Key Post Executor doing absolutely nothing

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truthseeker

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Hello,
My parents died in January, left a will, named myself and sibling as beneficiaries, my fathers brother as executor. Very simple estate, family home - no other assets.

Myself and sibling took the will to solicitor, solicitor wrote to executor, told him will had been found, he has been named executor. Asked did he want to act or not. He phoned solicitor saying he DID want to act as executor.


Since then - nothing. Probate has not been started. Executor has not contacted myself or sibling. Has not contacted solicitor for paperwork that he was advised they have in their possession.


Executor is not speaking to myself or sibling - bad feeling that runs back through history.

What are myself and siblings legal rights in this situation? It seems that nothing is being done.

Thank you.
 
There is a general rule that an executor cannot be sued withn 12 months of the death. If an executor fails to act it is possible for the beneficiaries to issue a Citation leading to the Executor having to accept or refuse a Grant. I'm not sure if that can be done within the 12 months but you could certainly ask your own solicitor. Your own solicitor will not necessarily be instructed to act here - the Executor may very well choose to do it himself or even engage someone else.

mf
 
Thank you for your response.
My understanding from our own solicitor is that the executor does have 12 months before anything can be done from our side.
And we were also advised that the executor may choose to act himself or engage his own solicitor. Any documentation that he may need currently resides with our solicitor and he was advised of this by our solicitor when he received a letter from him telling him that a will had been found.

One of the issues concerning us is that there are cheques outstanding that were issued before the deaths and they cannot be lodged by anyone other than 'the legal representative of the estate'. So they are going out of date while we wait for the executor to act.

There has not been a 'reading of the will', there has been no communication at all from the executor.
 
"Reading of the will " is another of those urban myths. It does not happen except in movies. And you know what is in the will.

If executor does not act then after the 12 months you can proceed as outlined before. Cheques can be re-issued and lodged by the ( if you choose to go this road) the Administrators i.e. you/you and your sibling. If you are at any loss- i.e. if a business has closed and a cheque cannot be re-issued, you can sue the executor for any loss.

There is patently an issue here - its a shame but this is the person your parents chose to act as executor.

mf
 
Thank you - I did not know that the executor could be sued for any loss incurred due to his refusal to act.

If the 12 months pass and nothing has been done by the executor is it generally easy to have an executor removed or are there complications involved?
 
Could you visit the executor and talk to him? He may well decide to renounce which would leave you free to act.
 
He is not terribly approachable, my last contact with him (a number of years ago) involved a report to the police about his behaviour, my siblings last contact with him involved him hanging up the phone after a tirade of abuse.

Ive no doubt at all that he is using his status as executor to cause further misery to myself and sibling. We have been extremely civilized about it and rather than risk an upset in person have sent a pleasant letter from our solicitor simply asking if he would like to renounce or not. A phonecall to our solicitor shortly after that letter was sent confirmed he DID want to act. But he hasnt.

Its an awkward situation, we would like to have closure on our parents deaths, and an end to legal dealings surrounding them.
This person is simply adding more stress and pain on top of an already difficult situation, and legally it seems we can do nothing for at least 12 months.

It also appears that if he DOES decide to act at the 11th hour that he can then drag out proceedings if he chooses to. It seems to be a very unfair situation on myself and sibling as there is nothing we can do except submit to the whim of this person.
 
Is there no legal recourse that the OP can take where someone is obviously using (abusing) their position to make life miserable for someone else?

I would hazard a guess that the executor is very aware of his duties and the timescales involved. Would there have been any moral duty on his advisors to try and get him to do the right thing?
 
Well it's not true to say you can't do anything for 12 months. You can't bring proceedings against an executor within the first 12 months without the leave of the Court though which is a different thing. If you can show there is history between you and you are afraid that he will do nothing just to spite you then I suppose you could apply to court for leave to bring proceedings to replace him. The only thing is that the burden of proof will lie with you and it will cost you money with no guarantee of success. However, having said that, if you issue or threaten to issue proceedings then he might well renounce so as not to have to deal with a court application? Certainly you are in a difficult position. Why did your parents appoint him as executor? Or were the wills made before any difficulty arose?
 
Vanilla what you say is absolutely true - i strongly suspect that the executor knows it will cost us money to try and have him replaced before the 12 months is up and is happy to sit and do nothing because either way he wastes our time - or our money.

He was appointed executor many years ago before any difficulties arose.
 
I was in a similar situation. Eventually I received my cheque but I have doubts as to whether the executor actually put the will through probate and issued the cheques to the other beneficiaries. The executor wrote me a personal cheque basially to get rid of me. The amount involved was small but the whole thing dragged on and on. It took ages for me to even get a copy of the will. Is there any way that I can find out if this will went to probate?
 
Yes you can get a copy of the grant of probate from the probate office as if it has been probated it is now a public document.
 
Can you afford to wait it out, it's only 4 months to the year being up. Once it's up a letter from your solicitor saying you're going to start proceedings might get the ball rolling especially if the letter implies he will have to pay for any losses.
 
yes - at this stage it looks as though we will have to wait it out.
i wouldnt be a bit surprised if he decided to act as executor in the last couple of weeks before the year is up and ensured he delayed everything as much as possible from then on.
 
quick update - after yet another solictor letter from us the executor instructed HIS solicitor to request relevant documents and it looked as though he was going to act.
Then silence for 2 more months and probate still not started.

Then out of the blue his solicitors requested access to the property for a valuation and the valuer tried to charge twice going rate for valuation (+ VAT) and asked my sibling to pay in full there and then - which he refused to do stating that it was part of estate expenses.

Then executors solicitor told our solicitor they would not deal with social welfare cheques etc that had gone out of date - to which they were told it was executors responsibility and social welfare will not re-issue them to anyone but executor.

Latest is that valuation is over 100K less than property is worth (compared against a valuation we had done for insurance purposes plus market value in area) and now executor has requested key to the property.

Is the executor legally entitled to a copy of the key?
 
The executor holds the property in the estate until distribution although I suppose it all depends on the circumstances. Does any one live there, what does the executor say they need the key for?
 
No one lives there.

We dont know why he wants a key - his solicitor requested a key through our solicitor but didnt give a reason other than 'he wants access'.

Because of bad feeling etc... we would rather he did not have a key as he may change locks.
 
Well I would ask why he wants it, i take it he is not a beneficiary, so unless he needs access to prevent the asset deteriorating then if I were in your shoes and unless he provides a reasonable explanation Id just refuse.
 
Thank you Vanilla.

He is not a beneficiary, the asset is already insured (at myself and siblings expense) so I dont see any reason he would need to go in there.
 
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