3 beneficiaries wish to sell family home as per will, but 1 beneficiary threatening to refuse consent to sale

[Watershedno5]

I am the eldest of 4 children. We are all in our 50s. Our mother died a few years ago and our stepfather died 18 months ago. My stepfather left a will leaving all assets to be divided equally among the 4 kids. Probate has been granted and my parents' savings have been divided among us.
We three sisters want to sell the family home and divide the proceeds as per the will, but my brother lives in the house (he moved back in with our parents over 20 years ago) and is doing his best to delay the sale.
I live abroad and my sisters live hundreds of miles away from the house, in different parts of the UK. However, my sisters regularly drive to the house to help whittle down belongings, clean the place, etc. In the 18 months since our stepfather died we have never asked for any rent from our brother and we also agreed to him having a lodger for 6 months as a bit of income for him (he doesn't have a regular job). We have explained a million times that after the sale of the house he will have enough money to buy a one-bed flat outright, in the same town. My sisters have offered to help guide him through the process of moving and buying. But he ignores all advice.
He is not mentally incapacitated in any way but he is incredibly stubborn. He has talked about squatters' rights, involving lawyers, claims he has had a breakdown (untrue seeing as my sisters see him at least once a month), says he'll never forgive us for throwing him out of his home, etc.
He wanted to buy us out but he doesn't have the money and can't get a mortgage due to no job. He says he was not given the legal amount of notice about our desire to sell, however that is moot seeing as he's known about our wish to sell since Nov 24 (our stepfather died in nov 23) and the house won't now go on the market until early Aug 25 as we have to wait for lodger to move out and it will then take a month for my sisters to get house and garden shipshape after general neglect (which will be tricky with our brother living there).
My concern is that if we got a buyer, my brother could refuse to sign the sale and purchase agreement. At what point would it be wise to get a court order for sale? I don't know how long it takes or what is involved or how much it costs. We're hoping our brother will accept that the house sale has to happen, but how can we get one step ahead of him if he wants to be obstructive?
By the way, he is single, has never been married and has no dependants. He is the youngest of the four of us.
Any advice gratefully received.

@Watershedno5 the executors need to get legal advice to make sure your brother does move out.

WRT your brother he is probably scared about the future. Contemplating moving can be overwhelming. Be pragmatic and help him find a suitable place that he can afford. If he is 55+ then retirement accommodation might be suitable - be careful about service charges and resale.

From OP's posts, I don't think the executor has transferred the property to the siblings. It absolutely is the executor's role to sell it if it hasn't been transferred, and he does not need the consent of the beneficiaries to do so.

We walked away from buying a house like this because of the brother. Sibling had to take him to court in the end where the judge made the decision to remove him from the equation.

Once the judge ruled it was sold.

I am wondering if your brother is your 1/2 brother as he is the youngest? Is he your stepfathers son?
it’s just a thought that he may feel more entitled to the house than you are.

I was wondering that.

I have been a beneficiary of my parents will. Their home was sold by the executors...no signature required by myself or other beneficiary we were all siblings.

Move in with him.
All of you.

When you do put the house on the market I’d suggest you get the EA to handle viewings so your brother doesn’t have any opportunity to scupper a potential sale.

I think you will struggle to sell or certainly achieve the best price with him living in the house.

He needs to move out before marketing commences.

There are a few problems with the current set up.

Does your brother have the legal right to reside in the property? He is not the owner and he is not a tenant. He claims he has squatters' rights. This would probably invalidate any insurance on the property so if he burned it to the ground, would you be covered?

You can sell without his consent but purchasers need vacant possession. This means that he must be out of the house. If he won't leave voluntarily, you need to go through the eviction process which could take months/years.

You need proper legal advice asap.

I think claiming squatters rights could be a problem for the brother, I believe I read somewhere that the rules of eviction for sqatters in domestic properties have been tightened so it is easier to get an eviction, though obviously the op and siblings would probably prefer not to go down this route

IANAL but be prepared for him to sabotage a sale. He could refuse to let people in to view. Purposely flood the bathroom. Start a dispute with the neighbours. Bring in a family of goats to munch up the garden. There are endless ways for him to stuff it up.

