late fathers estate, step brother involved

[des8]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

These two sites may give you a starting point:

http://www.australia.gov.au/content/land-titles
http://www.moneysmart.gov.au/tools-a...nclaimed-money

[adamk]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

well ive decided to just go ahead and sign the oath. fill out the forms for land registry and issue the repossession order. I might give him a call, assuming the number the neighbour gives me works, to warn him of the immanent eviction. I spoke to a barrister who said the extra letters would be a waste of time.

[des8]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

Thanks for letting us know.
Please keep us up dated as it may help others in future

[adamk]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

ok big update:
step brother did get married, said at funeral he would bung her some money to get rid of her so he could have which ever girl round he likes, nice.
cant find the car.
cant find a will.
I now have LOA.
I have applied to land registry to get the house put in my name.
Barclays have given me bank statements, found life insurance policy via these statements.
the life insurance has been cashed, by him I assume.
the Police are trying to dig themselves out of helping me by saying its a civil matter.
I haven't got the funds to start letter ping pong with a solicitor.

where do I go from here?

[des8]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

Were there any funds left in the Barclays account, or had he emptied that as well?
You assume the life policy was cashed in by him.
As you have LoA and are the personal representative the life company should (I think) confirm to whom they made payment, as you will have to account for it when drawing up the final accounts.
The police attitude doesn't come as a surprise, but if you can show definitely fraudulent claims were made to obtain the proceeds from the life insurance,the lie company might also start leaning on them

[adamk]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

he waited a year before emptying the £9.5k that was in Barclays. using a declaration form.

[des8]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

Put a claim in against the bank.
When they paid out to a person without requiring to see a grant of administration, they left themselves liable.
To overcome this problem they will have required your step brother to sign an indemnity.
This will allow the bank to reclaim the money from your step brother, and as he signed that he is entitled to the cash they may take it further.
Here's the indemnity form he will have signed: file:///C:/Users/des8de/Downloads/331-662-personalindemnityclosureform07072014.pdf
Write to the bank lodging your claim. If they prevaricate an LBA might get them to come round to your way of thinking,
If it doesn't lodge a claim in county court. As it will be for under £10000 it will be on small claims track.

The same sort of situation should apply to the Life Ins. Co.

[adamk]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

cheers but the link didn't work. Barclays say the form he signed isn't one they use anymore. they are sending me a blank copy in the post. they wouldn't let me have a copy of the original one he signed. do you think he waited a year to see if the coast was clear? could he still have a will? seems unlikely, why use indemnity when he could use probate in that sort of time.

[des8]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

Doesn't really matter what form they used.
They released the assets to an unauthorised person.
That is a commercial decision they take, and if it backfires on them that is their problem.
You are the one with the court issued letters of administration and the assets must be released to you.

[adamk]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

Huston we may have a problem.
ive just had an email from some friends of my Dad and his wife. they live in Australia and ive only just today got an email address for them.
they've said my Dads wife mentioned year ago before she died there was a will. so this could be just the will she made or we could be looking a mirror wills potentially.
is it worth me phoning the solicitor who did hers again?
it it worth me phoning/writing to the step son?
does any of these revalations make any difference as he hasnt done probate?

last but not least, regards the estate if I get everything sorted, is there a time frame in which he needs to come back if he or someone else finds a will? as I could see a situation with other peoples estates who do this getting a letter one day maybe years later after they've spent the money asking for it back.

[des8]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

Re searching for a will: your step(?) mother died 5 years ago, 3 years before your father, so even if there was a will that long ago it could well have been destroyed.
You said you had already requested info from solicitors and step brother to no avail: only you can judge if it is worth reopening the search.

Regarding your query about a time limit for a will to surface. I don't believe there is one!
However you have letters of administration and so must act, you can't delay indefinitely "just in case"...
If a VALID will does subsequently emerge the court has power under s121 Senior Courts Act (formerly known as SupremeCourt Act) 1981 to call in a grant which should not have been made where it was believed that the deceased had died intestate.
The effect of revocation of a grant would be that you nolonger have power to act. However, s27 Administration of Estates Act 1925 would protect you and those who dealt with you, provided you all acted in good faith.
However, if assets weredistributed to person/s who were not in fact entitled under the newly discovered will, those correctly entitled could recover the assets from those who had receivedthem. This could either be via a proprietary claim as in Re Diplock (1948) if theproperty is identifiable or via a personal claim for an equivalent sum as inMinistry of Health v Simpson (1951). The proprietary claim returns property tothe person really entitled but the personal claim can cause hardship as nodefence was allowed in Ministry of Health v Simpson.

If you are concerned about your position as personal representative, it is possible to buy an executors liability policy for your protection

[adamk]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

the solicitor has come back and said they cant find anything, though they did say he could have made a will there then taken it with him.

[wales01man]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

If a Will was made at the Solicitors they would have charged for it? if it was in the last few years would they have had to keep records of payments

[adamk]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

they said as it was so long ago 2005, they have probably destroyed any records.

[des8]

Re: late fathers estate, step brother involved

As you have endeavoured unsuccessfully to find a will you will have to proceed as if there isn't one.
Just keep a record of your searches until the end of time in case you need to prove you tried!