Society & Culture0 min ago
Eviction By Executor
11 Answers
Ok very long story short.
I lived with my mother caring for her as she had cancer and so do I.
She passed away a year and s half ago.
My dad died 20 years ago and so half of the house already belonged to the 4 siblings (one of them being me,),now the other half is to be split the same.
Now..my mum asked them all to leave me alone meaning just let me be in the house but obviously in law words mean nothing and this was not written in her will.
They are a horrible lot,I told my mum they won't care they will just want money and I was right,they didn't even go to her funeral and I don't care what the reason was they are nothing to me now and never will be,they never helped mum at all and although visited her when she was at her worst a few times when she was in hospital like a flock of vultures,if they were trying to look like they cared it wasn't washing with me.
Anyway...now obviously they want me out,I put a caveat on the will while I spent ridiculous amounts of money on a solicitor essentially just proving a moral point which in hindsight I shouldn't have done but I'd just lost my mum .
So in short my question is can the executor force me out to sell the property? Or do all 4 siblings have to agree to sell?
My solicitor said I could go for life interest but the court costs would be huge and really I don't want to live here but I don't have much choice as the share wouldn't be enough to buy in this area.
They would argue I could just rent but obviously the money will run out causing more grief and stress.
So can I be forced to leave?
Thanks in advance for any of your help people.
I lived with my mother caring for her as she had cancer and so do I.
She passed away a year and s half ago.
My dad died 20 years ago and so half of the house already belonged to the 4 siblings (one of them being me,),now the other half is to be split the same.
Now..my mum asked them all to leave me alone meaning just let me be in the house but obviously in law words mean nothing and this was not written in her will.
They are a horrible lot,I told my mum they won't care they will just want money and I was right,they didn't even go to her funeral and I don't care what the reason was they are nothing to me now and never will be,they never helped mum at all and although visited her when she was at her worst a few times when she was in hospital like a flock of vultures,if they were trying to look like they cared it wasn't washing with me.
Anyway...now obviously they want me out,I put a caveat on the will while I spent ridiculous amounts of money on a solicitor essentially just proving a moral point which in hindsight I shouldn't have done but I'd just lost my mum .
So in short my question is can the executor force me out to sell the property? Or do all 4 siblings have to agree to sell?
My solicitor said I could go for life interest but the court costs would be huge and really I don't want to live here but I don't have much choice as the share wouldn't be enough to buy in this area.
They would argue I could just rent but obviously the money will run out causing more grief and stress.
So can I be forced to leave?
Thanks in advance for any of your help people.
Answers
1 to 11 of 11
The executor can't force you to sell. His/her job is solely to ensure that title to the (half) property passes jointly to the four of you (assuming, of course, that's what's actually in your mother's will). At that stage one or more of your siblings can seek a court order, forcing everyone else to sell, but that usually takes many months and costs the...
21:46 Sat 13th Jul 2019
The executor can't force you to sell. His/her job is solely to ensure that title to the (half) property passes jointly to the four of you (assuming, of course, that's what's actually in your mother's will).
At that stage one or more of your siblings can seek a court order, forcing everyone else to sell, but that usually takes many months and costs the applicant(s) thousands of pounds. So your siblings might not rush towards such a measure.
At that stage one or more of your siblings can seek a court order, forcing everyone else to sell, but that usually takes many months and costs the applicant(s) thousands of pounds. So your siblings might not rush towards such a measure.
-- answer removed --
Thank you for the reply Buenchico.
The thing is I have spent a hell of alot of money on a solicitor (for very little it seems) and they have never mentioned this, the solicitors only solution was to take it to court and go for a life interest which would cost me 90k or there abouts apparently which I said I don't want to do even tho it is likely I'd win I'm in no fit state for more stress in my life,and obviously there is a chance I wouldn't win making a horrendous situation even worse.
So right now I use a solicitor just to relay messages to my mum's solicitor (the executor.
Can the executor even put the house on the market?
What can they do if i effectively just ignore everyone?
The thing is I have spent a hell of alot of money on a solicitor (for very little it seems) and they have never mentioned this, the solicitors only solution was to take it to court and go for a life interest which would cost me 90k or there abouts apparently which I said I don't want to do even tho it is likely I'd win I'm in no fit state for more stress in my life,and obviously there is a chance I wouldn't win making a horrendous situation even worse.
