Inherited house - what happens if one of the beneficiaries doesn’t want to sell and the other does?

[SirChenjins]

Can the one who does force the sale? If so, how?

(We’re in Scotland if that’s relevant)

Nowhere near confirmation thanks to SiL and the case of the missing ££££££££££s - but that’s a whole other story.

Don't think you can sell it anyway until you've got confirmation - so cross that bridge when you come to it One less thing to fight about just now.

Lack of confirmation delayed one sale of dh's mum's place, which had been agreed subject to concluded missives. They ended up taking it off the market until they got confirmation a year later - and sold for a lot more

Dh and his brother got hold of his mum's bank accounts going back 7 years (as far as the bank could give them) and dh, SIL and I (BIL lives down south) went through them with a fine tooth comb. Turned out that SIL had been skimming her mum's account for years (even before she officially had PoA) as she had her mum's bank card. There would be a cash withdrawal of £50 (for MIL to give pocket money to the grandchildren) and another one for £300 for SIL's "pocket money"

When she was challenged about some of the recent withdrawals, she tried to claim that some of it was for ds' replacement computer (he'd had his laptop stolen on the way back to uni). Umm, no - MIL had given us a cheque for that (we'd already started having suspicions that she was doing something like that so made sure we had paper trails - and cashed the cheque straight away) . She then tried to blame my nice SIL's dh

She then tried to claim that the cash she'd withdrawn while her mother was on her deathbed was for a "cushion" . We also later discovered she'd been claiming carer's allowance - despite expecting my nice SIL (who works full time) to do all the "caring" and who was the one who took her food shopping (although there were lots of very large Morrisons' debits on different days, including when MIL was in hospital )

It was well into 3 figures over the years - and there are still some large transfers unaccounted for. We're convinced that there are assets we've missed.

Thieving SIL is lucky the other siblings didn't go to the police. They made her pay the other three some money back out of her share of the assets (personally I think she agreed far too quickly and they should have gone for more).

She's lucky they didn't go to the police - she could (and should) have gone to prison

Former STV host jailed for stealing £120,000 from her mother https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cyx022de4qno

It sounds very similar to us - I really feel for you, it’s awful isn’t it? The amount in the STV link is the kind of ££££s we’re talking about - I don’t want to say too much because it’s between DH and her, but it’s been a nightmare.

Ditto with thieving SIL - and that was without using a forensic accountant, so we probably didn't find everything Some of it is circumstantial (grocery shopping when nice SIL had already done it, multiple cash withdrawals for amounts more than his mum ever used, car servicing when MIL no longer had a car, holiday dates found via FB that coincided with the cash withdrawals....). She did admit to some of it, saying "she couldn't possibly ask her new dh for the money but needed to pay for her holidays" This is addition to the new sofas and fancy dogs (amongst other things) that MIL bought for her. And her daughter's wedding that MIL paid for but for which she took the credit....

Dh discovered shortly before his mum died that he'd also been given Power of Attorney (both Welfare & Financial) , but somehow this information never got communicated to him

We suspect that evil SIL had told her best friend (who worked at the soon-to-retire lawyer/executor) that she would save postage by delivering it to her mum to pass on to dh ..... This despite us later finding letters to his mum asking for dh's address Didn't even see the will until less than a week before dm died (so we couldn't sort out the estranged sister - who MIL had always wanted to reconnect with - having been cut out), again despite the cover letter from a number of years before including a supposed cc to all the named siblings

The good thing with the estate now having been distributed is that we (the other 4 siblings - having re-established contact with the estranged sister) now have nothing to do with evil sis.

That was cathartic

Omg 😲 you just wonder what makes people behave like that, don’t you?

Unfortunately for SIL DH does the job you mentioned so he’s well aware of what she’s been up to - I suppose it’s now down to the executor to decide how much is pursued.

Has she said why she doesn't want to sell the house, the bills, insurance and maintenance still need paying even if its empty. What does she want done with it.

Who are the executors - they can over-rule the beneficiaries. If the will doesn't say either way, the default is for the beneficiaries to "realise" all assets, which means selling the property. Alternatively, the beneficiary wanting to keep the property can buy it from the estate.

It would make more sense to avoid this kind of thing for the deceased to specify in their will want they want to happen with the property. My OH and his sister don't really see eye to eye, so their mother had it written into the will that her property was to be sold during probate and the proceeds split equally. Removes any ambiguity and makes it a smoother probate if things like that are explicity laid out within the will.

I've sent you a PM

H inherited 50% share of his grandparents house, with his sibling getting the other 50%. One of their parents was still alive and living there, after the age of retirement, having moved back there to care for their parent. Long irrelevant back story why the will skipped the parent, but them living there meant an exemption from selling it to pay care home fees for the GParent, Under the terms of the will, had the house been sold, H and sibling got nothing, because it was the house they were left, with any cash to be divided elsewhere.

H's sibling initially agreed their parent could stay for life, they agreed a nominal rent etc. A few months later, sibling changes their mind, forces a house sale and in effect makes their own parent homeless, as a single older person with fuck all chance of buying, not enough income to private rent and no chance of council accommodation.

H initially tried to fight it, but once we had sorted housing for his parent, gave up and sold it as we couldn't afford to buy the other half and it was easier to cut ties with the sibling. They have never spoken since, and nor does their parent speak with the sibling.