I hope someone will be able to give me some advice.
My husband's mother died earlier in the year - in her will she left her small property to my husband and his two sisters and apointed all three as executors. At the suggestion of my mother-in-law's bank, one sister was appointed main executor wih power reserved to my husband and the other sister. The sister who is dealing with all the affairs and has the contract with the estate agent is being difficult over the price she will accept - both my husband and the other sister think she is being unrealistic in her expectation of the selling price.
What I would like to know is - if my husband and his other sister are willing to accept an offer but the sister who is dealing with the estate agent is not willing to accept an offer, do their 2 'votes' overide the other one?
Thanks in advance for any help anyone can offer.
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From my limited knowledge of these matters it is possible to get an executor removed if it is considered he/she is not acting properly but you are likely to incur legal and court fees if you do this which rather defeats the object.
My suggestion is try to keep things civil and reasonable as, in the long run, it will be best for all concerned.
You could try and demonstrate that the price she wants is unrealistic via a site like this: http://www.houseprices.co.uk/ which gives the price properties were ACTUALLY SOLD FOR rather than what it says in the agent's window or local rag. Stick the post code in and see whether her expected price is unreasonable or not compared to recent sales in the same area. If you can produce facts that might just persuade her.
Another possibility is to let the place until things pick up a bit if you think they will!****
The potential problem you have with the 2 votes to 1 argument is that, if she is of a mind, she could take it further (court etc) and argue that the other executors are not performing their duties properly by trying to maximise the value of the estate.
I don't envy you and wish you luck in resolving it.
EDIT: Have you considered getting an independent valuation of the property preferably by a different agent to the one your husband's sister is dealing with?
**** If you let the property there could be a tax liability for the estate re rental income less expenses.
It is normal to appoint more than one executor of a will - not because it needs decision by committee but rather that if a named executor is themselves deceased, unable or unwilling at the time of resolving the estate there is another to undertake the responsibility. It is also normal to have one of the executors undertake most of the work to avoid having to go round mob-handed for the various tasks etc.
No executor has more `powers' than another and the obvious resolution is that both (all) agree on the decisions made - the key being that the requirements of the will are paramount. If an executor(s) feel that the best interests /intentions of the will are not being carried out in an appropriate manner then they have the right to take court action to resolve this (the probate court may well take a view on resolving this kind of issue).
When `family' is involved it can undoubtedly become `complicated'! As suggested above, it is obviously best to try and resolve this amicably but failing that court action is an option.
When it comes to valuation of property there are a range of views. I recall a friend who was executor of an estate where the main property was left to several beneficiaries including a number of charities. When the legal teams of the charities got involved there was the devil of a problem trying to get them to agree on pricing/sale of the property as they all wanted top dollar for their charities and didn't want any possibility of it being sold for less than market value - it all got very messy!
Regrettably, I don't think there is any easy resolution of your problem without a significant shift on mindset or a major falling out - or both! Sorry I can't provide any more palatable advice but hope this helps in some way!
We've also had a call from one of the neighbours telling us that one of the trees on the property needs cutting back otherwise it may start to cause problems.
If I had known what I know now I would've continued to try and sell the property.
If you do go down the renting route, let me know - I know a very good lettings agent (sadly, not the one dealing with my property).
It is further complicated by the fact that the two sisters do not speak to each other (this happened before my mother-in-law died) and my husband is left in the middle. Our main problem is accepting offers on the property. One sister doesn't want to accept offers that she thinks are too low, even though my husband and his other sister are willing to accept lower offers. We feel that prices are only going to fall further and that by holding out we will all lose out in the end.
I think my mother-in-law would be horrified to see what is happening if she were still alive.
There's some sound advice on this from Len, Spor and Saga. One way forward is to appoint an independent surveyor to give you a realistic price.
Believe it or not we achieve better results selling at Auction, another way forward is to go for sealed bids.
What is certain is that the Executor cannot delay matters if the other beneficiaries want matters expedited. A word of caution though, if Solicitors get involved there will only be one winner and that won't be the beneficiaries.
I don't think that the rental option is one we can take as the bathroom and kitchen need work to bring them up to date. I don't think many tenants want 70's style kitchens or bathrooms!
We certainly don't want to let solicitors get involved - it's only a small property and no-one would get much if that happened. Hopefully common sense will prevail.
That's another problem with renting out - to make the property easier to sell I put in a new bath, replacing an almost new shower unit - then we didn'tm sell and the people we've got renting said they would've prefered the shower. Then they complained that they got a shock from the cooker - getting it checked out was going to cost almost as much as a cheap new one, so we paid out for that. It's going to be interesting if the dishwasher goes wrong - they'll have to do without because I'm not paying out for it.
House is up for £99k - that's £33k each.
Sell it for £96K to get it over with - and split it £33k/£31.5k/£31.5k
Just an idea.
My thoughts exactly.
If nothing else, it may make the unreasonable sister feel a bit guilty and see sense, particularly as the mother's will wanted it split equally three ways.