KirtSpence
Junior Member
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Estate is in Oklahoma.
There are 3 siblings in the estate. The estate is my Mother's house which has finally been up for sale and has a pending contract on it.
When she died the person named as executor turned down the job. He lived 50 mls away and was in ill health. As what seemed a good solution at the time was my older brother taking over since he had been living at the house with her for a few years before she died. My other brother and I live in different states. He said he would like to stay in the house, fix it up and put on market to sell. He said this should take about a year to do (selling it also).
Time went on and 7 mos after she died, he fired the lawyer. Now this was the lawfirm my family had used since 1918. He said he didn't like the lawyer pressuring him to put papers together and bring them in for accounting.
We called and check knowing the house insurance was needed to be paid plus flood insurance and that wasn't cancelled. His name was not on the bank account (however utility debits were still being made off the account until it went empty over a year after she died).
My other brother and I hired a lawyer and took him to court to have him removed as rep. The house wasn't even on the market yet either. This was about 9 mos after her death. We did get him to have the bank draft cashiers checks to get the insurance coverage. Our lawyer reminded him to get a lawyer several times in written form. Nothing.
After a year in court the judge finally appointed us as co-reps. Well before he went to court that week he had signed a contract on the house which was not only for a very low price but 15,000. below appraisal which was more than 10%. He said he would pay the 4500. diff out of his part of the estate.
We of course have since been told it is invalid.
After we became reps we found forged checks before death, I got copies of phone bills since there were large amounts and paid out of her account after death and found he had changed some service on her phone before death.
His name was not on the account, he was not her POA, etc.
After the court ordered him out of the house, he found a lawyer after we took over and made a deal to pay one month rent so he could stay until the end of the month. Well the court told him to leave with only pers belongings of his own. He took Mother's furniture and appliances, dishes, etc. He left a ruined couch, chair and lamp, all papers for the estate were gone along with the four drawer filing cabinet that had things in it.
Since the probate had been done and the creditors accounted for we just told our lawyer to have him pay us what he filed with his final accounting for the things items...$3000. He also damaged the house and our lawyer even has the nerve to say it could be ruled as normal wear and tear. He had a roommate who smoked pot, drank and they had 2 big dogs which my Mother never let us have an animal in the house. The carpet is ruined, walls have holes, etc.
There is just too much and I have only touched on a few things so I will get where we are.He and his lawyer are offering a settlement. Well we didn't agree with it so we countered. My lawyer is saying the court will allow him money back on some of the utilities since they would have needed to be on anyway. We fought this alot. I just don't think it is right for him to get that credit when he wasnt doing anything but batching, partying, tearing up the estate.
He only offered $2000. on the things he took against the court order.
We said 2750. He used 2755. out of her bank account until it closed.
There is the 4500. on the house deal, also he didn't pay any property taxes for 2 years but held up a receipt to the judge that he did and now someone has bought a certificate on that amount. Well in this judgement our lawyer came up with approx 250. on the amount of interest so far for him to pay.
What this comes to is...they have now countered our counter to 9500. (actually owes 10,992.but we countered with abt 9900)and his lawyer asked we don't pursue him civil or criminally in court. He also said he would pay his lawyer but we feel that leaves us open to pay ours and we have only had a lawyer involved because lack of doing his job. Our lawyer was going to ask the court to have him pay our attorney fees. Well if he has brought his attorney up in the settlement, can we add that to the settlement for our lawyer. In other words, does it have to be approved by the court? (The amount he owes also didn't include insf fees from bank(almost $200), he did not produce receipts for cleaning supplies on a check written to a grocery store over a year after her death, etc)
We don't have alot of faith in that court since it took so long to get ahold of this estate when there was so much wrong doing. Another thing we have asked for(which will be from the court) is the 5% fee but I would imagine that will only bring up him asking since he was rep longer. Could that be in a settlement?
Our lawyer seems to be concerned with my brother only getting "?" amount and us getting more. Well he used the estate to his benefit and we have been left with a mess. He used part of his estate during that time. Everything is documented. Our lawyer also did a Inter/Admissions on him and he purgered himself so much. That would also be dropped if we did this settlement.
We really feel we are hitting a brick wall with our lawyer but don't have the money to change at this point. We feel he just wants this done so he can get these problems off his back also. I know he has other cases but we don't feel his support.
This is not a very big estate and was so simple. The house needed to be sold, creditors paid and money distributed. We are now going on almost 2 years after death.
