Please help. Executor of Estate, - getting messy,

[SuitedandBooted]

I am asking for a friend whose father has died, leaving a quite substantial estate to his 3 children, (house alone is worth £700+.) I will call my friend *Kate.

Kate's divorced father died recently (very sudden). Kate has been appointed as Executor. Her elder brother is NOT happy. He had been mainly in charge of the financial arrangements for their father, and has been trying to bully her into appointing him as joint Executor, but Kate is standing firm so far.

Kate is working through things, and is gradually discovering that her brother has been taking money out of their father's bank accounts for years. For example, one account was set up in joint names, and was cleared by her brother within 24hrs of their father's death. Kate is certain her father did not know this could be done. He had explicitly told her that whilst her brother could manage the account, he (son) could not take cash out without clearance from him. (there is much more, but will be too long!)

My friends main worry is the house. There is a lot of her father's paperwork about. Kate also runs a business, which her father shared, and some quite valuable items are still in her late father's house.

Her brother has taken the spare key from the neighbour, and has been letting himself into the house. Just to be clear, he has not lived there for 30 years, and he did not have a key prior to their father's death. He has searched drawers, removed papers, photo's and some smaller items so far.

SO, Question!

Is Kate, as SOLE Executor, entitled to secure the house, so only she can enter, and nothing further can be removed? She is particularly worried that her brother is looking for more financial stuff to hide.

There isn't really much of a sibling/family relationship left to preserve. This is NOT all about the money, by the way, just decency and respect for their father's wishes.

Thanks again for the replies - it's really not my loss, by the way, (my father died a while back) but I did like Kate's Dad, hence wanting to help her carry out his wishes.

Can I just query?;
money in a joint account would only belong to the joint account holder on death if it was a spouse and only then assuming the will didn’t say something different.

Is this right, what would happen if, say, two brothers (or just friends) had a joint account, and one died. Surely the remaining account holder would have access to it?

money in a joint account would only belong to the joint account holder on death if it was a spouse and only then assuming the will didn’t say something different.

Sorry, but this advice is incorrect. the survivor becomes the sole account holder and is entitled to withdraw the funds. See this:

www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/property-and-bank-accounts

I had a joint account with DM and when she died the money came to me and I was able to keep the account running.

If Kate didn't get round to changing the locks another option could be to bolt/ lock the multi key holder door from the inside, or leave the key partially turned on the inside with the door locked and use another door to get in and out I.e. back door. Assuming a £700k property would have several doors.

The brother has acted illegally and the solicitor won’t waste any time telling him! He will be liable for that money he withdrew and could be prosecuted.

The solicitor will it discuss anything with the brother as he is not an executor, but hopefully will give him a right telling off. He should be shitting his pants right now.

Tell your friend to keep records, receipts, correspondnace of every little detail. Create a spreadsheet and log every activity. Send everything recorded. Keep copies.

I am assuming that the will names Kate as the sole executor.

The executor has to make a tax return (and possibly IHT in this instance) which will mean trawling back through paperwork for about 7 years! So while the brother may be concerned about the amount of money he's taken out of the estate it's going to have to be declared because some of it may need tax paying on a sliding scale (depending on when the 'gift' was given). There is no way he can cover this up and the sooner he realises this, the better for Kate tbh!

IIRC (but the solicitor could confirm this) the estate is held by the executor until it is distributed according to the will so I would say Kate is responsible for 'securing' the house.

As for the joint account - I'm no expert but I think he is entitled to the money in that as far as the bank is concerned. They had no reason to block him taking the remaining funds out - it's the drawback of the joint account scenario.