Brother refusing to vacate house left to four of us in my father's will

Dana123

Dana123

New Member
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9
Hi all,

My father passed away recently and left his entire estate to myself and my 3 brothers.

The will states that the solicitor is the executor of the will and that all my fathers assets are to be realised into cash and divided equally between the 4 of us.

We all had moved out of the family home years ago but one of my brothers moved back in to the house 4 or 5 years ago and lived with our Dad. He did look after him for the last year or so but never paid any rent or bills since he moved back in. He thought that he would be left the house because he was living at home and was quite shocked when he read the will. He is now being quite difficult by refusing to let valuers in the value the house for probate purposes and not sending in required information to the solicitor etc.

Myself and my 2 bothers who don’t live at home want to sell the house, we all have mortgages and would like to pay them off with the proceeds. My brother who lives in the house would be able to buy his own place with the proceeds with little or no mortgage but insists that he is staying in the house.

Can anyone advise on what rights the brother who lives in the house would have? Also the fact that it says in the will that the all assets have to be sold and the proceeds then be dived up equally, does this mean that the house has to be sold no matter what my brother thinks?

Many thanks in advance.
 
Isn't all this the solicitor's responsibility to sort out in their role as executor? What have they said about all this?
 
ClubMan said:
Isn't all this the solicitor's responsibility to sort out in their role as executor? What have they said about all this?
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Thanks for the reply.

That’s what I thought, that it’s his responsibility as executor to sort stuff like that out.

He’s hard to get hold of, it takes a few phone calls and emails before you get a reply. We last spoke about 3 weeks ago to ask who was going to arrange for the house to be valued. He asked us to arrange the valuations. I haven’t got a hold of him yet to inform him how the live at home brother is behaving.
 
The so called "live at home" brother can buy the house at an agreed price, or he will have to see the house sold on the open market. Ask him what part of that he doesn't understand? I'm being crude and blunt in this, but at the end of the day you'll see it's the way it will end up. Solicitor will have to get the finger out eventually, but at the same time I can understand why he's doing what he's doing for now. Good luck with it.
 
This kind of stuff really gets my goat. The solicitor will undoubtedly be charging a handsome fee for his having getting himself appointed Executor.

Tell the Executor that he needs the over-holding issue involving your brother sorted. It’s not good enough that he is difficult to get hold of.

It is the Executor’s job to arrange valuations etc. He is trying to get you to do his job for him.

Your brother is a trespasser and needs to be removed by the executor.

Unless you make your views firmly known to the Executor, this will get strung out over years.

My grandmother named me as her residuary legatee a few decades ago in her will and nominated her Solicitor as executor. He did a poor job, it took him 7 years to administer a straightforward estate and only acted when I threatened a complaint. Also, he tried to get me to arrange maps etc until I pointed out to him - in writing - that this was his job.
 
noproblem said:
The so called "live at home" brother can buy the house at an agreed price, or he will have to see the house sold on the open market. Ask him what part of that he doesn't understand? I'm being crude and blunt in this, but at the end of the day you'll see it's the way it will end up. Solicitor will have to get the finger out eventually, but at the same time I can understand why he's doing what he's doing for now. Good luck with it.
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That’s been mentioned to him but for some reason he has no savings even though he’s paid no rent or bills for the last 5 years and he wouldn’t get a mortgage for the amount needed to buy the house. He’s just being awkward and unreasonable, I don’t want things to get ugly but you’re probably right about that’s how it will go.
 
Johnno75 said:
This kind of stuff really gets my goat. The solicitor will undoubtedly be charging a handsome fee for his having getting himself appointed Executor.

Tell the Executor that he needs the over-holding issue involving your brother sorted. It’s not good enough that he is difficult to get hold of.

It is the Executor’s job to arrange valuations etc. He is trying to get you to do his job for him.

Your brother is a trespasser and needs to be removed by the executor.

Unless you make your views firmly known to the Executor, this will get strung out over years.

My grandmother named me as her residuary legatee a few decades ago in her will and nominated her Solicitor as executor. He did a poor job, it took him 7 years to administer a straightforward estate and only acted when I threatened a complaint. Also, he tried to get me to arrange maps etc until I pointed out to him - in writing - that this was his job.
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It’s beginning to annoy me too now at this stage by his lack of responsiveness and availability.

I was unsure of his exact role as executor so thanks for clarifying what he should be doing. We will be much firmer with him going forward. I don’t want this to be a long drawn out thing, certainly not 7 years!
 
Dana123 said:
Also the fact that it says in the will that the all assets have to be sold and the proceeds then be dived up equally, does this mean that the house has to be sold no matter what my brother thinks?
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I'm sorry for your loss.

Simple answer, yes.

Edit to add - it would be far quicker cheaper & easier to get the family together to talk to resident brother.

Less references to free accomodation and more thank you for taking such good care of Dad over the last years might go a long way.

You might also like to tot up the cost of nursing home fees & see how much that would have eaten into the estate - your brother has likely saved you a chunk of change as well as caring for your father.
 
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Thirsty said:
Edit to add - it would be far quicker cheaper & easier to get the family together to talk to resident brother.