So right now I use a solicitor just to relay messages to my mum's solicitor (the executor.
Can the executor even put the house on the market?
What can they do if i effectively just ignore everyone?
Oh and actually my father's half of the house was never handed over or executed,our names were never on the property as owners ,so that part is to be 'executed' too.
You said 'at this stage'..what stage did you mean?
Im just curious to know how it could pan out if I was to just ignore and not bother using my solicitor any more.
Right now I'm feeling quite annoyed that I wasn't advised that I could just ignore them.
My solicitor has evenchargef me to send a negotiating letter asking for another 18months in the property.
Even 18 months isn't long enough (if I live that long) as I have to endure chemo every week and have many years worth of things here I literally couldn't possibly just upsticks anyway.
I very much appreciate the responses by the way. (Not the pointless paranoid ones)
You said 'at this stage'..what stage did you mean?
Im just curious to know how it could pan out if I was to just ignore and not bother using my solicitor any more.
Right now I'm feeling quite annoyed that I wasn't advised that I could just ignore them.
My solicitor has evenchargef me to send a negotiating letter asking for another 18months in the property.
Even 18 months isn't long enough (if I live that long) as I have to endure chemo every week and have many years worth of things here I literally couldn't possibly just upsticks anyway.
I very much appreciate the responses by the way. (Not the pointless paranoid ones)
>>> Can the executor even put the house on the market?
Not unless that's what's stated in your mother's will (either explicitly or implicitly). He can only do what's in the will.
>>> Oh and actually my father's half of the house was never handed over or executed
If your parents owned the property as 'joint tenants' (which is the most common way that spouses co-own property) then, even if your father's will attempted to do something different (such as giving you four siblings an equal share in 'his half' of the property) full title to the property will have automatically have passed to your mother upon his death. That's because, under a joint tenancy, neither person actually owns a half (or any other portion) of a property. It's their 'legal partnership' that owns the whole of the property and, when one of them dies, the surviving partner automatically acquires the sole title to the property.
In the (generally less likely) situation where your parents co-owned the property as 'tenants in common', each of them will have owned half of it and was therefore free to leave their half to whomever they liked in their will.
If your parents were tenants in common, and your father didn't leave a will, then his half of the property will have passed to your mother under the intestacy rules.
However (once again assuming that they were were tenants in common, rather than joint tenants) if he left a will then it's the terms of that will which will prevail. The executor of that will should have seen to it that title to his half of the property was transferred in accordance with the will but there's no time limit for doing it, so it can still happen now (and can be combined with the transfers of title which are required by your mother's will).
>>> Im just curious to know how it could pan out if I was to just ignore and not bother using my solicitor any more.
There's nothing to prevent you simply waiting to see if they'll seek a court order to sell. You can then make your mind up as to whether you need professional help to contest the application.
>>> Sorry to add more but if one of the siblings were to go for a court order would it be at their own expense?
When the terms of a will are being contested, the legal expenses are usually met from the estate of the deceased person. However, in your situation, the will itself is NOT being contested. So anyone applying for a court order would normally have to meet their own expenses.
[There's a member of this forum, Barmaid, who's a barrister practising in the civil courts. She knows a zillion times as much about such matters as I do. So, if I see her posting elsewhere on this site, I'll ask her to take a look at this thread]
Not unless that's what's stated in your mother's will (either explicitly or implicitly). He can only do what's in the will.
>>> Oh and actually my father's half of the house was never handed over or executed
If your parents owned the property as 'joint tenants' (which is the most common way that spouses co-own property) then, even if your father's will attempted to do something different (such as giving you four siblings an equal share in 'his half' of the property) full title to the property will have automatically have passed to your mother upon his death. That's because, under a joint tenancy, neither person actually owns a half (or any other portion) of a property. It's their 'legal partnership' that owns the whole of the property and, when one of them dies, the surviving partner automatically acquires the sole title to the property.
In the (generally less likely) situation where your parents co-owned the property as 'tenants in common', each of them will have owned half of it and was therefore free to leave their half to whomever they liked in their will.
If your parents were tenants in common, and your father didn't leave a will, then his half of the property will have passed to your mother under the intestacy rules.
