court stepping in if needs be whether that be to appoint another administrator to unravel everything or make the orders themselves. Unfortunately a lot of the decisions will depend on what assets remain and the ability of the administrator to pay out.

I would most definitely take your barrister and solicitors advice. I suspect in this scenario it is the only chance you have of seeing any residue due to you.

[Paul1962]

It does seem unfair, not only is the administrator apparently being somewhat underhand. The manner in which they have dealt with this has also created stress in respect of wondering about parentage. It is beyond me how hurtful some people can be. I suppose we don't know the full story from his side, maybe he had genuine doubts from information he had but following DNA you'd think he'd deal with the estate appropriately after that!

If the lawyers are any good they will point out that potentially this will cost the estate which in turn reduces the residue available for distribution. The lawyers do have to advise you on likely costs but of course if the other side wishes to cause issues it can of course increase costs. It seems that the brother needs removing as administrator and the Court stepping in if needs be whether that be to appoint another administrator to unravel everything or make the orders themselves. Unfortunately a lot of the decisions will depend on what assets remain and the ability of the administrator to pay out.

I would most definitely take your barrister and solicitors advice. I suspect in this scenario it is the only chance you have of seeing any residue due to you.

We also advised with the 7 days notice that we would ask the court for a costs order against him personally. My solicitors have also done a land registry search on his home, which is owned by him only with no mortgage.

It as been pure greed. He relied on the fact that we had not been in contact with each other for many years and would hopefully not even know the brother had died.

[Peridot]

Brings out the worst in people. So sad when whatever issues there were would have been the parents not the children’s. A very sad situation but not one that can be ignored either.

[Paul1962]

At the last moment before we were due to instruct the barrister to start proceedings, we received an email from solicitors that he was going to produce the accounts and distribute the estate.

We are now waiting on these, and the funds being received. We will then consider taking action against in for my brothers, and my legal fees incurred during his silly games.

[Peridot]

Fingers crossed further legal action won’t be necessary and the administrators solicitor has made him see sense.
keep us posted.

[Paul1962]

Latest on this.

The brother produced some accounts, directly to us, as he parted company with his solicitors.

They were a mess. The columns did not add up, in his favour. Items claimed for were clearly his incurred personal expenses, as agreed by his solicitors prior. Funds held in an account for well over 18 months with no interest being shown on income side, although stated by his solicitor that funds were being held in an interest bearing account.

We responded with questions and concerns regarding the accounts mid December. Mid January, still no response. We wrote again last week giving him yet another 7 day notice, and detailed all our concerns again. We also made him aware that if he did not respond, that we would proceed to court and ask for an award of costs against him personally. We again have not had a response.

Believe the next move will probably be the quickest and cheapest option at this point, and that will be to issue a summons for inventory and accounts submission. Hopefully this will then clearly determine the true value of the estate. And then it will hopefully progress from there.