Less references to free accomodation and more thank you for taking such good care of Dad over the last years might go a long way.
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Agree.

I've been there. It took the best part of two years to get a relative out in the same circumstances.

You have to hold your nose and do a lot of negotiating. You have to use carrot more than stick.

Only go the legal route if there is no hope of sorting it out personally anymore.
 
Thirsty said:
I'm sorry for your loss.

Simple answer, yes.

Edit to add - it would be far quicker cheaper & easier to get the family together to talk to resident brother.

Less references to free accomodation and more thank you for taking such good care of Dad over the last years might go a long way.

You might also like to tot up the cost of nursing home fees & see how much that would have eaten into the estate - your brother has likely saved you a chunk of change as well as caring for your father.
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Thanks Thirsty.

We have had a few sit down chats with him and explained that everyone will be able to have their own house with little or no mortgage etc but he can’t seem to see that everyone benefits with the sale of the house.

Also we are all appreciative that he lived with our Dad for the last year or so but thankfully he was never at a stage where he needed much care.
 
NoRegretsCoyote said:
Agree.

I've been there. It took the best part of two years to get a relative out in the same circumstances.

You have to hold your nose and do a lot of negotiating. You have to use carrot more than stick.

Only go the legal route if there is no hope of sorting it out personally anymore.
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Some good advice, thanks.

None of us want to go down the legal route, nobody wins. Hopefully it won’t come to that.
 
Thirsty said:
I'm sorry for your loss.

Simple answer, yes.

Edit to add - it would be far quicker cheaper & easier to get the family together to talk to resident brother.

Less references to free accomodation and more thank you for taking such good care of Dad over the last years might go a long way.

You might also like to tot up the cost of nursing home fees & see how much that would have eaten into the estate - your brother has likely saved you a chunk of change as well as caring for your father.
Click to expand...

Thirsty surely there could/should be some sort of reduction for the live in brother if he chose too buy the siblings out since he saved them a good chuck of money by keeping the father at home.

The live in brother might feel he deserves more than the others as he lived/took care of the father over the x amount of time.

1 person does 90% of the caring while the person doing the 10% or less gets the same amount of inheritance seems unfair
 
From the deceased parents point of view (and probably true for most parents), the sale of the house & dividing equally was likely the cleanest & simplest solution.

I would agree that if I were in the OPs shoes, I would be looking to see what could be done to better facilitate a good outcome for everyone.

If that means each sibling taking a small cut to in favour of the resident sibling, then do it.

However, my reading of the tone and content of the OPs posts (and in charity I have to point out that my reading may be wrong); is that there is a lower level of understanding of what it meant to the family, and to the parent, to have someone living full time at home with their parent.

Whilst everyone has lost their parent, the resident sibling will also lose their home. I believe a bit of empathy will go a long way to resolve this.
 
Pinoy adventure said:
Thirsty surely there could/should be some sort of reduction for the live in brother if he chose too buy the siblings out since he saved them a good chuck of money by keeping the father at home.

The live in brother might feel he deserves more than the others as he lived/took care of the father over the x amount of time.

1 person does 90% of the caring while the person doing the 10% or less gets the same amount of inheritance seems unfair
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The will says to liquidate all assets and divide the money equally between the four children. The executor has a legal obligation to ensure that the deceased's wishes are carried out. The executor, never mind anybody else, can't do something else simply because they think it's "fairer". If somebody really thinks that there's something wrong with the will and how it deals with the estate then they can challenge the will.
 
ClubMan said:
The will says to liquidate all assets and divide the money equally between the four children. The executor has a legal obligation to ensure that the deceased's wishes are carried out. The executor, never mind anybody else, can't do something else simply because they think it's "fairer".
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No one has suggested the will is invalid; nor that it should be set aside.

The siblings are perfectly within their rights to pay a sum of money to the resident sibling if they wish to do so.
 
ClubMan said:
The will says to liquidate all assets and divide the money equally between the four children. The executor has a legal obligation to ensure that the deceased's wishes are carried out. The executor, never mind anybody else, can't do something else simply because they think it's "fairer". If somebody really thinks that there's something wrong with the will and how it deals with the estate then they can challenge the will.
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Clubman what if 1 sibling wanted too buy the others out ? Does the will state who the house should be sold too ? If not any of the siblings can buy it from the rest of them.
 
Pinoy adventure said:
Clubman what if 1 sibling wanted too buy the others out ? Does the will state who the house should be sold too ? If not any of the siblings can buy it from the rest of them.
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I don't know.
I haven't seen the will.
The executor can't ignore it though especially not because somebody "feels he deserves more".
My understanding is that the executor also has a duty to get fair market value for any assets that are being liquidated and not sell them at a discount to anybody.
Yes, of course the other siblings could gift the brother something after the will has been done and dusted but that's irrelevant to the executor's task and responsibilities.
 
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ClubMan said:
...that's irrelevant to the executor's task and responsibilities
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Indeed; but not irrelevant to resolving the family situation.

The law is a blunt instrument; when you use it as a bludgeon everyone gets hurt.
 
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