Inheritance Intestacy rules?

[Umbellypico]

If someone dies intestate, is there anyone whose job it is to see that the estate is dispersed according to intestacy rules? For instance, if a sibling winds everything up but keeps the whole value for themselves, do the remaining siblings have to raise the money to challenge this in court?

Sibling A lives in the parents home and has done for 5yrs, sibling B & C live abroad.

Where about are you?

In Scotland, an executor named in a will is Executor Nominative.
An executor in a case of intestacy is Executor Dative.
In both cases, the sheriff court issues a confirmation of the appointment.

In England

www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will

I've seen that @SleepingSausages but it says nothing about who the executor is, or who checks to see that funds have been dispersed accurately. If child A winds up the estate & keeps the whole value, children B&C do not have the funds to challenge this in court and presuming lawyers kept their fees to the end, there'd be nothing left of the estate anyway after paying them.

In theory it's theft. In practice you'd have to do a lot of legwork yourself before police would pursue.

It may not be worth an actual court case, but it's probably worth the investment of a meeting with a solicitor and a legal letter with a view to achieving some sort of settlement.

I don't believe anyone checks the person who has applied for the grant of letters of administration. Just like if the executor is a layperson there are no checks (this is based on personal, not professional experience).

HMRC may check to see the correct IHT has been paid (the PR has to submit a return declaring this).

I believe from googling that you can enter a caveat even if there is no will to pause the distribution and buy time.

I can't see the police being interested but as a PP says, an appointment with a private client solicitor to talk about your options would be the sensible thing to do.

If the person who died is intestate then someone should be appointed as the Administrator of the estate.
I think it's a similar process to probate but the official document is called Letters of Administration and if there is a house involved then the estate then sounds like Letters of Administration would be required to release assets and funds from the estate. The house can't just be transferred into someone else's name without the letters of Administration I believe. I think the other parties can have a red flag placed on the property with the land Registry to alert them to anything dodgy.

They do need to see a solicitor or they could apply to the court to be appointed Administrators of the estate I believe. They do need to get legal advice.