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Inheritance query

Gl0rf1nd3l

My mother died suddenly in September, and I have been informed that I'm a beneficiary of her will. All of the children are to receive a percentage share of the sale of the primary asset, namely a house that she owns. However, none of us would like the house to be sold, and we have been told by her solicitor that we cannot see the full will until probate has been granted, which won't be for some time yet.

My question is, once probate has been granted and everyone sees the full will, is there any way we can stop or postpone the sale of the house, or is the fate of the house already decided? Also, can anything be done before probate?

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Comments

Victor

One or a group of you could make an offer for the house.

The Continental Op

Can some with the relevant legal knowledge confirm or otherwise that the solicitor can keep the contents of the will from the beneficiaries?

Claw Hammer

Who is the executor of the will? It is a decision for the executor, not the solicitor.

Gl0rf1nd3l

Claw Hammer wrote: »

Who is the executor of the will? It is a decision for the executor, not the solicitor.

I know who the executor is, but he's played very hard to get. I've spoken to him once and he has insisted that all questions should be pointed to the solicitor. Which in itself I find remarkable.

I do know that generally speaking, the executor doesn't have to share the will with the beneficiaries before probate is granted, but is unlikely to refuse so should one of us ask. However, knowing this executor, he will refuse anyway and send the matter back to the solicitor.

Gl0rf1nd3l

Victor wrote: »

One or a group of you could make an offer for the house.

That is one option I have considered. I think though that without seeing the full will, any talk of options available to us is just idle speculation.

The Continental Op

Any chance that you mother gave someone a copy of the will. Its not unusual. Also has any family member made a search of the house. I found a copy of my fathers will under one of the sofa cushions, a place my mother often used for filing :rolleyes:

wush06

Condolences On you’re mam

What will you do with the house if it is not sold this can turn out to be a headache in itself. Do any of you still live there or have you all moved out.

Peregrinus

Is the executor one of the people who is to receive a share of the sale proceeds? And, if so, is he or she on board with the proposal that the house should not be sold?

Gl0rf1nd3l

The Continental Op wrote: »

Any chance that you mother gave someone a copy of the will. Its not unusual. Also has any family member made a search of the house. I found a copy of my fathers will under one of the sofa cushions, a place my mother often used for filing :rolleyes:

We don't know who else could have the will aside from the solicitor and the executor. As for a search of the house, I can't say for certain that anyone has done that, I haven't been home since the week of funeral (thank you COVID-19) but I can't rule it out.

Gl0rf1nd3l

wush06 wrote: »

Condolences On you’re mam

What will you do with the house if it is not sold this can turn out to be a headache in itself. Do any of you still live there or have you all moved out.

Thank you for your kind words.

So it was a house she bought before she was married. None of us have ever lived in the house but I live and work relatively near it so I put out the option of holding onto it, at least until the market improves.

There are a number of options, such as sharing the rent from any potential tenancy between us, waiting for the market to improve and selling then, one of us moving in and paying rent to the others, or one of us buying the others out.. I just feel we need to see the full will first before we can make any decisions.

Gl0rf1nd3l

Peregrinus wrote: »

Is the executor one of the people who is to receive a share of the sale proceeds? And, if so, is he or she on board with the proposal that the house should not be sold?

Not to my knowledge, no. I think he's just doing what he's told to do, and since he's playing hard to get, he doesn't seem to want to offer advice either way. But, he should be making decisions in consultation with the beneficiaries, right?

The Continental Op

Gl0rf1nd3l wrote: »

We don't know who else could have the will aside from the solicitor and the executor. As for a search of the house, I can't say for certain that anyone has done that, I haven't been home since the week of funeral (thank you COVID-19) but I can't rule it out.

I would search were your mother was living when she died because it doesn't sound from one of your later posts that she lived there recently.

afaik its normal practice for a solicitor making the will to provide at least one copy to the testator.

coylemj

Gl0rf1nd3l wrote: »

Not to my knowledge, no. I think he's just doing what he's told to do......

It's the executor's decision alone not to talk to you. His solicitor is refusing to talk to you because those are the instructions he's received from his client.

So don't let the executor fob you off by pointing at the solicitor and claiming that he (the solicitor) has ordered him not to talk to you. The executor could e-mail you a copy of the will in the morning if he chose to.

Gl0rf1nd3l wrote: »

But, he should be making decisions in consultation with the beneficiaries, right?

Not really, the executor follow the instructions in the will, he doesn't need to get directions from the beneficiaries.

Claw Hammer

An issue you should be careful of, is who is paying for the time taken by the solicitor in dealing with your queries. The state could be landed with a large bill if beneficiaries keep contacting the solicitor.
The Will must become a public document eventually. If you are a child of the testator you should be given sight of the will after probate has been granted. The decision on whether to sell the house or not will be a matter for the executor, when probate is granted.
It may well be that there are debts to be paid and there is not enough cash in the estate to cover them and so the house will have to be sold to pay them.

Peregrinus

Gl0rf1nd3l wrote: »

Not to my knowledge, no. I think he's just doing what he's told to do, and since he's playing hard to get, he doesn't seem to want to offer advice either way. But, he should be making decisions in consultation with the beneficiaries, right?

The will may direct that the house be sold, and the proceeds divided. That's a common enough provision in a will.

If that's the case, the executor doesn't have a decision to make about whether to sell the house, so the question of consulting the beneficiaries about that doesn't really arise. He just has to get on with his job, which is doing what it says in the will.

Having said that, if the beneficiaries entitled to a share of the house proceeds are (a) all adults with full legal competence, and (b) all agreed, they can effectively vary the terms of the will by entering into a deed in which they agree that the house should not be sold, but should instead be transferred to them in joint names in proportion to their entitlements. There is no reason for the executor to object to this; it is no skin off his nose as he has no expectation of benefitting from the sale of the house himself. If anything, it saves him a bit of work in marketing and selling the house. So there is no reason why he would be unco-operative.

But . . .

First, this assumes that all of the beneficiaries are in perfect agreement about what should be done. The executor does not want to be waiting for the beneficiaries to settle their differences and reach an agreement or, worse, trying to arbitrate disagreements between the beneficiaries. So don't approach the executor until the beneficiaries are all solidly on the same page.

Secondly, it's very reasonable in a case like this for the executor to deal with the beneficiaries through the solicitor, since a deed of arrangement (as it's called) is a fairly technical thing which the estate solicitor will certain need to be involved in, and will need to advise the executor about. So the beneficiaries who want to do this should write to the estate solicitor saying that they don't want the house sold but instead transferred into their names, and proposing that if the necessary power is not contained in the will a deed of arrangement should be entered into to allow this to happen.

My suggestion is that if the beneficiares are interested in pursuing this, they should instruct a solicitor themselves (a) to prepare an written agreement between then as to what should be done with the house (to ensure they are all on the same page) and then (b) to write to the estate solicitor proposing that the house be trasnferred to them and proposing a deed of arrangement if necessary.

Victor

Gl0rf1nd3l wrote: »

waiting for the market to improve and selling then

This can be a double-edged sword. For inheritance / CAT, the value of the property is the day your mother died. With several people inheriting, liability is likely to be modest at most. However, if the value of the property increases, you risk having to pay CGT and a second set of legal costs.

Peregrinus

Victor wrote: »

This can be a double-edged sword. For inheritance / CAT, the value of the property is the day your mother died. With several people inheriting, liability is likely to be modest at most. However, if the value of the property increases, you risk having to pay CGT and a second set of legal costs.

Yeah, but you only pay CGT if you have in fact made a gain. And you only pay a percentage of the gain in CGT, so you're still better off than if you had sold immediately and made no gain.