Your Advice Please

[Baldric]

Mrs B lost her Stepmother last Dec. Her Father's been deceased for a number of years now, and there are two Stepbrothers.
Mrs B has known SM since the age of 14 and they have always got on very well. It has always been said by SM that when anything happened to her it would be a three way split of the Estate between Mrs B and the two boys.
Funeral was late Dec. Since then the house has stood empty, no work being done and no sign of it being rented or for sale.
One SB has gone home to Australia, the other who lives in NW Kent has gone to ground, not responding to calls or letters.
Have checked on the Gov.uk probate search site, nothing there so far.
Will be sending a recorded delivery letter to him tomorrow, giving him 28 days to respond in terms of what is happening regards the Estate.
Question is, where do we go from here if he ignores the letter as we suspect he will?

[wolf63]

Barmaid is/was over in motoring - you might be able to catch her there.

[Baldric]

Thanks wolf.

[tamborine]

Search for SM or father's Will. If none, occupy/rent property till claimed otherwise.

[Barmaid]

You have done the right thing. See what his response is.

In the meantime, a good tip will be to look for father's will (if there is one - I know SM said it would be divided three ways but sometimes people misunderstand how the law works - she may have thought that it goes 3 ways and not actually made a Will). Very often, married couples make Wills together. Even if they do not make Wills together, they very often use the same solicitors. Often a Will will give clues as to who drew it up. If dad did not leave a Will, try and recall the solicitors they may or may not have used. Once you have identified the firm, it is worth a call to the Probate Dept to ascertain whether they have a Will (they may not tell you though). It is also worth doing a search with certainty.co.uk. If you cannot identify the solicitor, it is worth giving all the local ones a call to see if they have a WIll.

If he ignores the letter, there are various legal options you have which I will deal with at a later date.

My view is to attempt to ascertain whether there is a Will first and who the executors are. If he wont respond you probably need to escalate this to a letter before action. Incidentally, I would also copy the letter to the aussie dweller.

Keep me updated. (And if you need to discuss directly, there are enough peeps on here who know how to contact me).

[tamborine]

Check here for property ownership

http://www.landregistrydocuments.co.uk/title-registers/

[Baldric]

Thanks Barmaid, will follow up advice re Solicitors and then sit out the 28 days if need be, will get back to you.

[Barmaid]

Baldric - I also meant to say "Do a standing search at the probate registry". I know you have already done a search but a standing search will tell you if the Grant is issued within the next 6 months. Link here:- https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/searching-for-probate-records

[Peter Pedant]

Hi bam bam
thanks for responding and as an aside I hope the car goes

My take on this as you know I am not legal ( like you are mwah mwah mwah) is that Dad didnt leave a will - and neither did SM
and that SM in making it clear that she wanted a three way split .... thought that that would do instead of writing a will.

wh is kinda a different situation altogether innit ?

[Baldric]

It is correct that Dad did not leave a Will, atm we are not 100% certain about SM.

[Peter Pedant]

it is likely that the whole of her dads estate passed to the SM under the then rules of intestacy ( they have recently changed )

if there is no will then Mrs B would be in some difficulty in proving a claim
I also agree that one or other of the stepbrothers may have one (will)

good l uck ......

[Baldric]

It appears the Recorded Delivery Letter did the trick.
Have just rec'd one ourselves containing a Copy of the Will and a letter to Mrs B from SM that was being kept with the Will.
It appears the Will has only just been found and passed to a Solicitor this week, it shows as said a 1/3 split to each of them plus some personal items to Mrs B including her late Mothers Wedding Ring which she thought was lost.
Many thanks indeed for advice, especially Barmaid, and if anyone thought we were 'jumping the gun' I will just say my 3X married BIL has form.
Many thanks again.