My Grandma died on 19th July 2007, my aunty has distributed her estate within 2 days can we ask to see a will?

Question

My Gran died of cancer 19th July 2007. Within 2 days my Aunty had removed all of her belongings, gone through them all and distributed them to whom she deemed fit. My nan had promised my mum certain things and me certain things and we know my nan wished nearly 80% of her estate to her youngest son. How do I find out if there is a will? If there is a will do I have a right to see it? If there isn't a will there were 7 child decendants of my gran one died 20 years ago I know it should have been split equally in such circumstances between the bros and sis and dead sis's children, but this hasn't been the case how do I find out if my aunty had the right to deal with the estate? My aunty was bullying my gran before she died and we did report her to social services if there is a will and she had been left everything can and how do we contest it knowing my grans wishes were for my uncle to have most of her things?

Answer 1

her will is now a matter of public record and anyone can see it. ask her lawyer/solicitor to see a copy.

Answer 2

It might depend on the state where you live. You might talk to a probate attorney and you might check the probate laws as regards distribution of assets and duties of executors of wills. You can definitely ask to see a copy of the will and you can contest the will. Additionally, property titles often indicate ownership upon the death of a spouse or one of the people on the title. I'd suggest that you get an attorney and have the attorney do the inquiring. It might cost you a little bit, but in the long run, you'll have some peace of mind. Additionally, if an attorney represents several of the people, it makes the contest a little more arm's length and maybe even a little less bitter.
If you don't have a will, you should get one made up pretty darn quick. Also, you need to understand that if you leave everything to your wife or husband and you predecease that wife or husband, that person now has complete control of your estate and can write your children or other relatives out of the will. So, you should make sure that you take care of every person you want to take care of regardless of how it will appear to your survivors. Additionally, we have seen cases where the wife survived the husband and other relatives bullied her into writing all the husband's relatives out of the will regardless of his wishes upon his death. So, again, you must protect yourself. What you describe sounds like it could be something like what I just described. There is little you can do if that's the case except to ensure that it doesn't happen to you.

Answer 3

If there had been a will, your auntie couldn't possibly have obtained probate and distributed your Gran's effects in so short a time. It sounds as though there wasn't one and that your auntie took matters into her own hands. Did your Gran actually own anything worth owning? In that case your auntie should have taken out letters of administration, something which is also very time consuming. What I suspect may have happened is that your auntie got your Gran to sign away everything to her: i.e. give her power of attorney and made her joint signatory on her bank account etc. I very much hope that I'm wrong there, because it's a horrible thing to accuse someone of, but I've known it to happen. I don't see how else your auntie could have got everything moving so quickly.

Answer 4

First of all, sorry for your loss. I've lost a mum / dad & a gran, so I know how tough it can be.

First off, there should be an excecutor of the will, this is the person who oversees the will and the handling of the estate. This person will be quoted in the all important will (assuming that there is one).

The process of sorting the will out etc is called probate, normally things should not really be done / sold / given out until probate is granted.

Finding the will is vital, a copy may be held with a solicitor or they could have a record of it.

I would advise that you go to either the police (if this aunt is helping herself / dishing stuff out that is not hers may be regarded as theft) and see what they say or the Citizen's Advice.

If stuff has already been handed out, may be difficult to get back.

Answer 5

Sorry to hear about your loss. If someone leaves a will, it has to approved by the Probate court before the executor named in the will can distribute the assets. If someone doesn't leave a will, Letters of Administration have to be obtained from the court before the assets can be distributed. In either case, considerably more than two days is likely to be needed, so it doesn't look like the law has been followed.

You need legal advice. If you're under 18 I'd suggest you get your mum to go and see a solicitor, most of them will give the first interview free.

Answer 6

If your grandma left a Will, it will only become a public document if it went to Probate. The fact that your aunt distributed everything within 2 days suggests that probate was not obtained, so, assuming your aunt is not going to own up to their having been a Will, there is no way you can prove there was one.
However, where someone dies without leaving a Will, the law of England lays down strictly the order of who in a family gets what. In the case of a widow, it is as follows:
Everything goes to the children (equally), otherwise to the parents (if alive), otherwise to the brothers and sisters (or their children), otherwise the grandparents (if alive), otherwise the uncles and aunts (or their children), otherwise to the government!
In this case, your grandma's assets should have been equally divided between her children (or their children if any of them are dead). If you are not confident this has happened, then your aunts and uncles should take legal advice.

Answer 7

If your grandma had a will and i hope she did u can get back what rightfully belongs to u according to your grandmas wishes . i hope she put everything on paper cause if she didnt u are going to have a hard time getting what u think u should have back. make sure your aunt doesnt get into your grandmas bank or savings account before the estate is settled or the money is gone too. if u know who your grandmas attorney is call him/her and tell her what this aunt has done and she can freeze the bank accounts until the will is read. i am soo sorry for your loss and may god bless u in your time of grief.

Answer 8

Unfortunately, this seems to happen a lot amongst children when a parent dies. One takes over. If your grandmother inteneded 80% of her estate to her youngest son, she should have said so in a will. (We should ALL have wills.)

You may need to employ a family lawyer... if there was a will, he/ she may have an easier time of finding out about it. Unfortunately, I don't think your grandmother's verbal promises are enough; I hope you find a will and get things straightened out.

But, you also have to consider if it's worth fighting about... When my grandmother died, there was no will, and 5 kids in the family. My mother was the only one who lived near her. She took her grocery shopping every 2 weeks for 20 years, probably. The rest of the kids lived in different states, and saw my grandmother once every 5-10 years. My mom took care of her completely. However, when she died, my mom split everything up equally-- it wasn't worth it to her to squabble over possessions and create a rift in the family.

Answer 9

Yes it is a public document and if it has been through probate may be viewed at the local probate office, they are very helpful, If she has not followed it to the LETTER she is personally liable. If she has taken it upon herself to distibute without the authority of a will and without following the rules of probate she has a personal liability. I do not know the size of the estate but frankly it may not be worth the trouble. So see a Solicitor if you wish on the legal aid scheme but the costs after that my not be worth while
I suspect nothing went through probate

Answer 10

The first question to ask is what right you aunt had to distribute your grandmothers possessions. I don't know where you come from but in England, nobody has any right to dispose of any part of an estate until probate has been granted. This invariably takes more than 2 days.

Answer 11

any interested parties can request to see the will, 2 days seems very fast for a will to be settled.

your auntie may not have had the right to dispose of the items as only the executor of the will is allowed to do that.