Executor of will is dead , advice needed.

teddyhead

Hello , I am looking for some advice on behalf of a relative. The estate of my grandmother ( a house) was left equally between her seven children. One of them was nominated executor of said will. The house was not sold as another member of the family was still living there under an informal arrangement. Now , almost twenty years later , all but one have passed away. The surviving relative needs to become 'executor' in order to sell the house and tie up loose ends. He was quoted a figure of 6000 euro, which seems steep to me ,for what is just an administrative change.
We were wondering , can we go to the probate office and get the deeds/will adjusted , without the substantial fee?
Obviously , surviving relatives of the deceased are being kept informed and any profit on the house will still be divided by seven. My relative is not trying to 'pull a fast one' , just trying to tie up loose ends.
Any help or advice would be appreciated. If anyone in the profession can provide the service cheaper , feel free to PM me.

DieselPowered

Who quoted this price?

teddyhead

DieselPowered wrote: »

Who quoted this price?

The firm of solicitors who held the deeds/will.
This was not the original firm who drew up the will, due to a partner leaving , this case went to another partner in the firm.

DieselPowered

Hmm, sounds like you need to shop around for a price.

Do the quoting solicitors currently hold the Will?

trishasaffron

An individual can take out probate themselves - they may need some legal advice on certain issues unless they are generally familiar with administrative/legal issues. Once you have the grant of probate (which takes about 6-7 months at the moment AfTER you have lodged all the papers) you can then transfer the property and you will need a lawyer for this part.

teddyhead

DieselPowered wrote: »

Hmm, sounds like you need to shop around for a price.

Do the quoting solicitors currently hold the Will?

Yes , I believe so. I notice on their letter that they are including a lot of 'extras' that are not vital right now and havent been requested. Such as two valuations from auctioneers , administering the sale of the house and administration of the monies after that. However they do not include contacting remaining relatives or contacting the original executors solicitors,which my relative will seemingly have to do himself.
All he really needs is to become executor and be able to sell the house.
Seems like the solicitors are adding in a lot of 'bells and whistles' to what should be a relatively straightforward administrative change.

DieselPowered

One of the remaining legatees under the will should be able to apply to the probate office to be appointed "administrator cum testamento annexo" or "administrator with the will changed".

The "change" is that someone other than the named executors will act as executor. All of the remaining legatees have the right to be appointed, so they will all have to agree on someone.

This is only my own understanding and not legal advice.

teddyhead

DieselPowered wrote: »

One of the remaining legatees under the will should be able to apply to the probate office to be appointed "administrator cum testamento annexo" or "administrator with the will changed".

The "change" is that someone other than the named executors will act as executor. All of the remaining legatees have the right to be appointed, so they will all have to agree on someone.

This is only my own understanding and not legal advice.

Thanks. I will look into that.
My relative is the only surviving person named in the will and the children of his siblings are mostly abroad and have no interest in the property. Informally , many have said they have no interest in the 'estate' ,though for legal reasons my relative will make full provision for their share to be kept for them and keep all relevant documentation.

Ken.

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/death/the_deceaseds_estate/dealing_with_the_deceaseds_estate.html

Have a read of this op. Seems to be straight forward enough to do it onesself if you've a mind to.

valleyoftheunos

My comments are in blue, they are not legal advice merely infomative, you should shop around and speak to a solicitor.

teddyhead wrote: »

Hello , I am looking for some advice on behalf of a relative. The estate of my grandmother ( a house) was left equally between her seven children. One of them was nominated executor of said will. The house was not sold as another member of the family was still living there under an informal arrangement. Now , almost twenty years later , all but one have passed away. The surviving relative needs to become 'executor' in order to sell the house and tie up loose ends. He can't become executor exactly, as another poster pointed out, he can become an administrator with will annexed, he will then have the same powers as an executor.

He was quoted a figure of 6000 euro, which seems steep to me ,for what is just an administrative change. it does seem expensive but there is more involved than an administrative change. is the price quoted for the administration of the entire estate? Shop around regardless.
We were wondering , can we go to the probate office and get the deeds/will adjusted , without the substantial fee? No, deeds and wills cannot be changed or adjusted.
Obviously , surviving relatives of the deceased are being kept informed and any profit on the house will still be divided by seven. My relative is not trying to 'pull a fast one' , just trying to tie up loose ends.
Any help or advice would be appreciated. If anyone in the profession can provide the service cheaper , feel free to PM me.

teddyhead wrote: »

Yes , I believe so. I notice on their letter that they are including a lot of 'extras' that are not vital right now and havent been requested. Such as two valuations from auctioneers , administering the sale of the house and administration of the monies after that. However they do not include contacting remaining relatives or contacting the original executors solicitors,which my relative will seemingly have to do himself.
All he really needs is to become executor and be able to sell the house.
Seems like the solicitors are adding in a lot of 'bells and whistles' to what should be a relatively straightforward administrative change.

All of these things will be needed during the administration of the estate at some stage so they aren't really bells and whistles, it sounds like you are being quoted for the "full package", you should clarify this with them.

It is not strictly necessary to have a solicitor involved with grants of administration or probate but that doesn't mean its always a good idea to do it yourself, on an anecdotal note anyone I know who did themselves regretted their decision and would advise against it, it can be an awful lot of work.

lOWCOUNTRY

trishasaffron wrote: »

An individual can take out probate themselves - they may need some legal advice on certain issues unless they are generally familiar with administrative/legal issues. Once you have the grant of probate (which takes about 6-7 months at the moment AfTER you have lodged all the papers) you can then transfer the property and you will need a lawyer for this part.

If an executor has already started the administration a gran of de bonis non is required from the court.
The original executor may well have started to act in this case as assets other than the property may have been distributed or bills paid etc.

teddyhead

Thanks for the advice folks.We are going to visit the citizens advice people and check out other solicitors. In fairness to the original solicitor , they did assume a sale was pending , when in actual fact the house needs work and wont be sold immediatley.

valleyoftheunos

teddyhead wrote: »

Thanks for the advice folks.We are going to visit the citizens advice people and check out other solicitors. In fairness to the original solicitor , they did assume a sale was pending , when in actual fact the house needs work and wont be sold immediatley.

You can probably knock E1250 off the quote straight away so. Best of Luck.

amen

ianal but

Obviously , surviving relatives of the deceased are being kept informed and any profit on the house will still be divided by seven. My relative is not trying to 'pull a fast one' , just trying to tie up loose ends.

I think you are incorrect in your understanding here.

If there were seven siblings then each sibling would be have been entitle to 1/7 of the estate.

If one of the siblings had two children and the sibling has since died then the remaining six siblings are still entitled to 1/7 but the children of the dead sibling maybe entitle to 1/14 of the estate.

Of course this may depend on the will, wording etc

If other siblings have died then their children may also be entitle to some share.