Probate inheritance litigation dispute cost

[ricciarellod]

Hi, anyone know much about inheritance and probate litigation?

My sister and myself are both executors and beneficiaries at 50% each on our late mother's will, probate has been granted one year ago, there is a flat where my wife and myself live and a house where my sister lives both part of the inheritance assets.

My sister apparently wishes to buy the house at an old valuation from two years ago, she stopped communicating with me about five months ago so I am not sure what she wants now, she has a solicitor I have asked this solicitor what my sister wants and never got any reply, they are stalling and delaying everything even more maybe in the hope that house prices will fall as they are supposed to and my sister buys at a lower price than now?

The house was valued by three estate agents this year and gained £ 30.000 in value since two years ago when it was valued £ 250.000, my sister has stalled the inheritance and refuses to communicate/cooperate with me, she refuses me entry to the house of which I am now joint co-owner at 50% and also responsible for. Can I ask her to pay me rent for living in this house since date probate was granted and we are joint co-owners? A solicitor told me I can recover lost rent but wasn't very specific. I have been sending letters to my sister that she returns to me unopened and the same letters to her solicitor asking that I now ask my sister to pay me 50% rent for living in my house, I plan on sending her another couple of letters with the same requests in the next couple of months and to her solicitor as well, if she refuses to reply is there a place where I can report her?

Where do I get a documents which grants me access to the house where my sister lives and of which I am co-owner at 50% and my sister refuses me entry?

If I would like to eventually put in place an order to force the sale of both properties I know I can, but solicitors have told me it will cost about £ 20.000 plus VAT up to £ 35.000 plus VAT if my sister decides to fight me all the way, though as far as I understand if this ends up in court and the judge will find my sister to have been unreasonable by stalling the inheritance without a valid reason refusing to communicate/cooperate with me and proposing to buy the property for £ 30.000 less than current market value without a valid reason she may very well liable to pay all costs meaning she will have reimburse me of the money I had to spend to do this. Is this correct?
Many thanks

[atticus]

What you have been told seems realistic

[ricciarellod]

What you have been told seems realistic

Thanks ATTICUS I'm trying to find out hopefully about my questions as before eventually getting into spending all that money I would like to know exactly where this leads, I imagine I could even leave it as is and start asking my sister to pay me rent for the house where she lives and start renting the flat where we live and if she refuses then she pays me lost rent for the flat as well? Many questions at the moment without a precise answer...

[atticus]

If an order is made for the property to be sold, and your sister ordered to pay costs, you can ask the court to order that those costs be deducted from her share of the sale proceeds.

Ditto with any rent ordered.

[Pezza54]

As OP's sister and solicitor will not communicate with OP, OP should consider mediation. A mediator may produce a satisfactory outcome and will be significantly cheaper than going to court.

[ricciarellod]

As OP's sister and solicitor will not communicate with OP, OP should consider mediation. A mediator may produce a satisfactory outcome and will be significantly cheaper than going to court.

Hi PEZZA54 thanks for your input, yes already done that didn't work, my sister refuses any and all type of communication with me, when I asked her solicitor how long it will take to go through all documents relating to administration of our mother's estate which have already been worked on by the solicitors dealing with the inheritance (not my sister's solicitor) she answered she doesn't know it depends when she receives the documents and how extensive they are...

when I asked why she has to go through all these documents again since they have already been worked through by the solicitors dealing with the inheritance and they are just waiting for my sister and my instructions to move forward and finalise the inheritance she said she can't tell me over privacy regulations towards her client/my sister, they are just delaying everything even more and wasting time, probably with the idea I give up or that price of properties falls and my sister buys property for less since she already said she wants to buy it for an old valuation from two years ago which is £ 30.000 less than the actual market value.

[ricciarellod]

At the moment I'm using the tactic one of my friends suggested: start asking my sister to pay me rent for the property where she lives and also recover lost rent since probate was granted in April 2022, then we'll move out of the flat where we live (both house and flat are assets of the inheritance) put it up for rent so my sister will have to pay me £ 700 PCM for the house where she lives since it rents between £ 1.400/£ 2.000 PCM and we make 50% rent from renting out the flat, if my sister refuses to rent the flat then she pay me 50% for lost rent making it about £ 1.000 PCM she has to pay me for rent, unless she decides to either buy the house where she lives at current market value with a mortgage or we sign a contract she pays me what she lacks with instalments and no rush or we put it on the market and sell it for current market value in which case I will drop all rent requests.

[Pezza54]

Did you put the offer of mediation in writing> If you didn't, I advise you to do it now.
A judge may take a dim view of a party that refuses to mediate.
What you are offering seems fair. Especially putting the house on the market now and foregoing your entitlement to 50% of the potential rent

[ricciarellod]

Did you put the offer of mediation in writing> If you didn't, I advise you to do it now.
A judge may take a dim view of a party that refuses to mediate.
What you are offering seems fair. Especially putting the house on the market now and foregoing your entitlement to 50% of the potential rent

Hi PEZZA54,

I will send a letter to my sister with mediation details via Royal Mail Signed For, she will probably return it to me unopened as she always does this is and will be her problem... I will send the same letter Royal Mail Signed For to my sister's solicitor and to the solicitors dealing with the inheritance as I have done in the past, I do plan on sending another two letters in the next two months to my sister her solicitor and the solicitors dealing with the inheritance that my sister has to pay me 50% rent for the house where she lives since probate has been granted April 2022.

