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Can anyone tell me what happens after I issue a summons for PRs to produce accounts? Can the court find that fraud has been committed and act on it? And are PRs entitled to convert a specific cash legacy and use it as 'residual funds' when the residual funds were more than sufficient to meet all of the bills and debts 'as at the date of death'?
Mother died in August 2013, appointing my brother & sister as PRs. Her will stated that the house was to be sold and from proceeds one-third of £10k (and residual monies in her accounts) were to be divided equally between my brother, sister and myself. The remainder of the proceeds from the house to be divided to an agreed formula. No problem as far as the will is concerned.
B&S decided they didn't want to sell the house but keep it to rent out, and buy out my minority share (I did not have any choice in this) They tried to base my share of property at the probate value almost a year later when they knew the price had risen. Eventually they commissioned a Surveyors' Report in their own names and settled the price a modest £15k higher than probate value, it was a buyer's report, but they charged the cost to the estate. In Dec 2014 they said they would proceed at the value given in the report, and send my share, but failed to do so, blaming my challenge to the value for the delay.
In March 2015 I asked why my share had not been sent, whereupon they said they could now proceed but would retain the £10k specified in the will for equal division, for 'unexpected' expenses.
On a hunch I checked with the Land Registry and discovered that they had already assented the Title Absolute in May 2014 to their personal names proprietors - with no mention of my interest in the property. When challenged they said they thought they had to put the property into their own names to sell it. However, in May 2014 they changed an existing insurance on the property, addressed to them as 'Executors' to another policy addressed in their personal names, in which they declared themselves 'owners' and insured contents of the house as 'Landlord Contents'- not a very likely scenario if they were acting as PRs.
They purported to have 'bought' the property in April 2015, (they sent my agreed share of the remaining proceeds in June 2015), but there is no change in the legal ownership from PR to personal names on the register, and what has really happened is that they used the property that they owned to secure a mortgage almost a year after they took possession, and were still quoting the probate value (£250K)
Despite several requests they have produced no evidence to support the contention of their status for either the transfer as PRs status or the 'purchase' The issue is critical because it involves improper charges to the estate for utilities etc, when the property was no longer a responsibility of the estate.
They finally sent an incomplete set of accounts, mid-December 2015, which revealed that they had plundered our mother's bank accounts, systematically using her bank cards after her death to empty her accounts. The first transactions on bank account statements provided have been covered up, but it is possible to calculate that there is a discrepancy of almost £1000 between what was in the banks at the date of death, and the estate accounts produced. They have again, been unwilling or unable to produce receipts to indicate that the cash taken was legitimately spent - despite many promises to do so.
The bank statements show, that the banks & utilities were not advised of our mother's death until March 2014 - 7 months after her passing, during which time all of her direct debits were unnecessarily diminishing the residual funds.
My brother reimbursed himself £259 for a flight and £90 for a taxi when he flew home from his holiday to sit with our mother in her final hours. Both he and my sister were aware of how critically she was before embarking on their respective holidays and I had travelled from Norfolk to stay in London to be with her in their absence, in addition to several trips back and forth in the previous weeks - it did not occur to me to charge our mother for the expense involved and for my brother to take money from the estate which is not authorised, has nothing to do with executor expenses, when our mother was not even dead, is little more than theft. (He is well able to afford these costs and in a far better financial position than I am).
B&S dispensed largesse in the form of gratuities, from the estate funds which were not authorised in the will and which they had not consulted me to approve.
My request for receipts has produced very little verification for the sums in the accounts and one receipt claimed as an expense to the estate, is dated three years before our mother died!
All told, there are sums of improper expenditure, or unaccounted for cash of over £9k, of which a third should belong to me, in addition to my £3333.33 share of property proceeds.
The most recent letter declared that my brother had forgotten to reimburse himself for deposits paid for the insurances mentioned above, and he would take them from the executor account which contains only what is left of my specific legacy, and no residual funds. There is no evidence where this money came from and or indeed that it has been paid in any of the accounts.
My B&S have taken all of the money due to themselves and say they will only send money to me on the condition that I sign to say that I have already received it, accept the accounts, and indemnify B&S for any and all possible claims on the estate, which clearly is out of the question, given the dodgy dealing.
