Executor Disputes (1)(Theft?)

[Arrods]

As a PS to recent posts under 'Executor Disputes', bully-boy has given away an item of jewellery to another party (albeit another executor). Bearing in mind probate has yet to be granted, and the item has not been bequeathed to anyone in the will (I.e. it's part of the estate) is bully-boy technically guilty of theft (also bearing in mind he has not consulted any of the executors as to his decision)?

[Peter Pedant]

No : breach of trust
You should contact the lucky receivee (1) and say it is part of the estate and should not be disposed of without agreement.

and I am afraid what you can do is demand return and sale ( dividing the proceeds by how ever many beneficiaries there are )

so it much better to do it by agreement.

you could also contact the solicitor 'who is doing this properly' and complain that bully boy is "NOT doing this properly" but that means more fees for him

so as you can see there are a few venues to go down
but discussion and agreement is always best....

[Peter Pedant]

the baseline in this is that a judge will always rule
for chrissakes you four ( or five), sell the thing and divide by four ( or five)

altho I agree that it is complicated because one beneficiary has a life interest I think.....

[Arrods]

It's OK Peterp - the sensible executors are perfectly happy for a particular executor to have the item. As I said in my earlier post, two of them were actually arguing 'you have it', 'no you have it'! There's no question of selling the item. There's absolutely no dispute over inheritance. This is all about bully-boy taking decisions without consulting the other three executors, and nothing more.

The latest is that, despite the solicitor saying no need (because the estate is below the IHT threshold - in this case £650k) he has taken it upon himself to get two valuations for the house (at £200 each) which will of course come out of the estate. He is simply wasting money. The solicitor has even told him that there's a lot the executors can do themselves to save legal costs but he's having none of it. I despair, I really despair.

[factor-fiction]

In the scheme of things £400 extra costs between the beneficiaries may not be worth falling out over.

[Peter Pedant]

mmm - and property prices are rising....

I am sure discussion and agreement ( perhaps thro gritted teeth ) are the way forward....

In the end we couldnt agree ( possibly a planned-for event by one beneficiary, who really wouldnt agree to diddly squat and often didnt answer ) so we 'had' to sell and divide by five....

and that accounts for why I have 10 shares in BT...we couldnt even get agreement to sell any shares......

[Arrods]

We've already accepted that agreement through gritted teeth is the way forward. This is a pretty straightforward estate that could have been sorted out with just the cost of the probate fee (circa £200). Instead we'll end up with a bill for, I don't know, £5k.