I did write emails to my sister in the past year and also to her mediator/friend when they were still accepting emails from me and replying saying that if my sister wishes to buy the house where she lives that we co-own at 50% each she does so at current market value, if she lacks the money she asks for a mortgage or similar or we put it on the market for sale at current market value and my sister never replied, I also told this to the solicitors dealing with the inheritance many times, I guess emails are not always valid in front of a judge and court, my friend who is helping me with this did tell me... this inheritance has been going on since August 2020, solicitors dealing with it are waiting for my sister and my instructions how to conclude since beginning of 2023.

[Pezza54]

Let's hope your sister agrees to an impartial mediator and an agreement can be reached. A signed agreement is legally binding.
A friend acting as mediator is clearly not impartial.
Gov.uk has a guide on mediation and provides advice on how to find an appropriate mediator.

[ricciarellod]

Let's hope your sister agrees to an impartial mediator and an agreement can be reached. A signed agreement is legally binding.
A friend acting as mediator is clearly not impartial.
Gov.uk has a guide on mediation and provides advice on how to find an appropriate mediator.

Hopefully... though I haven't said so far that probably the main reason why there is this situation is because my sister is a sociopath with borderline personality disorder so it is close to impossible to reason with her as you would do with someone who has some sanity.

I was wondering where do I report a tenant for not paying me rent, in other words I am also asking that until my sister communicates with me and either buys the house at current market value less estate agent and other fees or we sell it at current market value she has to pay me rent since date probate was granted, I do this more to try and see if this will get her moving that having rent paid, but if she keeps everything stalled I'll try and get her to start paying me rent immediately, I prepared the second letter of mediation I am sending her and the two solicitors involved on the 1st of August, I already sent one about two weeks ago to both solicitors and they are keeping it as a reference and one to my sister which she returned to me unopened.

I also wrote in the letter that I expect an answer to everything from her in a couple of months at the very latest.

[Crazy council]

IMO nobody owes rent. she can just claim she was looking after the property though probate to deal with that. If she was living at the property before, and shes a 50% owner with you, you would need a court order to enter the property without her permission. Things are about to get a lot more costly and difficult around morgagess for a while and it might take ehr time to sort one.

If your in a flat and shes in a house, both part of the estate. one rent would cancel the other out. I know there would be a difference in monthly rents, but proving that satisfactorily enough to get a judge to order it as a debt, probably not possible under most circumstances,,,

the best advise has been given to yuo by Pezza54 , gt a professional mediator involved, do all formally by letter, only then consider further ( costly ) action.

[ricciarellod]

IMO nobody owes rent. she can just claim she was looking after the property though probate to deal with that. If she was living at the property before, and shes a 50% owner with you, you would need a court order to enter the property without her permission. Things are about to get a lot more costly and difficult around morgagess for a while and it might take ehr time to sort one.

If your in a flat and shes in a house, both part of the estate. one rent would cancel the other out. I know there would be a difference in monthly rents, but proving that satisfactorily enough to get a judge to order it as a debt, probably not possible under most circumstances,,,

the best advise has been given to yuo by Pezza54 , gt a professional mediator involved, do all formally by letter, only then consider further ( costly ) action.

Hello,

many thanks for your input, yes I am working on getting a solicitor, takes time as most want immediate payment, I found one of accepts to defer payment once case is resolved by having our solicitor dealing with the inheritance writing an undertaking for this.

I get the general idea about this case but not exactly the step by step and costs, times and everything as some of the solicitors I spoke with everyone tells me a generic idea which is similar to each other but not exactly the same story, it obviously depends how my sister responds and how much she wants to fight me and at the moment I assume a lot even though she is the one stalling this inheritance process, unwilling to communicate, cooperate and mediate, wanting to buy a property part of the inheritance assets for £ 30.000 less than market value without any reason or explanation at all.

I found a couple of solicitors who offer "no win no fee" I understand this is probably 25% more expensive than "traditional payment" pay upfront then pay as you go pay once case is resolved, trying to find out all the stages of this and respective costs, who pays costs for what or even court costs as as far as I read the losing party pays 50% of court costs if not all costs, it is all a bit confusing right now, not even the solicitors I spoke with have given me an exact answer, they say they will do everything they can/what they can to make my sister pay for the costs when she loses.

Anyhow I am awaiting a call back from a very big solicitor firm who also do "no win no fee", I already exposed the case to them and I should get a phone call from one of their solicitors next week, expensive in the UK compared to other countries, since I have double nationality British and Italian one of my friends told me to try and contact Italian consulate and see if I can get an Italian solicitor who to works in UK, if possible could be cheaper as in Italy these cases are much cheaper than the UK and solicitors as well.

[ricciarellod]

IMO nobody owes rent. she can just claim she was looking after the property though probate to deal with that. If she was living at the property before, and shes a 50% owner with you, you would need a court order to enter the property without her permission. Things are about to get a lot more costly and difficult around morgagess for a while and it might take ehr time to sort one.

If your in a flat and shes in a house, both part of the estate. one rent would cancel the other out. I know there would be a difference in monthly rents, but proving that satisfactorily enough to get a judge to order it as a debt, probably not possible under most circumstances,,,

the best advise has been given to yuo by Pezza54 , gt a professional mediator involved, do all formally by letter, only then consider further ( costly ) action.

I've read about mortgage rates going up and prices of properties going down, of all the mediation I tried with my sister I even offered that if she lacks money to buy the house which is £ 30.000 as far as I understand that my sister and myself can sign a contract where she gives me what she lacks with instalments over time no rush, no reply from my sister about this either, I think it is a mix of her mental disorder doing this and that probably she is not very well informed or assisted by whoever she's talking to or her solicitor or that my sister just wants to leave me no alternative but to get a solicitor and spend money because she gets a high out of making people's life misery since she is miserable herself and fuelled by hate and distorted visions it is the borderline personality disorder.

[atticus]

May I remind you of post #4 in this thread.