However (once again assuming that they were were tenants in common, rather than joint tenants) if he left a will then it's the terms of that will which will prevail. The executor of that will should have seen to it that title to his half of the property was transferred in accordance with the will but there's no time limit for doing it, so it can still happen now (and can be combined with the transfers of title which are required by your mother's will).
>>> Im just curious to know how it could pan out if I was to just ignore and not bother using my solicitor any more.
There's nothing to prevent you simply waiting to see if they'll seek a court order to sell. You can then make your mind up as to whether you need professional help to contest the application.
>>> Sorry to add more but if one of the siblings were to go for a court order would it be at their own expense?
When the terms of a will are being contested, the legal expenses are usually met from the estate of the deceased person. However, in your situation, the will itself is NOT being contested. So anyone applying for a court order would normally have to meet their own expenses.
[There's a member of this forum, Barmaid, who's a barrister practising in the civil courts. She knows a zillion times as much about such matters as I do. So, if I see her posting elsewhere on this site, I'll ask her to take a look at this thread]
Again thank for the replies and your time.
The way i understood my dads Will was that if my mother ever sold the house she would have had to pay half (my fathers half) of the sale of the house to the siblings,otherwise she could stay there as long as she liked,personally i never even thought about it,i certainly wouldn't have taken my share if my mum did sell.
Originally i was contesting the Will ,that is why i put a caveat in place but soon came to the conclusion that proving it would be almost impossible in court but as i was so upset at the time i kept throwing money at it proving a moral point getting statements from a relative that knew the truth etc, it all proved to be pointless but very expensive.
Just to give you a brief idea my sister is..well i honestly cant find words to describe what she is other than morally bankrupt.
She twisted my mums fragile mind and manipulated her towards the end of her life just to get back in the Will she was removed from, she manipulated her into thinking i was the bad one when in reality i was the only one that dedicated my life to help her,i would have done anything for my mum as any son should without question and that is what annoyed me the most is she made my mum paranoid of the one person that was truly there to do whatever it took to help, none of the others did a thing to help out ever. All my `sister` (and i hate calling her that as she`s no sister of mine) is ever after in her life is money and peoples Wills are the target and her meaning/goal in life,she is utter vermin.
So anyway (i must calm down) ,the Will `was` being contested but that changed into me just asking for what my mum already asked for verbally which was to be left alone in the house while i get on with dealing with terminal cancer (nice huh), but even that turned into asking for 18 months to which they haven't even replied to,maybe they are applying for an eviction order now? i dont know,i wouldn't be at all surprised.
But now knowing that i could have just ignore them and probably stayed here for that long anyway has annoyed me. I feel like i wasn't really given the correct advice, i certainly wasn't given `ignore` as an option.
Ive probably spent 15 grand (probably plus) to get to this point and all ive really got for that is a few emails,phone calls,letters to their solicitor and a statement from my uncle. Bargain!
I see people saying court orders can be expensive 2-5k..i think oh is that all :s
My mum thought she had left me in an ok position when she died ,she even said to my uncle `ive made sure he`s ok` but in reality ive been made almost skint and homeless on top of everything else i have to deal with.
Sorry ,it is very difficult to try and not turn my questions into a total rant about the situation.
The way i understood my dads Will was that if my mother ever sold the house she would have had to pay half (my fathers half) of the sale of the house to the siblings,otherwise she could stay there as long as she liked,personally i never even thought about it,i certainly wouldn't have taken my share if my mum did sell.
Originally i was contesting the Will ,that is why i put a caveat in place but soon came to the conclusion that proving it would be almost impossible in court but as i was so upset at the time i kept throwing money at it proving a moral point getting statements from a relative that knew the truth etc, it all proved to be pointless but very expensive.
Just to give you a brief idea my sister is..well i honestly cant find words to describe what she is other than morally bankrupt.
She twisted my mums fragile mind and manipulated her towards the end of her life just to get back in the Will she was removed from, she manipulated her into thinking i was the bad one when in reality i was the only one that dedicated my life to help her,i would have done anything for my mum as any son should without question and that is what annoyed me the most is she made my mum paranoid of the one person that was truly there to do whatever it took to help, none of the others did a thing to help out ever. All my `sister` (and i hate calling her that as she`s no sister of mine) is ever after in her life is money and peoples Wills are the target and her meaning/goal in life,she is utter vermin.