Is there any way money from the estate could be released to rehome him first and then sell? Is he worried that receiving an inheritance would affect his benefits?

This still had the potential to go very badly.

Move into the house for a few days
Wait until he is out of the house on some errand and then change the locks 😏
Put his stuff in bin bags outside the front door

As another comment said, I’m most worried about when you fill in the legal forms you need to declare who lives there and that they won’t still live there after completion. Can you move him into a rented flat for 6 months? He might well put off buyers if an unfriendly person is glaring at them when they view, or the house isn’t kept clean enough. You might sell quicker & for a better price if he’s already been moved out. Possibly the cost of paying for 6 months’ rent could be taken out of his share of inheritance, following the house sale.

Tell him if you have to you'll go down the eviction route and that all legal costs will come from the sale of the property which may not leave him enough for a flat. Might make him think about moving on.

Is your brother paying all the bills and council tax?

I suspect it’s going to be hard for him to house himself that’s probably why he’s panicking at the thought of being homeless on top of losing his parents
sounds like he’d have a deposit but would he have borrowing capacity to enable him to buy

You need to evict him from the property. No one will buy it if he is there. He doesn't have to sign anything but he needs to be out. Tell him you will have to take him to court to evict and costs will be taken out of his share. Has probate gone through?

Much as I understand your suggestion and the reason for it, I don't think that the executor can actually do that. Costs can be taken from the estate, yes but I don't think that costs can come from one particular beneficiaries portion in circumstances like this.

It sounds as if the ownership of the house has been placed in trust with the executor as trustee (and the four siblings as beneficiaries if the trust). The trust obligations can be discharged and the trust dissolved by the executor selling the property and dividing the proceeds to the siblings after deducting costs. Or alternatively transferring the property in equal shares to the siblings, except that option is not going to be workable.

So the executor can sell without permission needed. The practical issue is ensuring vacant possession. If brother won't agree to leave then court proceedings for eviction will be necessary. I don't think it will be a tenant eviction as presumably brother never had a lease - he lived with parents as an "excluded occupier". So he is either a licensee (like a lodger) or a squatter. I'm not sure which but it's important to find out because the executor (current legal owner) won't need a court order to remove a licensee but will for a squatter. Best for exec to get legal advice and the advice might be to play it safe and assume squattee, not least as brother has exclusive possession currently which a licensee usually does not.

If he still won't go after court order then the executor can get court bailiffs in.

Hopefully it won't get that far once the process is explained to brother. If there are legal costs they will need to come out of the collective estate unless the court dealing with the eviction orders the brother to pay, in which case the costs can properly be taken from his share. So there is a process but it would obviously be off putting to a lot of buyers as it causes delays and complications. The other option is to get brother out first and then market the property as vacant.

Best thing obviously is to get brother to agree to go by a certain date, but if he won't be sensiblethen the executor will need to up the ante.

He needs to go before the house is marketed for sale, that much is obvious.

Squatter’s rights were abolished in 2012. Since then, it’s been a criminal offence to squat in a residential building.

As a pp stated, cheaper housing is available for over 55’s and even over 50’s in some areas.

Thanks, just been reading up on it! (Am a solicitor but not property so very rusty in this area!) If squatting in a residential property the police can remove them but not if they moved in with permission of the owner at the time. So looks like an IPO would be needed anyway if he won't go.

He doesn’t need to agree - it’s the role of executors to sell the house

"He claims he has squatters' rights."

Squatting in a residential property has been a criminal offence since 2012.

Although I don't think that he could be described as a squatter in this situation as he was lawfully occupying the property before the death of the parent.

But, in reality, from how the OP has described it, the executor will likely need to get a court order to evict the brother if he refuses to leave of his own accord.

It would probably be best to do that before putting the house up for sale.