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England and Wales
Hello all,
My siblings and I are beneficiaries of our late father’s estate, and one of us is the sole Executor. Our father had been divorced from his ex-wife for many years at the time of his death, and his Will made no provision for her. Probate was granted using a copy Will. The estate has not yet been distributed because the main asset is an unsold house and the ongoing costs are draining the estate rapidly.
The issue concerns a joint current account which remained in both their names for years after the divorce, even though she had stopped using it long before then and had no cards or active access. After our father’s death, the bank treated the account as passing to her by survivorship and transferred sole control to her. However, the money in the account can be clearly traced as our father’s alone, from pension income, transfers from his savings, and rental income from tenancies in his sole name. There were also state pension payments received after his death which should have been repaid to the DWP and were ultimately covered from other estate funds.
When first approached, the ex-wife refused to return the money unless the Executor could show that outstanding HMRC issues relating to undeclared rental income (from during their marriage) had been resolved and that HMRC would not pursue her. She said by phone that she would hold the money “just in case” and return it once those matters were sorted. We have now resolved the HMRC position and paid all the tax due, including that which should have been attributed to her, but she is refusing to return the funds and says she believes she is entitled to keep them on the basis of various costs she claims she incurred during their marriage (some of these were 10+ years old at the time of our father’s death). She has not, so far as we are aware, made any separate claim against the estate for money allegedly owed to her; instead, she is retaining the joint-account funds on the basis that she says they are hers. This has been ongoing since late 2023. The Executor also has clear documentary evidence tracing the source of all the funds and recording the ex-wife’s refusal to return them.
The sum involved is a modest sum of several thousand pounds, plus the post-death pension payments. The estate is short of cash: the house remains unsold, and property costs, tax liabilities and legal fees have depleted most of the available funds. If the house does not sell, the estate may soon run out of money and the Executor and beneficiaries do not have funds to prop it up. Renting it is not an option.
My question is whether the estate has a realistic claim to recover money from a joint account that legally passed by survivorship, where the funds can be shown to have beneficially belonged to the deceased alone. Can the post-death pension payments also be recovered from the surviving account holder? And would this usually be dealt with as a small claim? Is it worth it?
My instinct is that we may have no practical remedy, but I would appreciate any views.
Thank you.
Hello all,
My siblings and I are beneficiaries of our late father’s estate, and one of us is the sole Executor. Our father had been divorced from his ex-wife for many years at the time of his death, and his Will made no provision for her. Probate was granted using a copy Will. The estate has not yet been distributed because the main asset is an unsold house and the ongoing costs are draining the estate rapidly.
The issue concerns a joint current account which remained in both their names for years after the divorce, even though she had stopped using it long before then and had no cards or active access. After our father’s death, the bank treated the account as passing to her by survivorship and transferred sole control to her. However, the money in the account can be clearly traced as our father’s alone, from pension income, transfers from his savings, and rental income from tenancies in his sole name. There were also state pension payments received after his death which should have been repaid to the DWP and were ultimately covered from other estate funds.
When first approached, the ex-wife refused to return the money unless the Executor could show that outstanding HMRC issues relating to undeclared rental income (from during their marriage) had been resolved and that HMRC would not pursue her. She said by phone that she would hold the money “just in case” and return it once those matters were sorted. We have now resolved the HMRC position and paid all the tax due, including that which should have been attributed to her, but she is refusing to return the funds and says she believes she is entitled to keep them on the basis of various costs she claims she incurred during their marriage (some of these were 10+ years old at the time of our father’s death). She has not, so far as we are aware, made any separate claim against the estate for money allegedly owed to her; instead, she is retaining the joint-account funds on the basis that she says they are hers. This has been ongoing since late 2023. The Executor also has clear documentary evidence tracing the source of all the funds and recording the ex-wife’s refusal to return them.
The sum involved is a modest sum of several thousand pounds, plus the post-death pension payments. The estate is short of cash: the house remains unsold, and property costs, tax liabilities and legal fees have depleted most of the available funds. If the house does not sell, the estate may soon run out of money and the Executor and beneficiaries do not have funds to prop it up. Renting it is not an option.
My question is whether the estate has a realistic claim to recover money from a joint account that legally passed by survivorship, where the funds can be shown to have beneficially belonged to the deceased alone. Can the post-death pension payments also be recovered from the surviving account holder? And would this usually be dealt with as a small claim? Is it worth it?
My instinct is that we may have no practical remedy, but I would appreciate any views.
Thank you.
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