So anyway (i must calm down) ,the Will `was` being contested but that changed into me just asking for what my mum already asked for verbally which was to be left alone in the house while i get on with dealing with terminal cancer (nice huh), but even that turned into asking for 18 months to which they haven't even replied to,maybe they are applying for an eviction order now? i dont know,i wouldn't be at all surprised.
But now knowing that i could have just ignore them and probably stayed here for that long anyway has annoyed me. I feel like i wasn't really given the correct advice, i certainly wasn't given `ignore` as an option.
Ive probably spent 15 grand (probably plus) to get to this point and all ive really got for that is a few emails,phone calls,letters to their solicitor and a statement from my uncle. Bargain!
I see people saying court orders can be expensive 2-5k..i think oh is that all :s
My mum thought she had left me in an ok position when she died ,she even said to my uncle `ive made sure he`s ok` but in reality ive been made almost skint and homeless on top of everything else i have to deal with.
Sorry ,it is very difficult to try and not turn my questions into a total rant about the situation.
there are some pretty rosy answers on this thread
The house is not yours alone it is jt/common which means that others have interests and in the long term, they can realise them. I think you kinda realise that you dont have the sole power to sell and when. Your mum cd have given you a life interest and didnt.
You could buy out their interests or pay a market rent
they dont have to agree to either
you should recognise that in the end, in a disagreement, a judge is likely to sell the house and divide by 4 ( or however many). I dont see that there is a big advantage in spending 20k so you can live there a bit longer
in my own family one was absolutely determined to forced the others sell up ( because) and it boiled down to the fact the remainers cdnt prevent it. This sort of family quarrel story never ends happily.
The house is not yours alone it is jt/common which means that others have interests and in the long term, they can realise them. I think you kinda realise that you dont have the sole power to sell and when. Your mum cd have given you a life interest and didnt.
You could buy out their interests or pay a market rent
they dont have to agree to either
you should recognise that in the end, in a disagreement, a judge is likely to sell the house and divide by 4 ( or however many). I dont see that there is a big advantage in spending 20k so you can live there a bit longer
in my own family one was absolutely determined to forced the others sell up ( because) and it boiled down to the fact the remainers cdnt prevent it. This sort of family quarrel story never ends happily.
It would be 90k to go to court to fight for a life interest which I'm advised I would probably win but I also may not.
My mum thought that telling her son and daughter to leave me alone would be enough.
We all know that unless its in the Will then words mean nothing do going over that is pointless but atleast I can stand tall for the rest of my days always knowing I did the right thing,where as my siblings hopefully will rot from the inside out from Karma.
Sorry ranting again.
Let me just refresh my situation here.
I live at the house now on my own whilst dealing with terminal cancer.
I'm still managing to work from home in-between weekly treatment but I'm only as good as my next scan.
Buying the other 3 quarters is too much money,the chances of me even getting a mortgage with my condition is highly unlikely I'd say and buying somewhere with the quarter share I'd walk away with is impossible,it would be rent money really.
So maybe a judge might think differently in this case but I won't be spending 90k on going to court just to get a life interest.
All I'm really trying to find out I guess is how long I could just go down the head in sand route because in all honesty...I've had enough.?
My mum thought that telling her son and daughter to leave me alone would be enough.
We all know that unless its in the Will then words mean nothing do going over that is pointless but atleast I can stand tall for the rest of my days always knowing I did the right thing,where as my siblings hopefully will rot from the inside out from Karma.
Sorry ranting again.
Let me just refresh my situation here.
I live at the house now on my own whilst dealing with terminal cancer.
I'm still managing to work from home in-between weekly treatment but I'm only as good as my next scan.
Buying the other 3 quarters is too much money,the chances of me even getting a mortgage with my condition is highly unlikely I'd say and buying somewhere with the quarter share I'd walk away with is impossible,it would be rent money really.
So maybe a judge might think differently in this case but I won't be spending 90k on going to court just to get a life interest.
All I'm really trying to find out I guess is how long I could just go down the head in sand route because in all honesty...I've had enough.?
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