Thanks for staying with me to the end.
PS I did consult a solicitor, but costs became too expensive to sustain with B&S's delaying tactics so I am having to take this forward myself.
Mother died in August 2013, appointing my brother & sister as PRs. Her will stated that the house was to be sold and from proceeds one-third of £10k (and residual monies in her accounts) were to be divided equally between my brother, sister and myself. The remainder of the proceeds from the house to be divided to an agreed formula. No problem as far as the will is concerned.
B&S decided they didn't want to sell the house but keep it to rent out, and buy out my minority share (I did not have any choice in this) They tried to base my share of property at the probate value almost a year later when they knew the price had risen. Eventually they commissioned a Surveyors' Report in their own names and settled the price a modest £15k higher than probate value, it was a buyer's report, but they charged the cost to the estate. In Dec 2014 they said they would proceed at the value given in the report, and send my share, but failed to do so, blaming my challenge to the value for the delay.
In March 2015 I asked why my share had not been sent, whereupon they said they could now proceed but would retain the £10k specified in the will for equal division, for 'unexpected' expenses.
On a hunch I checked with the Land Registry and discovered that they had already assented the Title Absolute in May 2014 to their personal names proprietors - with no mention of my interest in the property. When challenged they said they thought they had to put the property into their own names to sell it. However, in May 2014 they changed an existing insurance on the property, addressed to them as 'Executors' to another policy addressed in their personal names, in which they declared themselves 'owners' and insured contents of the house as 'Landlord Contents'- not a very likely scenario if they were acting as PRs.
They purported to have 'bought' the property in April 2015, (they sent my agreed share of the remaining proceeds in June 2015), but there is no change in the legal ownership from PR to personal names on the register, and what has really happened is that they used the property that they owned to secure a mortgage almost a year after they took possession, and were still quoting the probate value (£250K)
Despite several requests they have produced no evidence to support the contention of their status for either the transfer as PRs status or the 'purchase' The issue is critical because it involves improper charges to the estate for utilities etc, when the property was no longer a responsibility of the estate.
They finally sent an incomplete set of accounts, mid-December 2015, which revealed that they had plundered our mother's bank accounts, systematically using her bank cards after her death to empty her accounts. The first transactions on bank account statements provided have been covered up, but it is possible to calculate that there is a discrepancy of almost £1000 between what was in the banks at the date of death, and the estate accounts produced. They have again, been unwilling or unable to produce receipts to indicate that the cash taken was legitimately spent - despite many promises to do so.
The bank statements show, that the banks & utilities were not advised of our mother's death until March 2014 - 7 months after her passing, during which time all of her direct debits were unnecessarily diminishing the residual funds.
My brother reimbursed himself £259 for a flight and £90 for a taxi when he flew home from his holiday to sit with our mother in her final hours. Both he and my sister were aware of how critically she was before embarking on their respective holidays and I had travelled from Norfolk to stay in London to be with her in their absence, in addition to several trips back and forth in the previous weeks - it did not occur to me to charge our mother for the expense involved and for my brother to take money from the estate which is not authorised, has nothing to do with executor expenses, when our mother was not even dead, is little more than theft. (He is well able to afford these costs and in a far better financial position than I am).
B&S dispensed largesse in the form of gratuities, from the estate funds which were not authorised in the will and which they had not consulted me to approve.
My request for receipts has produced very little verification for the sums in the accounts and one receipt claimed as an expense to the estate, is dated three years before our mother died!
All told, there are sums of improper expenditure, or unaccounted for cash of over £9k, of which a third should belong to me, in addition to my £3333.33 share of property proceeds.
The most recent letter declared that my brother had forgotten to reimburse himself for deposits paid for the insurances mentioned above, and he would take them from the executor account which contains only what is left of my specific legacy, and no residual funds. There is no evidence where this money came from and or indeed that it has been paid in any of the accounts.
My B&S have taken all of the money due to themselves and say they will only send money to me on the condition that I sign to say that I have already received it, accept the accounts, and indemnify B&S for any and all possible claims on the estate, which clearly is out of the question, given the dodgy dealing.
Thanks for staying with me to the end.
PS I did consult a solicitor, but costs became too expensive to sustain with B&S's delaying tactics so I am having to take this forward myself.
