Executor Issue

[Bakedpotato]

My dad passed away almost 2 years ago now and myself and my half sister are joint beneficiaries for his estate. We were both named as executors but I reserved my right to act so she is the only active executor, on her suggestion as I live at the other side of the country.

I last spoke to her in January to check what was happening as I hadn't heard from her for nearly a year. At this point she told me she was just waiting for my dad's house to sell then she would be giving me my half of the money. I have found out however that the house was sold back in June and I haven't heard from her. I emailed her a bit over a week ago and no reply where do I go from here :/

[des8]

Try phoning her.

Assuming you are not already at loggerheads tread carefully.
If you start agitating you might end up inadvertently causing a rift.

I don't know your sister's circumstances, but if she has a family, is a working mum or perhaps is just ill, she might not just have been able to respond.
Perhaps she hasn't even had or read your email and I don't suppose you sent it "read receipt"?

[Bakedpotato]

I don't have her phone number unfortunately, it appears she changed it :/

We are already at loggerheads due to unrelated family matters from the past, but I trusted that she would act correctly with regards to the will. I sent her another email this morning with a read report as the previous one did not have one, and it has been viewed by her so I guess I can assume she read my last message also but she hasn't responded to either.

I don't want to make things worse between us (although tbh i don't think things could be anyworse) but isn't over 2 months a long time to settle the estate when everything else has been dealt with ?

[des8]

You say the house was sold in June.
Has the sale been completed or was it a "sale subject to contract"?
Perhaps the proceeds of the sale aren't yet available.

However it would only be courteous of your sister to let you know, although as a beneficiary you do have reason to know how matters are proceeding.
You could of course reverse the reserved power that you hold, then as joint executor you might put more pressure on your sister to act promptly.
Perhaps warn your sister that you might take this step

[Bakedpotato]

It was completed in June, its on the government sales website that's how i found out about it so shes definitely had the funds, I wouldn't have bothered her if not. If i do apply to be an executor along side her how would that work..I'm getting a bit concerned she may have taken all the money and vanished is that possible?

[des8]

First thing to do is ascertain her whereabouts if you think she might have done a runner!

No point in reversing power if she ain't around.

[2222]

These things do happen, but I'd guess that, for every executor who has done a runner with the money, there are about 100,000 others who have messed up the paperwork/book-keeping so that they don't have all the figures together and can't produce a final account. If you are not on good terms with your sister, admitting that she has messed up might be extremely embarrassing for her.

This might be an opportunity to mend fences with her, and say that you don't really care whether the figures all add up precisely, but you would like a payment on account, and you'd be happy to help her with the paperwork if she wants that.

Is this all below the IHT threshold?

[Bakedpotato]

Its well under IHT threshold, would have been borderline without the extra allowance for the house being left to us but she definitely filled out the stuff for that correctly . I'm thinking send a recorded letter to her address an be a bit more forceful about getting this sorted? I guess she could have done something wrong somewhere with the paperwork which could explain it all, but no response at all is strange when i haven't even asked to see the accounts. I only sent her a friendly message asked her how things were progressing and if she had a rough date she expected to send the money, I've already offered to help her on my last email if she needed. I was trying to not make it sound like a demanding where is my share of the money email. I've honestly tried not to bother her at all ive sent maybe 10 emails in 2 years and 6 of those were right at the beginning when we were sorting the probate situation out!

She owns the house she lives in so think I'm just being a bit paranoid about her doing a runner its just the lack of contact is worrying me.Especially when i know shes seen my emails and she told me that everything was done other than dividing the house sale money when we last spoke :/. She did give me a kind of statement of the accounts back in January, no breakdown of anything but it showed the total of money in the account at the moment and stated id get half of that plus half of the house sale less fees. I haven't asked her to see anything else, I'm really not interested in adding every last penny together, I just want this sorted. I'm just feeling stuck in limbo now and I really need to get this sorted soon as its been almost 2 years and I m pretty desperately in need of the money which she knows :/