FIL called tonight - he is worried and tbh, whilst some of the things he is worried about I think he has misunderstood, I fear he may have a point.
His sibling died in May - he understood there to be a will, with a solicitor, and was told by two other more distant, but more local (and also more mobile and capable, he is in his 80s!) family members that they'd had POA and were executors of the will and would deal with everything. (I am not actually clear if they ARE executors of a will or were simply told they would be, or in fact were told nothing of the sort and think that prior POA gives them the legal right to deal with everything).
He had been told (And I have pointed out that people say a lot about what they've put in a will but its not smart to believe it until you see it!) by his sibling that he'd be left a chunk, as would my DP, with the house being split between two other people.
He has not been shown the will. He has asked, they have refused/fudged. Not only that, he has an email and a mobile number for one of this couple, no address, they refused to give it.
I can find no reference to a will or probate being applied for - of course this does not mean there isn't one, but its rather odd that the two 'in charge' have not mentioned it and are fudging the 'can we see the will' question.
He has a bee in his bonnet that they've said they want to deal with the estate themselves without a solicitor - in FIL experience, this is something you get a sol. to do and he finds this very dodgy - I actually don't particularly, I dealt with my own mothers estate/affairs.
He is obviously quite worried or he wouldn't have rung us (and to be honest, it was me he wanted, not DP!).
AIBU to think something smells iffy here? It's been almost 11 weeks!
So far I have:
Asked him NOT to send a rather incendiary and incorrect email to them with thinly veiled accusations, all based on them wanting to deal with the will/estate themselves.
Advised he call round solicitors local to his brother to find if there is a will lodged with one of them (he knows the one his sibling used to use, which is the most likely one).
Wait until we have further information before making any waves.
Is there anything else he should do immediately - or that I can do for him. He is verrrrrrrrrrrrrrry autistic and gets rather stressed about this sort of thing!
I do suspect if they are up to no good, he needs to act quickly - unfortunately geographically he is a long way from where his siblings house is (and we're even further).
Equally they may be doing nothing dodgy at all, just sorting out the epic mess left behind and dealing with a lot of stress as a result!