Sorry for the length..any advice would be appreciated.
There are 3 siblings in the estate. The estate is my Mother's house which has finally been up for sale and has a pending contract on it.
When she died the person named as executor turned down the job. He lived 50 mls away and was in ill health. As what seemed a good solution at the time was my older brother taking over since he had been living at the house with her for a few years before she died. My other brother and I live in different states. He said he would like to stay in the house, fix it up and put on market to sell. He said this should take about a year to do (selling it also).
Time went on and 7 mos after she died, he fired the lawyer. Now this was the lawfirm my family had used since 1918. He said he didn't like the lawyer pressuring him to put papers together and bring them in for accounting.
We called and check knowing the house insurance was needed to be paid plus flood insurance and that wasn't cancelled. His name was not on the bank account (however utility debits were still being made off the account until it went empty over a year after she died).
My other brother and I hired a lawyer and took him to court to have him removed as rep. The house wasn't even on the market yet either. This was about 9 mos after her death. We did get him to have the bank draft cashiers checks to get the insurance coverage. Our lawyer reminded him to get a lawyer several times in written form. Nothing.
After a year in court the judge finally appointed us as co-reps. Well before he went to court that week he had signed a contract on the house which was not only for a very low price but 15,000. below appraisal which was more than 10%. He said he would pay the 4500. diff out of his part of the estate.
We of course have since been told it is invalid.
After we became reps we found forged checks before death, I got copies of phone bills since there were large amounts and paid out of her account after death and found he had changed some service on her phone before death.
His name was not on the account, he was not her POA, etc.
After the court ordered him out of the house, he found a lawyer after we took over and made a deal to pay one month rent so he could stay until the end of the month. Well the court told him to leave with only pers belongings of his own. He took Mother's furniture and appliances, dishes, etc. He left a ruined couch, chair and lamp, all papers for the estate were gone along with the four drawer filing cabinet that had things in it.
Since the probate had been done and the creditors accounted for we just told our lawyer to have him pay us what he filed with his final accounting for the things items...$3000. He also damaged the house and our lawyer even has the nerve to say it could be ruled as normal wear and tear. He had a roommate who smoked pot, drank and they had 2 big dogs which my Mother never let us have an animal in the house. The carpet is ruined, walls have holes, etc.
There is just too much and I have only touched on a few things so I will get where we are.He and his lawyer are offering a settlement. Well we didn't agree with it so we countered. My lawyer is saying the court will allow him money back on some of the utilities since they would have needed to be on anyway. We fought this alot. I just don't think it is right for him to get that credit when he wasnt doing anything but batching, partying, tearing up the estate.
He only offered $2000. on the things he took against the court order.
We said 2750. He used 2755. out of her bank account until it closed.
There is the 4500. on the house deal, also he didn't pay any property taxes for 2 years but held up a receipt to the judge that he did and now someone has bought a certificate on that amount. Well in this judgement our lawyer came up with approx 250. on the amount of interest so far for him to pay.
What this comes to is...they have now countered our counter to 9500. (actually owes 10,992.but we countered with abt 9900)and his lawyer asked we don't pursue him civil or criminally in court. He also said he would pay his lawyer but we feel that leaves us open to pay ours and we have only had a lawyer involved because lack of doing his job. Our lawyer was going to ask the court to have him pay our attorney fees. Well if he has brought his attorney up in the settlement, can we add that to the settlement for our lawyer. In other words, does it have to be approved by the court? (The amount he owes also didn't include insf fees from bank(almost $200), he did not produce receipts for cleaning supplies on a check written to a grocery store over a year after her death, etc)
We don't have alot of faith in that court since it took so long to get ahold of this estate when there was so much wrong doing. Another thing we have asked for(which will be from the court) is the 5% fee but I would imagine that will only bring up him asking since he was rep longer. Could that be in a settlement?
Our lawyer seems to be concerned with my brother only getting "?" amount and us getting more. Well he used the estate to his benefit and we have been left with a mess. He used part of his estate during that time. Everything is documented. Our lawyer also did a Inter/Admissions on him and he purgered himself so much. That would also be dropped if we did this settlement.
We really feel we are hitting a brick wall with our lawyer but don't have the money to change at this point. We feel he just wants this done so he can get these problems off his back also. I know he has other cases but we don't feel his support.
This is not a very big estate and was so simple. The house needed to be sold, creditors paid and money distributed. We are now going on almost 2 years after death.
Sorry for the length..any advice would be appreciated.