Lying under oath probate

[eskimo]

Hi
I was denied to visit my dying mom who adopted me. By the natural birth sibling,power of attorny. Found out searching on line probate court. That him and aunt and uncle under oath signed that there was no other siblings by either birth,or adoption. Well all 3 of them lied. Im an adopted sibling. What can i do? I know i was in her will. I had a copy but my home burned to the ground and dont remember who drew the will.
Mom asked me to put down what i would like. I put hutch,silver,pictures,blk pearl necklace, bedroom furniture, cedar chest, recipe box. I got nothing. And was not allowed at funeral. Help me please.

[des8]

Hi and welcome

What a sad situation, and having suffered a total loss of home and contents in a house fire myself I really feel for you.
It is pure devastation.

Regarding the will you can obtain a copy here: https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate
That will be a starting point for you

Meantime tagging Peridot for you, but she may not be on till Monday

[eskimo]

Thank you so very much. And sorry for your fire loss.

[Peridot]

Hi Eskimo,

How awful for you. Sorry for your loss and the loss of your possessions in the fire also. I suspect that you need some face to face legal advice on this.

As a legally adopted child you have every right to a share of a parents estate under the Intestacy Rules. From the sounds of it if the other children have sworn an oath there are no other children, adopted or not it seems that they may have applied for a Grant of Letters of Administration (indicating they have not found a Will)

If the Grant has been issued already then you can obtain a copy (with a copy of the Will if it is a Grant of Probate) as Des8 has suggested. This would be your starting point. If the Will is not as you expected or there is no Will, then some leg work would be needed. It could be that your mother had a new Will prepared, she destroyed the old Will or the other siblings have indicated there was no Will. But if you have no reason to believe that then you will need to start searching.

If a law firm prepared the Will you had a copy of, then they may still have the original (if the executor's have not searched for it) You will need to contact local solicitors to where your mother lived who may have prepared a Will. They would probably require a death certificate to provide you any information unfortunately so you would need to obtain a copy of this if you don't have one. They can be obtained here:- https://www.gov.uk/order-copy-birth-...ge-certificate

In addition you could contact the local Law Society to your mother's area she lived in and ask if they could contact the local law firms requesting information about the whereabouts of a Will.

The fact that one of the siblings had Power of Attorney is irrelevant. That power ends on your mother's death. Whilst acting as her Attorney they have to do what is in your mother's best interests. If they have not then that could be investigated but is a separate issue from the Will situation.

Had you lost touch with your mother? Had she gone into care and used her assets for care fees? Just trying to see what else could have happened to the estate before jumping to conclusions too quickly although it doesn't sound right.

Obtain a copy of the Grant, if there is no Will get a copy of the death certificate and start asking about at law firms where your mother lived and also the local law society. Once you have any further information I would obtain a free or reduced fee appointment with a contested probate specialist to discuss what if any options you may have.