Probate granted over a year ago but still waiting for inheritance.

[pippala]

My SF died over two years ago and my SS and SB are the executors.
Probate was granted over a year ago and the house was sold. I have had an interim payment from the sale of the house but am still waiting for the rest of the inheritance.
My SS is not happy that I was left anything and has asked me to do a deed of variation to give her the money back. Which I refused. We have not spoken for 18months since.
How can I make her give me the rest of my inheritance?
Her solicitor has not responded to my solicitor since last november even though my solicitor has written several times.
I am not happy that SS and SB probably had their share but I havent had mine? Can solicitor do that?

[pippala]

Cumfy, in total over the last two years of probate etc my solicitors bill is over £10,000 not just for three letters!
However I am loosing faith with my solicitor in that she does not seem to be putting enough pressure on SF executors.
The will is a straight forward one and is undisbuted so why has it taken over two years for the funds to be paid.
The house has been sold for over a year, bank accounts closed, shares sold etc so why has the money not been divided three ways?
Unless it has been two ways but my share is sitting somewhere?
I am p...ed off that I was so kind to my SSis that I "let" her clear the house after my Mum died. She turned up with packing boxes and cleared the house of Capo dimonte (sp) ornamants, Kuggerands worth £25,000, a gun collection worth £40,000, lowry prints, worth god knows how much, before her DB could get there!!!
I understand that she is not happy that I have inherited !/3 of her DF estate but if my Mum had not died, she would not be withholding my Mum's 1/3?
My mother would have been allowed to live in the house till the end of her life and she should still be alive now if she hadn't have had the stresses of looking after an invalid for 20 years.
However the point of this thread is HOW can I INSIST that they pay me the monies that are outstanding?
Why would I need to take them to court when they have a legal obligation as executors to pay the beneficiary?

[pippala]

Cumfy- forgot to comment, yes we think you are right.
We believe SF had several other accounts that were not on the list brought forward by Stepsiblings solicitors but we believed in Oct 2010, rightly or wrongly not to bring it up as we just wanted probate granted.
We could not prove conclusively that there were missing bank accounts.
However before my DM died she told me what SF was worth. When we got the accounts through before probate it was about £400,000 short of what my DM told me.
Is it possible that Ssis and SB are arguing between themselves and holding up winding up the estate?
SSis and SB have never got on as Ssis was given many K's from her DF over the years.

[cumfy]

What is your solicitor's response when you have pointed out the discrepancy and the Kuggerands/ Gun collection ?

[cumfy]

It is your solicitors job to ensure you get your share.

[pippala]

The Kuggerands , lowry's etc were classed as Chattals which my DM was not left.
I have always been more interested in getting my 1/3 and left the SSiblings to argue over the chattals. They even argued over the three piece suite!!!
My solicitor has not been that pro-active in putting pressure on. To be fair I have been very patient but two years is long enough.
We can not wind my DM estate up until we have the final figure from SF estate and I would like some closure now.
If we threaten them with court, what grounds do I have? There is no time limit to distributing the estate so they could sit on this money for as long as they want?

[emsyj]

"Why would I need to take them to court when they have a legal obligation as executors to pay the beneficiary?"

To enforce the obligation. It always surprises me when people who have paid handsomely for legal advice end up on here - why is your own solicitor not answering these questions for you? They should be best placed to advise as they know the background and have a much better picture of what's going on than folk on here. If you are finding your solicitor unhelpful, go elsewhere. I would be very disappointed in myself if a client felt they weren't able to get the answers they needed from me and had cause to resort to an internet forum for advice that I should be giving!

"Is it possible that Ssis and SB are arguing between themselves and holding up winding up the estate?"

It's very possible - I have had this situation and it can cause long delays and escalated costs.

[Mintyy]

I am sorry for your situation and can offer no practical advice - sorry - but I am extremely curious as to how your ss worded her request that you simply give your third of the inheritance back? Did she think you would say, yes, sure, here you go and sign on the dotted line? The mind boggles!

Have you tried writing directly to them?

[Mintyy]

Your ss and sb, I mean? Tell them that inheritance money will be depleted by court action and that it will soon be coming to the point where you will have to go down that route. I must say, from your side of the story, they do sound horribly grasping.

[Xenia]

You need to try to find out the reason for the delay. Sometimes they waiting for HMRC to work out tax due or debts or payments from a business need to be collected in. Can you not email your relatives direct to chase them? Has your solicitor had an explanation for the delay?

[Georgecurtis4]

My grand mothers sister died 3 years ago and her husband 2 years ago. They had no children and left a will and my Grand mother was left a 3rd of the estate. The house was sold in January this year. Since this has happened by Grand mother has passed away. The estate is being dealt with by solicitors who have not contacted her to advise what is going on. We are know beneficeries to her estate are we able to chase the solicitor as we are not able to conduct probate until we close out her sisters estate