My brother has sold my deceased parents house without telling me

[Coffeecup123456]

Not sure what to do or where I stand. My brother who I chose to go nc with & I were made joint executors. I relinquished my role after my DM died as he is very untrustworthy and I was concerned about my name being attached to probate & him not doing things as he should. He is very controlling and would not have involved me at all. Since then I discovered that for 3.5 years he was renting it out. Solicitor said I could only regain some control if I followed a lengthy /costly process of renaming myself to be an executor. Without that it was down to him doing the right thing by informing me of what was happening with my parents assets. Out of curiosity I just looked up their house. It has been sold within the last 6 months. There is many reasons that I won’t go into here that I have avoided my brother at all costs. I would love to know if there’s anything I can do or somewhere I can go to find out more. He would not willingly share any info and would be prone to lying.

But the beneficiary needs to at least be notified and…
there needs to be a very compelling reason WHY a sale is necessary
it can’t just be that an executor fancied it

This. Ignore @Ohthatsexciting

The executor has the legal duty to dispose of the estate in accordance with the will. However the executor does NOT have to transfer the property into the names of the beneficiaries before it is sold. It can be sold as the estate of OP's dm being the owner which is obviously what has been done. The proceeds go into a separate account for the executor to pay debts from, pay funeral costs from, pay inheritance tax from. If there is any money left after all that, then the executor distributes as per the will.

On the face of it there is no evidence of anything illegal having been done. OP needs to see what the probate registry holds as the value of the estate. Only then can she assess whether her brother has stolen her share.

In law he has to execute the Will and he has to account for every penny. I would argue that you were entitled to 50% of the net rent as in effect you were supposed to benefit 50/50. If he has not kept account , and they do not add up, if he has not executed the Will accurately then he has broken the law. I believe fraud covers mis- use of Executor power.
See a solicitor ASAP and be prepared to go to the police if advised to.

A horrible situation but he should not be allowed to get away with it. Good luck.

Thanks I think you are prob right. I looked in Zoopla and it says when it was sold and for how much. It sold for £330k more than I was bought for. I agree, I think the stress to sue would never be worth it.

I reached out to him quite recently. He confessed to various major issues in life and for the first time owned what he calls his dark side. He did not mention the house and at that point I didn’t ask about it. He is in the habit of believing his own lies which is why I have resisted calling and asking since. Perhaps it’s worth a try though now I’ve discovered it’s been sold. I guess there is still a tiny amount of fear still there which is what’s making me hesitate. Need to way up self preservation v being bold, sometimes in life I’ve found it’s just not worth it.

Thanks

Op

i sent you the link to pay bloody £3 to find out WHO sold!!!!!

OP - some of the advice you're getting here is dreadful. Please just engage a solicitor. Pull together all the documentation you can (get the probate doc online, and do the £3 land registry check) and give it to them, and get them to advise what your best course of action is.

You were unwise not to take legal advice before resigning as executor. Don't be unwise this time. MN is not going to provide the help you need.

Christ... so you're still looking on Zoopla rather than spending £3 (three fucking quid!) to do the land registry check?

You can lead a horse to water....

OP, as I said upthread the Executor is personally responsible (and liable, legally) if the estate is not distributed correctly so you may be able to take action. Whether you can face the hassle is another thing completely, and it's fine to take a bit of time to think about what you want to do next. As PP have said, renouncing the executorship doesn't affect you being a beneficiary so you are still entitled to any share due to you.

As an executor he has a duty to carry out his work diligently, acting in the best interests of the estate and the beneficiaries at all times. If an executor breaches this duty, then they can be held personally financially liable for their mistakes, and the financial claim that is made against them can be substantial.you can take him to court for not doing his job correctly.

Relinquishing any executor role makes no difference to inheritance unless you were cut off from a will.

Seriously, you have no idea.

OP, this is more common than you’d think. Don’t waste your money on a solicitor, you’ll end up broke. Walk away, don’t put yourself through this.

3 times I have told the op about it
i even posted the link!

Oh good Lord

OP you are getting some very poor advice from many posters on this thread.

At the end of the day, it's pretty simple.

Forget about the executorship and your poor relationship with your brother. Set that to one side.

