Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in North Carolina
My Aunt passed away and left her estate to my father with the lawyer who wrote her will as the administrator and 2 other people as executors. From the time of my aunts passing the lawyer as refused to talk to anyone but either another lawyer or the executors about anything having to do with my aunts estate other than to ask my father and my grandmother to give him money to pay off my aunts bills. My aunt tended to travel a bunch so all of her bill were prepaid for 2 months after her death but the lawyer refused to cut off her utilities for another 3 months after that even though no one was living in her house after her death and he was repeatedly asked to turn the utilities off. He also refused to allow my father entry into the house to remove personal items from the house though they were left to my father. Most of the items were family antiques that have been passed down for generations as well as items that did not even belong to my aunt. The lawyer constantly called and wanted my fathers approval to sell off the contents of my aunts house which my father refused to give. The lawyer still refused to allow access to the home or talk to my father about the supposed bills my aunt had and that he needed money for before he would allow anyone to do anything with the property in the estate. The lawyer then turn around and sold one of the executors my aunts house for what she owed the bank on it which was around $70,000.00 less that what it was worth. Yet he still demanded my father or grandmother put money into my aunts estate account to pay off her bills. Her lawyer constantly refuses to let us know what those bills are and how much my aunt owes. 6 months after my aunts passing my father passed away leaving everything to my mother. In my aunts will she has that if something should happen to my father her estate goes to his children. Less than a month after my fathers passing the lawyer sold some land she owned to the other executor of my aunts will at appraised value less 25% instead of market value less 25% which came out to around $25,000.00 less than what it was worth. He sold this land without approval from my mother or me. I'm the administrator of my fathers estate. Now the lawyer has started to demand that either I, my mother, or grandmother give him the money to pay my aunts bills. Due to a failing of a business my Father and Mother were in the process of filing for bankruptcy at the time of my fathers passing. My aunt's lawyer found out about this and when my mother said she would not allow me or my grandmother to put money into my aunts account due to the fact that any money left would go into my dads estate account and into the hands of the creditors the lawyer threatened to turn her into the law and she would go to prison for fraud. My aunts lawyer now wants to sell a handicap accessible vehicle my aunt owned for 1/2 what it is worth per blue book to another lawyer in his firm. My mother contacted him about it stating that it was my father's wish that it not be sold outside the family if it was sold at all. The lawyer told her he could not give the vehicle to her as it is titled in NC and my father's estate and her address are in VA and it must be titled to someone in NC. He also said other than stating the above to my mother he would only talk to another lawyer or the administrator of my father's estate about this. I have repeatedly contacted the lawyer trying to get any information from him as the administrator of my father's estate but he refuses to talk with me and will only talk to my lawyer yet he still contacts my family about giving him money to pay my aunts bills without telling us what those bills are.
Is there anything that can be done about this mess as it seems to me that the lawyer for my aunts estate is not doing right.
1 Answer from Attorneys
You post a lot of information and this is not the forum for advice. Any attorney would need to see the will and any other relevant documents in the estate file. However, you have a lot of misconceptions.
First, a will does not name an executor and an administrator. So what you describe is not possible. Generally, whoever is the named executor may decide to obtain a lawyer for help with the probate process. That attorney works for the estate - not the beneficiaries and the estate attorney is under no obligation to answer questions by the beneficiaries. If they have concerns, then the beneficiaries either need to talk to the executor OR get their own attorney.
Regarding bills and debts - first, it is the executor's job to figure out what was owned, what was owed, to pay the just debts and to distribute what is left. There is no way that the executor can do an inventory if your father or any beneficiary starts waltzing off with stuff. And any distributions made prior to an accounting are at risk - meaning that if the executor lets beneficiaries take stuff, the executor may be on the hook personally if it turns out that the estate owes money on its bills and the executor already distributed items of value. There should be no distribution prior to inventory. And the rules are that the bills have to be paid before the heirs get anything. Your family's unwillingness to pay the bills of the aunt's estate is leaving the executor and estate attorney no choice but to sell assets for whatever can be obtained so that the estate can pay bills.
If you want to know what bills there are, claims must be filed either with the court or with the executor. Have you checked the court file to see what claims there are? When did your aunt die? Accountings have to be filed on an annual basis. That may also provide a clue if one has been filed.
Its also the executor's job to secure the real estate. I don't per se think that it was an error to keep the electric, water or gas turned on. The property has to be maintained somehow. With real property though its inherited by the beneficiaries. What did the will say about who was to get the property?
You seem to think that the price obtained was not fair when the property sold. Maybe it was and maybe it wasn't. A lot goes into this - bottom line, regardless of what an appraiser says - its only an educated guess as to value. The property is only worth what a willing buyer will pay. Where is the property located? What kind of condition is it in? How long was it on the market? Why did it have to be sold for less? All of these questions may dictate why the property was sold for less.
And I do not understand why your mother would refuse to let you add money to the aunt's account. Unless there was some kind of survival requirement in your aunt's will, since your father died after your aunt, his share of the property would not pass to his children, but to his estate. The only way for that to not happen would be if your father filed a renunciation within 9 months of your aunt's death. Had your father done this (and he should have) then his share of your aunts' property would have passed to your father's children. The beneficiaries don't have to contribute, but then again. you are leaving the lawyer and executor no choice. They will sell things, pay off just debts and there will be nothing left depending on the claims. That all said, claims of self-dealing or insider sales like this are troubling but without knowledge of all facts its not possible to know if something fishy is going on or if there was really no other option.
I suggest that you get your own probate attorney who practices in the county where the estate for your aunt is pending. Pay the attorney to review the COMPLETE estate file - it should include your aunt's will, petition for probate and grant of letters, a preliminary and 90-day inventory, notice to creditors and a possible accounting. If there is some discrepancies, then have the attorney contact the estate attorney and see what is going on. If there is indeed misconduct, then the existing executor can be removed. If the attorney has engaged in misconduct then he can be reported to the bar.
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