death of relative in England

[alex michael]

Hello, my sister and her husband have died very recently. Police are involved. There are a lot of creditors. There are wills but I haven't seen them yet but i know they date from 1999. I am told my elder brother has been named executor. he doesn't want anything to do with it,. My sister may also be an executor but is elderly, as we all are, and would not want the responsibility. I have a few thoughts and would appreciate some of your comments and thoughts.
1. My brother, and my sister, to delegate executor role to me. Can this happen easily? Ramifications?
2. There are some belongings, furniture, documents, household stuff, garden stuff etc. In total not a great value, maybe 10,000 pounds. Creditors are owned more than 100,000 pounds. Family would like to take some personal items and things of little value. Can i/we do that?
3. Can I/we delegate to a solicitor the selling of anything of value and he collates creditor details, takes his costs and shares out any proceeds. If there are not enough proceeds to cover solicitor costs do we have to pay him the balance? I presume yes.
4. Do we have a responsibility to creditors and do they have any claim upon us relative to the debt? I presume not but can they scrutinize what we do and object or claim for errors we may make?
Apology for length of post but have no experience in this matter and not a lot of money to not care as well as cope with their deaths.
Any other thoughts or places of advice/help will be appreciated. Thank you. 20.06.2022

[dslippy]

It sounds like an insolvent estate. Stay clear.
You cannot delegate an executorship.
If any creditor feels moved to do so they can apply for letters of administration, but will get a few pence on the pound for their trouble.
You are either in or out. You cannot take personal items without taking out probate and stumping up in the way described.

You have no resposbility unless and until you involve yourself (intermeddle), at which point you begin to have personal responsibilities.
Creditors have an interest in the estate prior to beneficiaries - they have the right to have ytheir questions answered about the estate. Your completer answer needs to be alomg the lines of 'I saw it was insolvent, and decided to have nothing to do with it. I will happily forego any right to a grant of probate.'

[des8]

If your brother and sister (if named as executors) do not wish to act they should complete form PA15 (https://assets.publishing.service.go..._0421_save.pdf) nand submit it to the probate registry asap

[atticus]

Are there no other assets? Who owns the house?