Probate Power Of Attorney Problems

[paddyhaig]

My mother passed away a year after my father passed. My father leaving my mother holdings and cash of quite a fair amount. I was at the time resident and working in the USA. My younger brother who lives close to my parents jumped in and took over.
No Last will and testament, was seemingly found. (I have put out a search) although I was aware that my mother at one time did have a Last will and testament. My brother hired a lawyer to assist with the estate. He also refused to communicate with me over the phone.
His lawyer contacted me and wanted a copy of my UK passport and other details of ID and place of residence. A number of my documents including my UK passport were out of date, or the address was wrong as I had just moved as part of my job. My brother started to hastily sell off chattels and simply furnish receipts to his lawyer and send me email copies of these sales. I was quite angry at these hasty sales, and his pocketing of the proceeds against my wishes.

I hired from the US a UK lawyer that was willing to act as my POA using the credentials I had at the time (That my brothers lawyer was unwilling to accept). Unfortunately he turned out to be rubbish, however he did sign the 'Grant of administration' as my POA. I had to let him go as he was costing me a lot and doing very little. Seemingly milking matters. I even had a Legal Ombudsman judgement against him. I hired another solicitor, similar problem, as my brother was being very evasive and giving the second solicitor the run around. This run around routine was costing me a lot, in endless back and forth email dialogs with my solicitor, who was either not smart enough to entrap my brother with some clever questioning in her email correspondence with him, or was simply playing dumb, as it made her more money.

In the end I figured I would have to come back to the UK and try and handle things myself. I fired the second solicitor as she was simply doing nothing more than I could do. With no real game plan. So I am now here in the UK.
The solicitor my brother had earlier hired to manage the estate, had a 'Grant of administration' drawn up in both my brother and my POA's names (My POA acting on behalf of my name, printed on the 'Grant of administration'). This it turned out, was reason enough for the lawyer hired by my brother to manage the estate, to not communicate with me (Stating a conflict of Interest) Even though she was clearly made aware that I had fired the POA lawyer. It's been going on three years now. I am trying to have my former POA's name removed from the 'Grant of administration'. However I am struggling to find out how this might be done. My brother is now pushing for the position of Executor of the Estate on the grounds that I have held matters up. I am totally stuck. Can anyone make any clever suggestions?

[bednobs]

i am not really sure what the problem is here - what's up with your brother dealing with the estate? Are you accusing his legal representative of trying to diddle you? On the face of it you have delayed matters by either not letting them get on with it or trying to interfere unsuccessfully from a distance.

[Peter Pedant]

The laws of intestacy of the UK apply if you cant find the will
( thousands of URLs - basically you and your brother divi up everything )

in the event of a quarrel a judge is very likely to say - auction everything and divide the result by two

which isnt far from what your brother is doing

If he is sending receipts to everyone then he is implying that he wants in the end to divvy everything by two

I am not sure what the question is other than that you do not like what your brother is doing

[paddyhaig]

Sorry if my question is difficult to deduce. Here's a little background.
I hired a solicitor in the UK that suggested he become my 'Power Of Attorney', on my 'Grant of Administration' in lieu of myself, and to sign off on the sale of the estate properties. One of those properties being a flat my brother has and is living in. My brother wants to purchase his flat. Many of the estate items were sold off quite hastily at a local house clearance auction, when they could of gone to a local firm that sells items through EBay on the Internet as I had suggested to him, hence they didn't meet their best value. My brother it seems rather sneakily keeping the fact that the proceeds from these hasty sales were going straight into his personal bank account , as I had been led to believe that the monies were being given in to the law firm. All this being long before any 'Grant of Administration' had been issued. I thought the law firm and my lawyer would keep a check on my brother. The are several items of significant worth that he is denying any real knowledge of, or being quite evasive about when queried. All this dialog via lawyers costing me significant amounts of money up-front. He has a long history of psychological issues including being a long term registered heroin addict. Everything he says and does has to seemingly be triple checked at great expense. Now I've had to make arrangements so I could drop my obligations in the USA, and come back over to the UK, to try and manage matters myself as I couldn't seemingly find any decent legal help in the UK to assist me. My brother was simply being evasive with the lawyers I hired, and it was costing me an arm and leg in protracted dialogs. However my problem is that now my former lawyers name is on my 'Grant of Administration' and the lawyers that my brother hired are refusing to communicate with me on the grounds of a 'Conflict of Interest'. My brother is now pushing to take over all matters on the grounds that I have held up the estate. What can I do? I will also mention that the building his flat is in, has become quite run down, this diminishing of the value of the property he wishes to buy. He's going to get the property at a reduced rate due to this fact. Part of his former rent was paid into a property association for maintenance, however nothing has been paid in for the last three years, as he hasn't paid any rent, despite the fact that the Welfare State housing office have still been depositing rent assistance into his bank account. He has worked maybe 5 years in the last 35, and mooched off the State and our parents pretty much all his life and now he's conning as much of our parents estate as he can he get away with. The seems to be little in the way of accountability? Again, what can I do?

[Canary42]

Surely if he hasn't paid any rent but has been getting Welfare payments for the same, he can be prosecuted for Fraud by DWP or whoever.

[paddyhaig]

You would think that would be the case 'Canary42', however apparently it isn't. He told me early on that he'd been to the housing office and told them and they apparently didn't know what to do about the situation, so they were going to leave things as they were. I even went there myself and explained to them what was happening, but as he hasn't received any of the estate yet, other than the fact that he is living rent free whilst still receiving rent subsidies. And they were okay with that. Weird but true.