All a bit complicated

[zeebrugge]

I was adopted as a baby in 1971 and lived with my adopted parents until March 1987 when they were both drowned in the Zeebrugge Ferry disaster. I was put in short term foster care and then long term foster care until I timed out on my 18th birthday.

I was allowed to visit my former home, on the day after the funeral, to collect my belongings but never stayed there again. When my aunt and uncle came back from Denver in 1989 they lived there for a while.

Now I can sort of understand why I wasn't in the will, being adopted rather than a birth child. But as somebody told me over Christmas, and why I am writing now, surely I was left something. Did I really matter so little to them?

I'm really happy that you know that you did matter to your parents - which must be comforting after spending all these years wondering.
It's just a shame that it appears that your scheming Aunt and Uncle were too selfish/greedy/callous to carry out your parents wishes. Shame on them and i hope they don't get away with it!

Will be thinking about you and hope this is resolved to your advantage as soon as possible.

Good luck!

Hi Zeebrugge,

I have been following this thread over the last few days but had not posted as I'm no expert in these matters. But I have been thinking of you a lot. I'm so sorry that you have been treated in this way, it sounds like something out of a Dickens novel rather than something that would be allowed to happen these days!

I understand from your posts that the solicitor you have seen was your parents' solicitor? The fact that the normal papers for granting probate are not present, and that the solicitor has offered to do the current work pro bono, suggests that he knows they messed up royally and did not execute the will properly. I would be tempted to get independent legal advice as you may have a claim against these solicitors too.

The emotional and financial harm done to you has been really grevious. I'm so sorry that you have had to go through this having already had to go through losing your parents at such a young age. I'm thinking of you!

rodformyownback - I agree that the solicitors appear to be scared they have messed up and I dont think they should have rung the aunt and uncle (especially with the Op out of the room) as this would have been a warning to them that she is on to them.

IMO the solicitor should have referred this straight to the police.

I would talk this over with another, independent, solicitor.

It is even possible that this solicitor was involved in the fraud.

Ah, I just read the last post.
So the aunt and uncle may have gone off with the value of the house and certainly didn't spend it on your upbringing. Do they still own it? Still do my suggested land registry search to check ownership of the whouse and who it was transferred to etc and also check if you can on line if it goes back that far sityes like net h ouseprices.com because if the house was valued at something very low like £10k when it was clearly worth £150k then you might be able to get them on that.

Also try to find out what they are worth as you may need to seize (if you won any case) assets of theirs. If they have a different house or bank accounts that could be taken.

Also itr is possbile when confront they will say - ah yes here is her pot of meony and hand it ove rbut it seems more likely they undervalued the estate, put in a false value and went off with the proceeds.

I agree, as ever it seems, with troylawyer.

I am far from certain, despite straining every fibre to remain objective, that the family lawyer has a clear conscience. That said it almost implict in what the OP said today that while the family solicitor did not do the work himself that it was indeed done by another member of the same practice.

The full implications of that are not clear to me as yet. If the work was done by another fully qualified member of the firm then liability, if liability exists, perhaps lies there.

BTW Would not the tax liability seem smaller than expected if the aunt and uncle had, by accident or design, misreported the value of the estate to the firm?

I am assuming that the family solicitor is now acting for the OP? Or have I misunderstood something? I think this is probably a bad idea.

If the firm does the probate then usually they get valuations of a house (if indeed there were a house in the estate) from surveyors and pay fees for that. So it is not that easy to undervalue I would imagine although if the aunt and uncle said we will arrange the valuation then may be that could be accepted but even so you would expect if the vlauation were one tenth of houses usually that value that would alert the lawyer.

I think he can't easily act for her but is diong some free checking of things which is not good and he shoudl not have alerted the aunt and uncle as they could hide stuff.

It sounds very fishy and the solicitors who have handled the will seem very slack. Tbh, after I had confirmed initial facts with them, I would perhaps be looking for another firm to handle any further investigation. Good advice from Xenia about checking land registry records (it can all be done online for #4) - I really hope you get this sorted out, zeebrugge.

I have been very moved by your experiences, I wish you all the luck in the world in uncovering the truth

Take care xx

I agree, you need another solicitor. There is a clear conflict of interest here.

OP, can i ask , how did you know who your parents' solicitor was?

I've nothing to add, having no experience or specialist knowledge, but I did want to say how sorry I am for the loss of your parents which has led to all this. And I'm hoping you get it all sorted out with a good outcome for yourself xx

Mary, it would be fairly easy to prove the under valuation in most cases. In GB all houses are valued for council tax purposes, even though this might be pretty out of date. Unless the property was a complete one off you could look to the value of comparable properties.

The price gained at auction under forced sale is not the same as the market value of a property.

I have some good news and some bad news. There is a box of photos of my Mum and Dad waiting for me at the solicitors office and I now know that they did leave me something in their will but nobody ever bothered to tell me!!!

The bad news is that the family solicitor cannot help me any more because of a conflict of something.

What happened was that a 4PM yesterday Aunt and Uncle phoned my solicitor to say they would not see him. At 415PM another solicitor phoned my solicitor to say that Aunt and Uncle had asked him to represent them and that a box of photos and a letter would arrive before the close of business. At 455 the box and a letter arrived addressed to me and my solicitor arrived. My aunt and uncle have said all sorts in the letter.

