Who Inherits?

[puternut]

I recently lost my brother and there is some confusion as to who inherits his estate - albeit a small amount.

The situation is that I am from a family of seven children and he is the 3rd to pass. My sister was appointed as his next of kin and administrator so is doing all the nesscessary.

He lived in a rented flat and was not married and has no children. He left no will, has no property to sell andthe largest value item a second hand car which he said he wants to go to his home-help who seemed to be an adhoc carer as well. Thats no problem

I do not know the balance of his account but the bank manager was quite happy to transfer it all to my sisters account for her to distribute once all bills have been paid.

Now here is the sticking point - as two of his siblings have passed should their children be entitled to their parents share or not. The people involved have been contacted by me via social media and the result has been 1 said 'So sorry to hear this', a second has said 'Oh so sorry but I can't afford a day off work (to go to his funeral) as Ive only been there a short while and I have had some time off and I need more time off soon to go to a tribunal with my former employer in the next month or so (AND BREATHE). The third has said nothing at all.

Shoud there parents share of his estate (one full share and another split between 2) go to them or should it be split between just surviving siblings.

As I said we are probably only talking hundreds not thousands but the principle / legality is??

As a footnote when the parent of the two children passed they could not afford to bury them as they had no funds. The cost was split between us surviving siblings.

Are we legally obliged to give them their share?

SOrry for such a long post

[jennyjoan]

well recently a friend of mine died - her house was sold and was to be split between the last two siblings brother and sister. That sister died and so everybody thought that the brother would get the lot but - the sister's inheritance went to her 3 daughters. Now you are talking thousands here. They each got £40,000 all 4 of them. Nice handshake for them all. But like hundreds won't go far. But that is the law.

[ubasses]

The estate is divided between all sibings, and each of the deceased's siblings shares are divided between their offspring.

[ummmm]

When my uncle passed away his estate was divided between his living siblings. My father passed before this was all finalised and myself and my sister got my fathers share.

[ubasses]

To be clearer, if sibling 1 has 2 children they get 50% each of their parents share, and if sibling 2 has 4 children they get 25% of their parents share.

[Barmaid]

Yes the children inherit their deceased's parent's share.

[Buenchico]

The rules relating to intestacy are different to when a will has been left.

If your brother had left a will, leaving his estate equally to his siblings, then the children of a sibling who died before him would NOT inherit. (The inheritance only 'moves down the chain' when the named beneficiary is a child or grandchild of the deceased, not when he or she is a sibling).

However, in the case of intestacy, anything which would otherwise have passed to the (now deceased sibling) of the person whose estate is being distributed now passes, in equal shares, to their children.

So, yes, your nieces/nephews (who were the offspring of your deceased siblings) ARE entitled to receive their parents' shares of your brother's estate.

[Sparkles62]

My experience similar to ummmm, Uncle passed away, had no Children himself, estate split between surviving sister and the children of his two deceased brothers.

[puternut]

Great answers and thank you one and all and so the money will go to the six siblings or their surviving children.

jennyjoan if what you say is true then the money has not been split correctly. As the sole survivor of what I think was a £160.000 estate the brother should have got half (£80,000). The remaining half should have been split 3 ways between the 3 daughters (£26,666 each). Hope thats how it was!

[jennyjoan]

well the split was done evenly by law - yes there was £160,000 - so the brother and sister(deceased) got £80,000 each. so The 3 siblings of the deceased sister received £26,666. That is correct - I apologise for that.

Also there was some savings in the old lady's account which was split as well.