Executor not contactable with 980K transfer

[Fairisfair]

*

My sister (joint executor with my brother) passed executor duties to a solicitor following my Dad's death 2 years ago.I found out yesterday that she received all the proceeds £980,000 by BACS transfer in the middle of last month but has not contacted any one and will not answer her landline or mobile.
What do I do?? I spoke to my brother who did not know about the transfer and believes that she is going to give him a cheque to share out the amount equally between us. I hold no such faith, as the solicitor could easily have done that if requested.* Insteed she asked for it to be transferred all to her. Can I somehow get her accounts frozen? I fear she will steal our share and hide all the money.
Please help me know what actions are open to me. I have just appointed solicitors but am a new client and am not sure how fast they will act or what I can ask them to do immediately. Should the other solicitors not have notified us about the release of funds? Especially such a large amount...

[efpom]

Those funds are, or should be, in your client account, at the solicitor firm and NOT it's office account. You need to instruct your (executor duties) solicitor firm, in writing, to furnish you with a copy of your client account statement.



Apologies- I hopelessly misunderstood the facts!

[des8]

If you think your sister has stolen the estate assets you (or your solicitor) will need to obtain an accounting and inventory from her (via court action if necessary)
Your next action depends on what comes back, but if she has stolen the money you could end up suing her.
This won't mean you will receive your share if she has managed to spend it!

The solicitor appointed by your sister only has to account to her

However you may be panicking too early, she has only had the money for three weeks.
Your brother as co executor might have some liability

[Fairisfair]

If you think your sister has stolen the estate assets you (or your solicitor) will need to obtain an accounting and inventory from her (via court action if necessary)
...

However you may be panicking too early, she has only had the money for three weeks.
Your brother as co executor might have some liability

Thank you for your help Des8.* Unfortunately my sister has a track record of acting in a dishonest manner and the fact that she has not communicated with me or my brother as benefactors and/or in his case executor leads me to presume that she is not going to go against her nature.* If I could get some information from her I would be happy to go from there but for the past 4 days she has not answered her phone or returned my calls and messages.

How can I get the accounting and inventory from her if she will not answer my calls? Just by taking her to court?* Sorry to sound naive.* I am just trying to resolve this without heavy solicitor fees/suing/court action etc.* Although, I am prepared and will do all of these things if necessary to get my share.* What would be a rough time scale/estimate on going to court and getting an inventory if I do not hear back from her?

[des8]

The simplest way is to write to her asking for an update as you know the estate has been finalised.
Give her 7 days to respond, and if she fails you will apply to the courts for an injunction for her to produce the inventory and accounts.
You will request a costs order against her.

The mechanics of applying for the order are fairly simple and cheap and comparatively fast!
Sec 61 of the Non-contentious Probate Rules 1987 apply (http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1....xht?wrap=true)
You will be requesting the court to require the inventory and account under s.25 Administration of Estates Act 1925 (as amended).

The form is from the Probate Registry and headed: " Summons Form".

the affidavit has to show deceased and date of death
executor
Date probate granted
Requests for inventory and account and failure to produce.
Fact that applicant is a beneficiary

As you will need a solicitor for swearing the affidavit, it might be worth having a fixed fee session to check the application is being made correctly.

[Fairisfair]

The simplest way is to write to her asking for an update as you know the estate has been finalised.
Give her 7 days to respond, and if she fails you will apply to the courts for an injunction for her to produce the inventory and accounts.
You will request a costs order against her.

...
As you will need a solicitor for swearing the affidavit, it might be worth having a fixed fee session to check the application is being made correctly.

Thank you for all you help.*Is it worth applying for a Section 50 as well/instead of the Section 61?* Or is it too late as she already has the money?

Also because I am a benefactor could I not receive the inventory and account from the conveyancing solicitor who transferred the funds to her last month? Do I not have a legal right to ask them as a named benefactor? Can they refuse to send me the documentation? As surely all my sister is going to do (or not) is send me a copy of the documentation they issued to her when they sent the funds to her account??*

I am just thinking around the problem and trying to maximise resources etc especially as I have time now we are on semi-lockdown.* What would you suggest I do and what would you suggest I pay the solicitor to do? I do not want to double up especially if I am paying for the services of a solicitor and I do not want them to do what I can easily do.* Although as we can see, I clearly am failing at getting my inheritance.* Should I even being doing/trying anything?? Or is it better to just let my solicitor handle everything and not jump into sending letters that I have no way of enforcing other than returning to my solicitor and getting them to send another letter with a court injunction.* Maybe, a letter from my solicitor would be more hard hitting and get me to the end result quicker than me sending her a letter to ignore like she does my telephone calls?

Thank you so much for your time and help.

[des8]

A sec 50 claim can be made*, "unless a probate action has been commenced,"* * *So that's not on.

Her solicitor will not release any information to you as he was appointed by her.
If she decides for whatever reason not to supply you with the information you want, he does not have authority to release that information.,

Regarding what you should or should not handle yourself, I cannot advise.
It will depend on your own confidence, and how much trust you feel able to place on an anonymous public forum.
You could initially do the preparation work and have everything prepared.
You will need to have your affidavit witnessed by your solicitor, so*discuss the matter with your solicitor at that point.

[Fairisfair]

...
You could initially do the preparation work and have everything prepared.
You will need to have your affidavit witnessed by your solicitor, sodiscuss the matter with your solicitor at that point.

Thank you Des8 for all your help and helping me to clarify my thinking.* I think I might send the letter to her and then follow up with my solicitor and the section 61 if she does not respond within the 7 days.* This will give me 7 days to get the ball rolling with the solicitor on to the next step and save the solicitor for what I really need them to do.

I will keep you posted on what happens next.* Thank you for your time and service here.* It really helps people like me who do not know what to do when they find themselves in a situation they only read about in the newspaper!

Kind regards F**