They decided it would be in my best interests to have a fresh start not in the home with so many sad memories. This was arranged with an experienced foster carer .

All the money from the Mum and Dad was put into a bank account accesable to me and them. They have the signed paper from 1987 to prove it.

This money was used to maintain the house which they do not dispute belongs to me.

They say I was paid a weekly allowance into another account under my sole control. The allowance was uprated each year to allow for inflation.

Since they were not living in the house through choice but to maintain it for me they have paid themselves an allowance as well.

They have no idea why I have made no attempt to live in the house or to keep in regular contact with them.

PLEASE BELIEVE ME ? I didn?t know anything about the house being mine. Nobody told me. I am sure they didn?t. I have never had any allowance from them either. Nothing ever. Why should they get paid from my Mum and Dads money to live in my house when I wasn?t there. For years and years.

I am going off to catch the bus so I can see the photos. I am really excited about that. I only have 2 at the moment.

zeebrugge

if they are innocent in all of this, why in heavens name didnt they just sell the house when you reached 18 and hand the money to you?

they have probably smoothed the facts over into something more palatable.

you absolutely need to get some independent legal advice.

no doubt the original solicitors are concerned that they did not act correctly and you may have a claim against them.

on the facts as presented they did not fulfil the wishes of your parents- which was to provide YOU with a home until you reached adulthood. instead they have spent 20 years spending their money allegdedly on maintaining the house. Dreadful. I suppose the only very minor saving grace is that you are now coming into some inheritance that has probably at least doubled in that time and you might have spent it at 18 less wisely.

Why would the solicitor suddenly want to represent your aunt and uncle? Why did they need to pay themselves an allowance to live rent-free? Why did they never bother specifically telling you that the house was yours? Why did they initially tell you that you couldn't have photographs?

I would stress again that you need to get another firm of solicitors who are specialists in probate and I would also be speaking to the police at this stage.

Good luck.

I'm so pleased that you have some photos and other personal things of your parents, no wonder you are excited

You really MUST get another lawyer asap. Please do not agrre to meet your aunt and uncle or speak to them and do not sign anything or agree to anything until you have your own lawyer and you understand exactly what the situation is.

Im very sorry to hear this sad story - the Solicitor has decided there is a conflict of interest as he has previously represented your aunt and uncle and can not therefore give you advice.

You absolutely must get some advice for yourself - please tell us whereabouts you are and there may be mner that can help.

Hopefully you have picked up your photo's - out of interest why havent you kept in touch with them?

and, the more you think about it it makes no sense, there is absolutely no way an innocent person would have acted in this way.

the £10000 was supposed to be recompense for LOOKING AFTER you- not putting you into foster care. In these circumstances, as executors, unless they were looking for a free roof, surely you would not want this hanging over them all this time. If they could not contact you (?) then surely they would have sold the house and put the proceeds in trust for you having taken legal advice about tracing you. Especially as they had already decided(?) that you would not want to live there because of unhappy memories.

it makes my blood boil- i completely understand that at only 16, you would not have questioned it (no internet back then)- i only have to think about my 16 yr old DD in this situation-

meant to say that i am so pleased for you to get these photos and understand how much your parents loved you. its just rotten to think that they worked hard to pay off their mortgage and no doubt had life assurance and took the time and trouble to get their wills up to date all to make certain that you would be OK and you have been deprived of that and more importantly understanding all they had done for you.

how anybody could put themselves in a position to have benefitted from this dreadful disaster and its impact on you is beyond the pale

Please fight this, it's not fair. I still feel yOu should ask for you SS file as they should have acted for you and the FC don't seem that official

I'm really pleased to hear that you've had this good news.

It's lovely for you to have some more photos of your parents. You can now feel reassured that you meant the world to them. I'm sure they would be very angry if they were aware of what was to happen after their deaths.

Please please do take heed of what others have said and get some good, independent legal advice before making any more moves.

Don't be fooled into thinking that your aunt and uncle have done anything in your best interests. They have abused the trust placed in them by your parents and caused you years of hurt and heartache as well as depriving you of the inheritance you should have received aged 18. I can only assume that they couldn't find a way to sign the house over to themselves or they would have done that too.

It was not your responsibility to maintain contact with them, it was not your responsibility to pay them to live in your house rent fee and it was not your responsibility to ensure that your received your inheritance.

Don't allow them to win you over by acting like victims and suddenly digging out a few photos for you.

Have you considered asking your GP to refer you for counselling? This is an awful lot to take on board and talking it through with someone independent could help you to get your head round it all.

Cheeky gits! So glad you got to the bottom of all this.

I have not been moved by a thread on MN this much before.

I am so so glad you will be getting some photos - how very exciting!!

One can only imagine now that your A&U are silently wetting their pants, because that HAS to be the biggest pile of rubbish.

Presumably, your Mum&Dad, could not have children and so adopted you - how very much you must have meant to them - and for what, for them to be happy to see you back in foster care and unhappy? I doubt that immensely!! I am so so angry for you.

So, it never once entered their heads to double check with you did it not? What a complete pile of tosh.

I really really hope you get a good outcome from this and can find a reliable solicitor to help you. Why, if the A&U have done no wrong and it is all straight forward have they instructed a solicitor?

And where is this allowance money you were meant to have had?

I wonder what they got you, a confused, lost upset 16 year old to sign? Bastards.

Will follow your story with much interest and hope you are ok, the photos must be wonderful to have!