House Sale After Inheritance

[Atleastihavethecat]

My DM and siblings inherited the family home. They sold it about 18 months ago, maybe a little longer. The money from this hasn't been received yet. The buyer has paid, but they still have nothing.

The solicitor seems to be permanently unavailable when they call. However, another sibling, who didn't inherit the house and is executor of the will, can make appointments and speak to them. He just keeps saying that he's dealing with it, and the money is coming soon.

Should he be dealing with it? Is it actually anything to do with him? The will has been dealt with and he had nothing to do with the sale, so is there a legal reason why he'd be involved now?

If he's the executor of the Will, then he would be involved I imagine until everyone has their money.
Is there a reason why he was made executor but not a beneficiary? ... It sounds odd that he's been left in charge but left out of the Will.

If there is no reason the estate is not being distributed the beneficiaries can apply to court to replace the executor.

Something isn't right here. Next time you ring the solicitors and they are unavailable leave a message that your next call will be to the Solicitors Regulation Authority and I bet they'll ring back promptly !!

@MiniCooperLover This has nothing to do with the SRA. The solicitor's client is the executor, from whom they take instructions. The beneficiaries have no right to instruct the solicitor, or to think that the solicitor should treat them as if they were the client.

Having said that, a quick response from the solicitor to the effect that all enquiries should be made to the executor may be appropriate.

He wasn't the beneficiary of the house, but he was a beneficiary and executor of the will. As far as the sibling group who inherited the house know, the will has been dealt with and distributed. He advised them to use the same solicitor for the sale as had been used for the will, so they did. The buyer paid for the house 18 months ago, but they haven't received the funds.

Unfortunately, this situation has caused a few arguments between them. Executor sibling didn't want the house to be sold to the buyer. He wanted to buy it for half the price. The sibling group refused his offer, but gifted him some expensive assets from the contents to try to pacify him. They have now had to pay tax on these assets, which caused further arguments. The situation seems to be devolving between them, and they can't get a straight answer from the executor sibling, or the solicitor.

They feel that the two issues should be separate, but is there a reason they could be linked? Is it possible that the money went to the executor sibling? He tends to be very selfish and materialistic and was quite angry that he wasn't left everything in the will.

Had probate been completed and was house owned by the siblings when it went up for sale? Or was the house still owned by the estate? If owned by estate then executor will be dealing sale and distribution of funds, if owned by the siblings then the executor shouldn’t be involved anymore?

Dealing with sale*

Owned by the sibling group. As far as they were told probate was done.

I think you can check if probate was granted on the gov.uk wills and probate site.

The house will have been part of the deceased estate, so who has calculated inheritance tax? Is any due? This might be causing the hold up. All of the estate must be taken into account and you cannot divide it up for tax purposes. What was the total value of the estate?