Inheritance question

natty_asha

This will take some explaining....

My husband received a letter from a solicitor stating that his grandmother had left him X amount in her will. There was no mention whether it was tied up in her house or how long it would be before receiving it. As we have never been in this position before my husband contacted the solicitor and asked for more info. He was told that the amount stated in letter is what he is legally entitled to and that it would be 4/6 months before he would get money.

5 months later and we still didn't hear anymore from solicitor about this. In the meantime my hubby has been te various things by family, such as his money was coming from sale of house, he might not get what was stated in letter, no timeframe on when house would be sold etc. no family member would tell him who executor was, so he didn't know who to talk to about this.

So we went to see solicitor last week to get answers. We asked two specific questions: 1, is he definitely receiving X amount as stated? 2, is it coming from sale of house. He got a call later that day from solicitor stating that he may not get full amount as stated and that it is to come from sale of house. We were also told that there was no time scale as to when house would be sold.

It has since transpired from an angry phone call from his father, that his uncle is executor. Family are not happy we went asking questions. He was told by his father that some family are not happy and are contesting will. He also said that he might not receive anything now because of this as she changed her will shortly before passing. Another interesting point is that the executors daughter is living in the house so we are assuming that's why there is no rush on a sale.

My question is what would be our best course of action? We're not desperate for the money. We don't care if we're waiting years for it, it's just frustrating the lack of information! Are we better off getting our own solicitor to look into this for us as it seems his family cannot be trusted?

Bobby1984

if there is one thing in Ireland that family will fight over it is land and property. It sounds like the family were not happy regardless of whether you asked questions or not. Based on what I have seen from some probate cases, it could take 4/5 years or possibly longer before the matter is finally decided. I would definitely get a solicitor of you own to look out for your interests. He would then look into the new will which apparently post dates the original will where your husband was a beneficiary.
The house probably cant and wont be sold until the will has been verified and grant of probate/administration has been taken out

xonet

Even after the issue of the Will is settled in your favour, you may still have to go to court to force the executor(s) to pay the beneficiaries.