If the will said you inherited 50% of the estate, then that is what you are entitled to. End of. I appreciate however that your brother is a jailbird not over fussy about following due legal process. Nonetheless, the law still applies to him, whatever he has done, however many signatures (or wills) he may have forged, monies he may have taken etc etc.

It's clear that, like many people, dealing with this matter does not come naturally to you. Therefore you need to consult a solicitor to pursue this for you, unless you have a business minded friend who can at least undertake some initial enquiries and obtain a copy of the will first. When you go to the solicitor, take with you a clear, concise note of the deceased details, your brother's name, DOB, address etc and say that you want them to find out what has happened to the estate as you believe you are a beneficiary. If you have a copy of the will, take that with you too.

Remember the more of the solicitor's time you take up, the more they will have to charge you, so it is a good idea to be prepared.

Good luck and I hope you get it sorted out.

Are you a probate solicitor?

I Can speak from experience as something very similar happened to me. I didn’t relinquish my executor role but it was taken from me by my brother behind my back ( impossible to do this now thankfully as laws have changed) but not being an executor does not make any difference to your inheritance. You are entitled to half of what was left if that’s stated in the will and if he has not done this fairly or followed out the wishes stated in the will then he can get in to serious trouble but I would suggest hiring a solicitor to sort of there is a lot of money at stake.

I know!

OP - I have a 3 step plan for you:

1. Get the sale details from the land registry (£3)
2. Obtain the probate information, which is also publicly available
3. Take this info to a solicitor and talk it through with them. They will advise on possible courses of action and you can decide what you want to do.

The cost of an hour or half an hour with a solicitor will be worth it to ensure you are fully informed of your options. You don't have to take it any further if you don't want.

But stop fannying around on Zoopla.

On it! Thanks 😊

OP, sorry I haven’t read all of the replies, but even if the property was repossessed and sold by the bank that doesn’t mean there were no sale proceeds that went back to your brother after the bank took their share - if there was equity in the house then there still would have been money to share between you and your brother which you would have had a right to.

But you are talking about an honest executor. A dishonest executor will claim the beneficiary cannot be contacted

I used to work for a solicitors and although I'm not 100% sure of the law re this, I would say to at least have an initial conversation with them which may be free or may be their usual 30 mins/60 mins charge fee which would be worth it.

At least, they'll say "it's gone beyond the time limit to challenge the estate" or "when you relinquished your role as executor you gave up xxx rights". As I had, I have no idea re the law re this. But as you're listed as a beneficiary in the will it'd be foolish of you to give up half of the proceeds of a property which has increased in value and also not to find out exactly, legally what you can do and only a qualified, experienced, probate solicitor can advise on this. Only go to a reputable high street firm, maybe also speak to Citizens Advice and you need a probate solicitor with a reasonable amount of experience (you could engage a legal executive/paralegal but I'd say to choose an experienced probate person). Be perfectly honest about your brother, don't leave anything out, or give his behaviour a free pass but be prepared for them to give you blunt advice in return. State that you would NOT like to run up huge legal bills and anyone you think may do this just walk away. Read reviews on the firm (google). Our firm did used to have people challenge wills, one was a big estate with of one man with lots of beneficiaries (I can't recall what exactly happened but there was a huge battle and lots of pension/insurance/life assurance policies to be paid out) and yes, the fees did eat into the amount paid out to the beneficiaries and the other one was sadly an old man, who if I recall believed he was related to a woman (his mother?) who had had money and he was entitled to a share, and we had to go through Bono Vacantia and as far as I recall he eventually, sadly gave up the case. The law around probate as far as I can recall is quite complex and cases can take time to process properly. Solicitors often have to contact Probate Registry for Grants of Probate etc and often Probate Registry offices have backlogs so it can also be a lengthy procedure!

Most solicitors I know personally, would themselves challenge this, for this amount.

Good luck and let us know of the outcome!

We’re your parents the type to have debt?

My sister relinquished her duty as an executor of my parents will - she had to sign something saying that she was doing this but it wouldn’t affect her as a beneficiary

As the other executor I still made sure she got her money from the sale of the house

Act quickly and go in hard.

No way would I let that much money get away. Your parents wouldn’t want it to either.