Wondering if any solicitors or anyone with probate experience can advise on our situation?
My husband and his sister have power of attorney for their 91yo grandmother, who has dementia. She is their mother's mother, her husband and only daughte are both dead and DH & DSIL are pretty much her only surviving relatives apart from a few second cousins.
At the moment her will splits the entire estate between DH and DSIL. My FIL - her son in law - is named as the executor, an arrangement which was made when they were kids and not able to take responsibility themselves. However FIL (who has never got on with the gran anyway) is now living in Australia, remarried, and has said he doesn't want to be the executor.
Gran can't change her will as she has dementia and is not capable. DH is happy to act as executor, either as proxy for his dad or instead of him, but we don't know whether this is possible. We sought advice from fran's solicitors who have said that FIL should appoint them to act on his behalf - which may be right but we suspect that is commercial self interest talking!
So does anyone know what the process is when an executor can't or won't act? Can we do anything now or do we have to wait until gran dies (that sounds horrible but I don't mean it like that...) Does it make any difference that the two of them have PoA?
Thanks for any advice!