So first off I know we need to see a solicitor; only not been because of the cost but hopefully we can in the future.
My fiancé's gran died in June 2012.
She had three children.
She wrote a will saying that fiancés mother R could live in her house as long as she moved in within 6 months of her mothers death and kept the house in good repair and insured. The idea was that R could visit her brother J in a care home. Fiancés aunt S is a trustee with a solicitor from a law firm. R hates S.
R did not want to live in the house. So visits for a few days a year but likes to have control over the place. She does not visit J. We suspect that the house is in a poor state. R is nearly 77 and also has a four bedroom house, in a poor state. I'm not sure how she will cope with two houses as she gets older.
My fiancé knew nothing much. That is grand house had never been sold and there were some lawyers involved.
My fiancé is recently estranged from R and long term estranged from every other relative apart from J. the entire family because they are mostly extremely abusive. Fiancé has a sibling who has never worked and lives with his mother. A sister who is married to a multimillionaire celebrity and a sister who went missing.
R told her son my fiancé the will and the house had nothing to do with him. She banned him from looking at the will. My mum read in an article that you can view wills online so I found it last year.
When J dies R looses the right to live there and the estate can be divided at any point with 80 years of the grans death.
We are hoping to have children soon who will be beneficiaries.
The trustees S and the lawyers never contacted my fiancé. If my mum had not read the article on how to find a will we would not have known anything.
What I wonder is why the trustees might have permitted R to visit the house once or twice a year when the will says that she must move in within six months and live there or the house must be ' held on trust' which I take to mean the trustees would take care of it.
These are my questions:
Can solicitors or trustees ignore what is written in a will or a trust document ?
Are trustees of a family trust obliged to make all beneficiaries of a trust aware of their interest or can they totally ignore beneficiaries, not tell them of the trust and not give them any money?
Fiancés mother is toxic. She has two favourite children and fiancé was a scape goat. When she dies I do suspect that my fiancé will be disinherited from his mothers estate. I wondered if his mum could have tried to make sure he never found out about the trust so more money would go to her favourite children.
I have heard from a distant relative I tracked down online that the family trustee S knows the house is falling into disrepair so imagine she must have told the solicitors. I have not spoken to the solicitors but I can't see how they would not know that R did not live there.
I suppose the trustee solicitors need to be contacted. From my description does it sound like the trustees could have acted improperly ? It is a concern they may charge hundreds of pounds just to speak to them.
I also wonder what will happen when R gets very old as J is about 20 years younger. People with downs are living so long these days that he may out live her.
I hope people will offer some thoughts which might help in working out how to approach.