Inheritance when a sibling owes money to deceased parent

[JustSaltPlease]

Hi

My dad has sadly passed away a few weeks ago. He had around 20k in the bank which is being shared between the 4 children. No will.

However, one brother owed him 9k, and the other 2.5k.

What is the best way here. Surely what they owe should be considered dad's estate, and the whole amounts divided by 4. Siblings will still owe the other recipients then but this does mean the 2 brothers walk away without any cash. Am I making sense?

Sibling A, who owes £9k, should receive nothing

Sibling B, who owes £2.5k, should get £5000

Siblings C&D who owe nothing, should get £7500

Sibling A, owes siblings B, C and D, £375 each

This , siblings A is being sensible. Sibling B who is skint would get £5000 . Sibling B needs to give there head a wobble.

That's good news at least. The three of you can now present a united front.

I'd suggest "I'm sorry, but I'm skint as well and I'm not in a position to lend you the money. Sibling X might be able to lend you the share you owe to him but I really can't lend you the money owed to me."

Then your brother ought to know better.

Collect the estate, which includes debts owed to your father at the date of death, pay off debts of the estate, and then distribute.

I presume no one has applied for probate as the death is fairly recent. I'm going to guess as well that your brother drew up the will, and may be appointed executor. Have you seen the will? Who is appointed executor? An executor appointed by will becomes executor immediately on death.

He has just messaged me to to say the 4 way split of money is happening regardless. And would I really be ok for him to be skint going on his upcoming holiday to Asia and be skint for christmas?

I am tempted to tell him he would have been in this position had dad not died. I am raging right now

There is no will

Remind him of his duty as a solicitor not to take what does not belong to him.

Just ask him will he really be ok stealing from the estate and ok with him being invested .

well the answer to that is obviously "yes" How is he affording a holiday to Asia? As a probate lawyer he must know he can't just do this. Is he administering the estate?

He seems to have volunteered himself to do it, the money is already in his account

Maybe a compromise.
Split the £20000 4 ways . Sibling who owes £9000 automatically gives the two with no loans £2500 each . He then owes them £500 each .
Stupid solicitor brother then owes himself £2500 🤣

Or call his bluff ok that's fine out of my share I will instruct a solicitor

The estate contains £31500. That's £7875 each child.

The one who owed dad £9k still owes the estate £1125.

The one that owed dad £2.5k is due £5375.

The other two are owed £7875.

OP - I am assuming the £20k savings is after funeral costs have been paid.

Check how the brother got the money paid to him. Check what he told each bank. He has a duty to distribute it in accordance with the intestacy rules. If he fails to do that and enriches himself personally he may as a solicitor get in to trouble with the SRA, and rightly so.

@Collaborate
Thanks for correcting me.

My point still stands if they could agree to this split the op would only be £375 short until the two brothers pay back . I would think waiting for £375 is a good compromise.

I'm surprised you sat on this extra information, OP, that your brother is a solicitor and has booked a holiday to Asia. Might have stopped the "I'd be inclined to let it go for good family relations" posters in their tracks.

Yes sorry, I didn't want it to be outing as his EXW is on here.

Funeral costs of just under £5k need to come out of that too. actual cash floating around to distribute is more like 12k not including money owed.

When he was talking about splitting 4 ways I said

"Have you made that clear to DB1 too, as would effectively be borrowing from his inheritance to pay back in instalments. To avoid arguments I think it needs to be crystal clear."

His response was

"Yeah I'll say something. It's going to happen regardless. Could clear mine but DB2 wouldn't be cleared. My loan agreement had no mention of what happens if dad died ... Hoped it wouldn't be a consideration!"

He then added
"Are you ok with that arrangement or would you rather I paid it all and had no money for Thailand and Christmas" He then added that he is gutted that the Thai place across the road from work has closed as he fancied that for lunch

@Collaborate interesting, what would enriching himself mean? Taking more than what he is owed?

@JustSaltPlease I'm surprised someone in his position is skint (no shortage of business) and he'll still get something anyway. My db died recently and my parents couldn't just empty his bank account without the correct authorisation. If your parent hadn't died he would have been even more skint at Christmas

@Manthide

If your parent hadn't died he would have been even more skint at Christmas

my point exactly.

He is pleading poverty because he got caught cheating on his wife with a woman half his age. Wants to wine and dine the toy girl now.

He made all the applications to the bank

would you rather I paid it all

He has nothing to pay and would still be receiving a couple of thousand!

Hi brother, yes, I'd rather you just received what you're due and we keep things legal and clean. As you're aware, things are a bit tight for me and I can't afford to be subsidising your Thailand trip and Christmas at the moment. Hope you understand.

@JustSaltPlease even a small amount of money can bring out the worst in people. Dm and her middle sister haven't spoken to their youngest sister since gm died almost 15 years ago as she didn't think an equal 4 way split was fair! She didn't even go to the other sister's funeral a few years later. I think the total estate was about £12k after funeral costs.

So there is £12000 in the bank , should be £23500 including loan .
Each sibling should revive £5875 .
If the existing pot is split that's £3000 each .
Sibling who owes £9000 wants his to go straight back into pot ,
To me this should be split between siblings who are loan free
Sibling 1 £0 owes pot £3125
Sibling 2 £3000 still owed £375
Sibling 3 £4500 still owed £1375
Sibling 3 £4500 still owed £1375

Sibling 1 either needs to add £3125 to the pot or arrange a payment plan with the siblings

I’d be tempted to tell solicitor brother that you’ve a call booked with one of his colleagues to get some independent advice…

Hahaha this is a great idea. He knows he’s legally actually stealing from all of you with his plan, it’s pure selfish assholery. And since he’s the executor (I think you said that, not scrolling back to check) … have a group meeting/phone call and say calmly ‘my understanding is the legal position is clear- aren’t you risking your license to be executor and pushing an illegal division of assets that contradicts the will? I’m happy ti ask one of your colleagues…’ Watch him go purple and realise he’s risking his licence to practice.

It's the will that counts not those owing debts, even family debts. the will says everything regardless os who owes this and that. if it Vacates family debt then so be it

if they try to claim from estate with nothing to claim should i just ignore them

mum, left her will so me and my disabled sister could continue living in the family home. my brothers are contesting this