Can my brother sell all our mother’s things against my wishes?

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My mother died last year without leaving a will. My brother and I are the only beneficiaries, and he has had himself made Administrator of the estate. Mum’s house has been sold and the money split between the two of us, as expected, but Mum’s possessions (furniture etc) now need to be sorted out.

My brother hates me and clearly doesn’t want me to have anything of our mother’s, so he says he is going to sell everything (and will pay me my share of the sale proceeds). But I don’t want to sell everything! I would like to keep a few items to remind me of mum - a chair, a picture, a clock etc. None of it is worth more than about £30. I’m happy for my brother to take and keep/sell all the rest, and I don’t want any money from the sale (wouldn’t be more than about £300 in total anyway). But he is refusing to let me even see the items, which he has taken to his house, and says they will all be sold, as he doesn’t want to keep anything or let me have it.

Can he do this legally, so that I have literally nothing of my mum’s? I’m finding the thought very upsetting.

As your mum has died intestate, her possessions must be shared equally between her children. Legally he cannot sell her possessions without your permission. Seek legal advice immediately.

I think you need proper legal advice on this, if there's a lot at stake. The whole estate should be equally divided, though.
www.citizensadvice.org.uk/family/death-and-wills/who-can-inherit-if-there-is-no-will-the-rules-of-intestacy/

But the thing is he says he WILL divide equally - just it will be the money from the sale of the things that he divides, not the things themselves. He hated our mother (and he hates me as I had a good relationship with Mum), so he just doesn’t want me to have anything and enjoys upsetting me.

I can’t really afford legal advice -and it seems a bit mad over about £70 worth of possessions! I just can’t bear the thought of all mum’s things being sold when I could have given a couple of them a home.

He says I actually have no right to have any say about the “chattels” or the process of distribution, or even see them, as long as I get my equal share of their monetary value. Is this right?

I wouldn't say you have no 'right' or 'say' but the only way to actually find out anything about it is through the courts. And you'd have to do it quickly before he sells everything.

How did he manage to make himself the administrator? That implies there has been some sort of legal proceedings. If so, contact the court of jurisdiction for copies of any paperwork to see what it says. He may very well have gotten a judge to order that your mother's things be sold and proceeds divided.

Are there any other relatives to whom you might appeal to intercede for you? Or who might ask for (or purchase from him) 'keepsakes for themselves' and then pass them to you then you repay them?

I think what he's doing is pretty despicable. The little bits and bobs I have from my parents and grandparents are worth more than the Crown Jewels to me.

He applied for a grant of administration. We agreed at the funeral that we would be joint administrators, but he went behind my back and applied on his own and it was granted.

He shared out the house proceeds fairly so I thought he was doing it all properly - in fact he swears he IS doing it all properly, as the law apparently says “if the beneficiaries can’t agree over the distribution of chattels then they must all be sold and the proceeds split equally”.

The thing here is, though, that’s it’s not like we “can’t agree” because we both want the same table or the same chair. It’s that he doesn’t agree I should have anything at all that was actually hers.

If what you have in quote is the actual law wording, then it could have a pretty broad interpretation. It doesn't specify what a 'disagreement' is, does it? Again, you'd have to get actual legal advice to see if there's any way to challenge him.

I expect if you took it to court, it'd probably be ordered that you pay your brother 1/2 value for anything you wanted to keep. After all, you aren't asking for anything unreasonable, and he'd be unreasonable to insist he doesn't want you to have anything of your mum's. If I were a judge, I know how I'd rule.

Do you have any way of knowing how/where he's going to sell them? Would he tell you if you asked? If there were an estate sale/jumble sale I suppose nothing would stop you from showing up and buying things (or having someone do it for you) although I suppose he could try and make you leave if it's on his property. If he was going to do it online, you could have a friend purchase things for you.

Lottery wins and the deaths of relatives both bring out the real arsehole in some people, don't they?

I was really lucky with my brother. We each just chose what we wanted and sold the rest and split it. We did offer to pay the other half value for a few things that we could have sold for a fair sum, but we both felt satisfied with things as they were, and that Mum and Dad would be disappointed in both of us if we got that penny-pinching with each other.

Will he let you in his house? As others have said things could be sold by the time you've sorted things out legally. Seems sad he disliked your mum and you didn't.

Can you pre empty where he’s going to sell them? Put a thing out on Facebook saying if you see this for sale tell me? Flyer local shops?

Empt

Is he married? Can you go to his house when he is out and have a look at everything?