my husband's father died 8 years ago, now 2 of his siblings are staking a claim to his "estate",reportedly a rare and valuable record collection. Do the siblings have a right to this stake, even though there is no record of any such collection?

[julie152]

[daffy654]

Was there a will left at the time?
His siblings shouldn't be entitled to any 'record collection' unless they were named in the will to receive the collection.Without a will all assets will have passed to a spouse or children,siblings have no rights to anything.

[ummmm]

Unless there isn't a spouse or children.

[daffy654]

There obviously is in this case ummmm,the op says her husbands father is the one who supposedly had the collection of records.

[julie152]

Sorry for the confusion, the siblings are my husband's siblings, not his father's.His father did not leave a will. My husband received a solicitor's letter telling him that his brother is staking a claim to said record collection. I would imagine that, unless any valuable assets, such as a record collection, was valued and catalogued prior to his death (2001), that their claim is null and void,am I correct?

[daffy654]

They would have to prove the record collection existed for them to make a claim for it.If all your father in law's goods were catalogued/valued at the time of his death and no collection existed then I fail to see how they can claim for it.

[julie152]

Thanks daffy654

Just to confirm no "assets" were catalogued at the time of my father in law's death, so I am assuming that my husband's brother's solicitor has wasted his printer ink in typing that letter?!

[dzug]

If the collection existed, they would be entitled to a share of it - but that should all have been sorted out when the father died, with each of his children receiving a share of the estate (assuming no widow).

Are they saying they received nothing at the time - or that they were short changed because of the record collection not being accounted for properly?

[daffy654]

Have you even confirmed that the solicitor's letter is genuine?
I know for a fact you can download official looking letter headers from the internet for almost any occupation known to man,solicitors included.
I would tell your hubby to contact the solicitor by phone and inform them the collection of records doesn't exist and never has. If they wish to pursue the matter then let them,it is their money that is being flushed down the pan.

[Naomicorlett]

It was the executor's duty to list all assets at time of probate. Who was the executor ? Generally it is a solicitor but in both my parents' wills it was me and I had to present accounts to the Tax Office.

[daffy654]

Just to clarify....did the record collection ever exist? If yes,what happened to it.
I was just assuming there never was a collection.

[ummmm]

Naomi...there was no will.

[Naomicorlett]

Sorry...should not speed read . :o( Sounds like a try-on to me.

[fredpuli47]

Was your father survived by his wife ? (You don't say). If so his widow gets all the chattels (including any record collection)

If not then the children are entitled to equal shares of the estate including chattels. The Personal Representative would have sorted that out at the time. Eight years is normally far too late to go over what the PR did and reopen the administration or sue the PR for wrongly dealing with the estate. Tell the solicitor (if it is a solicitor) that you know of no such collection but, in any event, the administration was completed years ago, your father dying in 2001. Who did have the task of administering the estate?

If the estate was of any value sufficient to merit the Revenue's interest the Personal Representative will have listed the chattels and assigned a value. In any event, the records would be accounted for and the Personal representative would have divided them up between the children or sold them and apportioned the proceeds, or if one wanted them ' sold' them to him or her and apportioned the value accordingly.

[dzug]

<i>If the estate was of any value sufficient to merit the Revenue's interest the Personal Representative will have listed the chattels and assigned a value</i>

Well not really. If the record collection (if it existed at all) was not recognised as valuable then 'house contents' and a nominal value would have been all that was declared. You can even put a negative value - 'house clearance company's bill' if that's what happened.

[fredpuli47]

Yes, I hadn't thought of that dzug .LOL I've been proceeding as though this record collection, if it existed was recognised at the time as having any value worthy of the name.It might have been thrown out or cleared by house clearers.

[daffy654]

I'm still waiting to hear if the record collection ever existed julie..............

You don't make that very clear in your original post.

[tamborine]

5 LPs for £1 in charity shop clearance atm.

[julie152]

Thanks for everyone's responses, sorry I haven't been back on the site recently, been away on holiday.

To answer some of your questions, my father in law was divorced from his ex wife, so she wasn't entitled to anything at the time of his death. As far as I am aware, each sibling got something of their father's when he died.A few years later a rift developed, and my husband's brother and sister fell out with my husband and his other sister,it has only been recently that the brother has shown any interest in the "record collection" ( I believ e because he is now unemployed and desperate for money). The collection did exist,but we have no idea of it's value, it has now gone to a charity shop anyway!.
The solicitor's letter is genuine (they have a website),however,you can tell by the tone that the brother doesn't have a leg to stand on!