Role of Executor and being a beneficiary.

[Ethel Street]

All valuables should be removed from your late mother's house. Everything of value. One of the legal duties of an Executor is to protect and safeguard the Estate until it is passed to the benficiaries. This summary of that duty is from a solicitor's website, you'll find the same thing on most websites advising Executors:

 

...a point that is often overlooked is the executor’s duty to secure and protect estate property. This includes any house or other valuable items. Executors should ensure that property is insured (and that insurance remains valid while the property is empty). If not, the executor would be liable for the loss suffered by the estate if the property burnt down, was flooded or suffered damage in any other way. This is a critical point, and executors may find themselves having to pay insurance premiums out of their own pockets very early in the adminstration before they have gained access to estate funds. 

 

It's irrelevant who the valuables who have been left to. Executors are jointly and severally responsible responsible so you don't need his permission to remove them for safekeeping. You definitely do not have to leave the property in the house until probate is granted and you should not do so.

 

Re insurance. Almost certainly in an unoccupied house (a) the insurers will exclude valuables and (b) they may not cover theft. So insurance is not a substitute for removing valuables for safekeeping.

 

It's clearly going to be difficult if your brother is refusing to co-operate and the first step is to try and talk it through with him and agree how you can work together. For your mother's sake as much as yours. Would she have wanted you to work together? I'm sure she would as she made you joint executors.

 

Bear in mind that perhaps your brother is working through his grief, even if he isn't admitting that to you. That might be why he doesn't want anything to change at your mother's house yet?

 

Read up on line about submitting Probate. They switched to an electronic system and that + covid have resulted in some extensive delays in Probate being granted.

 

 

[Ethel Street]

How to remove an executor of a will | The Gazette

 

"...before you issue an application to court to remove a problematic executor, it is important to try and resolve the issues without court intervention, which should be treated as a last resort."

 

And it will cost money and the application may be unsuccessful - it needs to be more than just the other executor not co-operating

 

"An attempt by the beneficiaries to remove the executor is not an easy application. The beneficiaries must prove serious misbehaviour before the court will even consider forcing an executor to step down. In general, the courts will only remove an executor if the beneficiaries can show the following:

1. the executor has become disqualified since the deceased appointed him
2. the executor is incapable of performing his duties
3. the executor is unsuitable for the position."

Edited December 5, 2020 by Ethel Street