Executor/Beneficiary

[Guest]

My husband and his sister have been named as joint executors and joint beneficiaries in their mothers will. His sister applied for probate but has been in no hurry as she only works very minimum hours and is in receipt of many state benefits and has realised that it will effect their amount of benefits when the house sells. She has already stalled the probate documents by 2 months. The solicitor dealing with the application had not let us know she had hung into them. She has also attempted to apply for a mortgage and offered a sum for the property which is £75,000 below its valuation. My husband refused and she has since not been communicating.
Her and her husband has used the converted outbuilding for very many years and the double garage too for storage for free. The outbuilding can not be marketed very well ( it’s a converted lower part of windmill) as it is stacked from floors to walls in their ex business and household belongings. No internal photos can therefore be taken. We are getting no viewings hardly 5 months on despite it being a very unique property. My husband has asked if she could remove their belongings that are in the mill but she’s not communicating or doing anything. We realise she has a conflict of interest and we also foresee we are going to continue to have problems with her with regards to sale too.
My questions are is she allowed to leave the property full of her possessions as a beneficiary even though it is so full the outbuilding can not be viewed. What can be done if she refuses to take any offer on the property please?

[des8]

Families ...............

So how far has her application for probate progressed?
Has it yet been submitted to the registry?

Is there IHT to pay?

Was the solicitors appointment made by both executors, or solely by your sister-in-law?

As joint executors they are supposed to agree on everything (which generally means compromise on both sides!)

Your brother should point out to his sister that she needs to clear the property of her goods so it may the more easily be marketed.
If she refuses to cooperate he needs to tell her the estate will require her to pay rent until such time as she complies, and that eventually, if needs be, he will consider applying to the court to have her removed as executor.
However it is better to come to an amicable agreement!

[KL1965]

Hi thank you for replying. Yes families....

Probate has now been applied for as in the solicitor has now submitted it to the registry. . Unfortunately as mentioned the sister did not sign it for nearly 2 months after the solicitor sent it to her so with Covid it is now looking like it won’t be granted until early 2021. We were not aware of this until my husband chased it up.

There is no IHT to pay. The solicitors appointment was made by the sister although communication has taken place only by telephone with both individually due to Covid. There has been no f2f meetings.

My husband has tried with her to be very compromising. She had claimed mother in law had stated she could have many personal items even though they are not stated to be left to her in the will. To keep the peace he has agreed to most of her requests.

Thank you for advice relating to the outbuilding and garage being used as storage. He is unconcerned with the garage being full but the outbuildings marketing is being effected.

We are also aware of how difficult and expensive to have her removed as an executor and do wish to avoid that if it is possible but we seem to have come to a deadlock. Since refusing her offer of £75,000 less than valuation, she is not answering calls or messages.

Would it be worth instructing a solicitor to send her a letter advising her of her duties as an executor if this continues?

Thank you

[des8]

There is no need to instruct a solicitor just to send a letter which you can do quite easily yourself.
Why pay unnecessarily, unless you think it will have more impact. She probably knows a solicitor has no more authority than anyone else.

Problem your husband now has is, that although they are joint executors, the solicitor's client is the sister and he may need to instruct his own solicitor to deal with the sister's solicitor. That only increases costs.
Just warn her that her lack of compromise is going to reduce the value of the estate and thus the size of her legacy

[KL1965]

Thank you. We will endeavour to try to communicate with her again and if that still fails we will instruct a solicitor ourselves.