Dealing with Estate

[KKA]

Hi Guys
Any advice here would be greatly appreciated - I have received a Letter Before Action today and would like some guidance on how to respond.

A Brief overview of the situation.....

I lost my Father last year and dealt with the immediate issues of funeral, notifications, etc.

His final months (June - Oct 2015) were spent in care and due to a financial assessment carried out by the local authority; it was deemed that part of the care would be self funded (he had a mortgage on a flat).
To date we have not sold his property mainly due to it being unoccupied and left in a state of dis-repair.

At the time we requested a review of funding via the NHS continued health care scheme; which was partially granted; we requested an additional review as we felt his criteria met full funding; this was eventually granted albeit on the date he passed away.
I have appealed this decision in an attempt to back date the funding to cover the full costs; however the NHS have been very slow to respond.

I have since been sent statements and threats of legal action to pay the outstanding balance to the care provider; i have kept them updated with the current situation but they have now passed this to an external solicitor that has issued a letter before action with demands for remittance in settlement within 7 days or court proceedings will be issued without further notification.

My intention was that if the NHS back dated the funding, this would be used to pay the balance, or if we lost the appeal we would attempt to sell the property in its current condition and then settle any outstanding claims.

I acknowledge this has dragged on longer than expected, however any advice on how to deal with this will be greatly appreciated.

To further complicate this, the local authority contacted me last week to confirm that they will be paying a partial balance to the care provider and sending me an invoice to lodge against the estate; therefore the settlement statement that the solicitors has sent me is incorrect.

If you need any additional background information, please let me know.
Many Thanks
KKA

[enaid]

Re: Dealing with Estate

Hi and welcome,
From - your post I understand your dad was in a care home from June to October 2015, he was part funded was this a Nursing Care Contribution ?
There are strict time scales now for reviews etc for Continuing Health Care.
Can you please give a little more detail about the time of your dads assessments and your appeal dates etc please.

[KKA]

Re: Dealing with Estate

Hi, yes it was the nursing care part of the funding.
He was initially not granted funding, but we requested a review, this took several weeks time we got confirmation that full funding would be applied, sadly this was dated the day he passed away.

I lodged an appeal to back date this to the date i requested the review, that has been acknowledged but i was told that it will take some time to review the case (wasn't expecting this long).

I will dig all the dates out once back at home, my main concern is the letter before action.
i acknowledge that i have been slow in sorting this out, but court action seems a bit harsh for only a small figure.

The letter from the solicitor provides a statement of account, i took a telephone conversation from the local authority who have settled around 65% of the bill last week and sent me an invoice to lodge against the estate.

Therefore the amount they are claiming i must settle my next Thursday is incorrect.
The actual amount is now only around £1200, would they really pursue this through the court system when i have told them they will receive a payment once the property is sold?

Thanks for your assistance.
KKA

[des8]

Re: Dealing with Estate

Hi and welcome.
Firstly our condolences on the loss of your father.

You refer to "we".
Who are "we"?
Has probate been applied for and granted?
If so to whom?

To whom are the solicitor's threats of court action addressed (exact mode of address)
Personal representatives duties include paying estate debts in a timely fashion.
Obviously the primary carers want their bills paid, and it is of no interest to them where the estate gets the money.
Just because you are trying to obtain refunds from NHS doesn't give the PRs reason to delay that payment if the estate is solvent.
If it was necessary to sell the house to pay the creditors, then perhaps that should have been done instead of hoping that NHS refund would appear
The estate could now be in danger of paying interest on the outstanding amounts, as well as court costs and some solicitors fees.


Did the executors take out "executors liability policy",to protect themselves against the result of possible action by disgruntled creditors and/or beneficiaries


ADDING: If the estate has the £1200 in liquid funds, why not pay it?
If you start a discussion with the solicitor he will happily play letter tennis and increase his bill accordingly!

[KKA]

Re: Dealing with Estate

Hi
Apologies, when i refer to we, i mean myself and sister.
Probate is a process i was going to start in the coming weeks, it will be myself applying.
The solicitors letter before action is address to myself.
Unfortunately the property is in a distressed state and not fit to be sold through the normal process.
What immediate funds were available went towards the funeral costs, therefore we cant make any payments until the property is sold (probably at auction in current condition).
I acknowledge i have taken longer over this than i should have.
No, i wasn't aware of the executors liability policy.
KKA

[des8]

Re: Dealing with Estate

Is there a will?

[KKA]

Re: Dealing with Estate

No, there is no will.

[enaid]

Re: Dealing with Estate

As there was no will and property is involved you will need to apply to be Administrator of the estate info on that HERE until this is sorted you can not sell the property anyway.

[des8]

Re: Dealing with Estate

No will means you are not executor.
Not yet obtained probate means you have no authority to deal with the estate.
As a potential administrator who has or will be applying for Letters of Administration, because the deceased did not leave a valid Will, then in that case you have no authority to “deal” with any assets of the deceased until the Letters of Administration have been granted as you will only obtain your authority when that document has been produced.

So no matter what this solicitor has written, you should just inform him the deceased died intestate and probate has not yet been granted. No need to tell him you are going to apply.
This leaves him with no one to take to court!
On the other hand if you have been settling debts, or negotiating on behalf of the estate, I would recommend you do not delay any longer applying for probate

[KKA]

Re: Dealing with Estate

Hi
Thanks for the response.
I will inform the solicitor and commence applying for the grant of representation.
Once this is sorted, can the solicitor then issue court proceedings?

[enaid]

Re: Dealing with Estate

Hopefully you will be sorted by then as it does take a few weeks usually between 8 and 12 if straightforward.
While waiting I would get onto Health Service Ombudsman details HERE they are very helpful and if they decide you have not gone far enough with the complaints procedure they will explain it.