Relative in UK who took money willed to us

Sickavit

Registered User
Messages
2
Hi all

This is my first time posted and am sorry if it has been covered, but after numerous online searches I cannot find anything relating to our problem. Really hope someone here can help us.

Husband was willed a fairly small amount in sterling, and as we were both unemployed in Ireland decided to leave it in UK in the bank account of a close relative (also a willed recipient).

Against all of my advice and pleadings, the husband never got the bank account details and eventually when we requested the money the relative had spent it all.

He was distraught, apologetic, etc, and we gave him the chance to put it right rather than let money cause a fallout. Unfortunately he has done nothing to put it right and is also refusing to engage in any discussions on it.

Question is, do we have any legal recourse open to us to try and recover the money? It was in his UK account so can't even be classed as theft. The figure is about £3,000, and without it our credit card has spiralled us further into dept.

Don't want to rant on, but am verging of a nervous breakdown over this!!
Please help, if anyone can.
Thank you
S
 
You can certainly sue him to give him the money he owes you. But if he has no money, you won't be able to get it, so you will just end up with legal costs.

But you should check on a UK website such as the Motley Fool. It may be possible to sue another person for small amounts of money without using solicitors.

How did the money end up in his account? Was he the executor? If the executor paid him instead of you, you probably have a case against the executor. But again, it's just not worth suing over small amounts.
 
. The figure is about £3,000, and without it our credit card has spiralled us further into dept.

How is your credit card debt related to money in an account that you didn't bother to access?

I'd guess pursuing your relative in another jurisdiction for such a low amount is a waste of time. But you could ask him to pay say 100 Euro a month by direct debit to clear the debt, it's very hard for someone with no money to put out a lump sum of 3K. If he's living on benefits you can forget it.

How about you outline why your credit card debt is such a problem and see if we can help on solving that.
 
I'm sorry to hear about your situation, but before you start down any road the first thing is to establish what specific proof you have that you gave the money to him for safe keeping? The source of the money and where it was kept are not really much good, you need some kind of documentation to show that he was holding it for you.

And of course the second thing is to establish if he is in fact in a position to repay you.

If either of those conditions are not true, then I fear you'd be wasting what little resources you have in going after him.
 
Thanks very much for the helpful replies Brendan and Jim.
The execetor did mess up and is liable but he is also a close relative and is of course trying to stay out of it.... The reason for depositing in the UK was that we were considering moving back at the time.
The guy has the means of paying us back. It was our suggestion that he set up a plan with the bank and pay what he can. But basically he's a spoilt eejit who likes nice things, and I think now the dust has settled he thinks he can get away with this and continue enjoying his nice things.
Motley Fool, how apt. It was never my choice to put the money somewhere that we could not even track it. I will pursue that avenue thank you Brendan.
Bronte this was not a plea for help with our debt. It's legal assistance we need hence my posting in askaboutlaw. Thanks for your input though.

Many many thanks guys
S
 
Your argument is with the executor.

The executor has the legal responsibility to gather in the assets. He has failed and seems determined to continue to fail. You have suffered a direct economic loss as a result.

I would demand settlement of your entitlement now. I don't know what time limits apply in the UK to issue proceedings for this area. Be careful that you are not being played by being ignored and then becoming statute barred. You also lose merit if you acquiesce in the face of a breach of your rights. You are obviously not going to litigate but the executor and the "feckless one" don't know that !

I would accompany my final demand to the executor with a threat to report both him and the feckless one to the police for theft.

I now that this kind of situation is awkward with relatives. However, if they behave so shabbily then they should take the consequences and you must throw sentiment out the window.

From your posting it is clear that you need that money - like a lot of us ! Why should you be chiselled out of a just entitlement because of someone else's impropriety ?

BTW if you make an arrangement for scheduled repayment get that agreement reduced to writing so you can enforce your rights in the event of default.
 
Your argument is with the executor.

The executor has the legal responsibility to gather in the assets. He has failed and seems determined to continue to fail. You have suffered a direct economic loss as a result.

The executor has made the distribution and the fact that money can from an inheritance really has nothing to do with the issue.

From the OPs post:

Husband was willed a fairly small amount in sterling, and as we were both unemployed in Ireland decided to leave it in UK in the bank account of a close relative (also a willed recipient).
 
Jim2007, I seem to have missed your point.

The issue seems to me to be that a beneficiary did not receive his inheritance by virtue of the failure of the executor to discharge his (executor's) legal responsibility. (The conduct of the other relative who dissipated the funds is also another argument !)

I get the practical point that you cannot receive an inheritance where there are insufficient assets for distribution to meet the testator's wishes. However, the relevant assets seem to have been unlawfully dissipated by another beneficiary to the detriment of the one who has lost out.

To say simply that the assets have been distributed and that nothing can therefore be done to correct the situation seems dubious. There seems to have been an element of unjust enrichment to put it at it's very mildest !

The fact that it was left in the UK relative's account also seems to create a stateable argument to say that there was, at a bare minimum, a constructive trust in relation to the money in question.

That is just the way that I see it.
 
Man steals money. Man spends money. Man won't pay it back. People he stole it from won't sue. End of.

Moral of story. Keep your money in your own account.

mf
 
Back
Top