Admin needs help in TN Insolvent&ex's girlfriend probs

What is the name of your state? TN

I'm the admin of my ex husbands "estate" if you can call it that. I'm also the legal guardian of his (our) kids. He died only a few months ago w/out a will.
The problem is his girlfriend who is living in the house he rented. She won't let me in to inventory or take the personal effects to pass to the kids or to satisfy the inventory I must make for the estate. She has threatened physical violence if we step on the property. Landlord is no help and doesn't want to get involved.

I had a lawyer and he suggested we wait to get the property and inventory until she got a lawyer. Well she's basically poor white trash and hasn't made any attempt to get a lawyer or the money. The sick thing is that my exhusband mother (the kids own grandmother) is siding with the girlfriend and the girlfriend spent the last month before I got adminstration papers cleaning out the bank account on HIS account. I'm out of state and went up for a week to get the probate process started and spent almost 2,000 out of pocket and walked away with admin papers...that's it/ I even had the mail forwarded and she stopped it so I have no clue about creditors at this point although it's posted in the newspaper. When I called the police so they could come with me to the house they said that I would have to go to civil court to get an order to go on the property and if they came with me it would be intimidation. I thought my admin papers were the court order that authorized me of that right. any suggestions??? I called the probate court and they couldn't give me any advice. I let go the lawyer and he wanted out anyway when he found out there was only 240.00 in the estate (no real estate, etc.) and already 47,000 in claims filed in probate. Also is there a website I can get form letters to send to creditors that the estate is insolvent? Or does the probate court do that. The property at the house that he shared with the girlfriend is probably only worth 10,000 at most but the kids want pictures of them back and some family items.

If your husband was RENTING this house from a landlord, then it is the landlord's problem to get this lady out, not yours (but he is probably going to be reluctant to do anything if she is continuing to pay rent). The landlord already should be familiar with eviction procedures, so you should at least be consulting with him to get HIS permission to give you access to the property, but with girlfriend still living there of course she is going to cause a big stink and make things difficult. The letters testamentary give you authority to claim any and all assets but you need a consultation with a probate attorney or civil law attorney to find out exactly what type of court order and/or with the landlord physically present and perhaps also with the bodyguard protection you need to get access to the house to get the belongings.

How much money was in your husband's bank account before girlfriend got it out? You need to be contacting the bank to find out how this man's account was titled (if it named girlfriend as joint account co-owner, then she was entitled to get this money after the husband's death occurred, but if the account was in his name alone, then the bank had no business giving this money to her and they made a serious legal error and you need to be talking with the bank manager to remind him that that money was only supposed to be legally given to you as official administrator of the estate).

With this estate being insolvent, the courthouse should be able to tell you whether any further probate action is even necessary.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

Hey thanks for answering. I had a probate attorney (considered the best in East TN) and without getting
into anything on a public message board he and the firm were basically no value added.
The landlord refuses to get involved. He doesn't even care that she fraudulantly signed the lease in January as my ex's wife. The lease is up this month anyway so I assume she is maintaining the property to his liking and paying rent so they could care less about helping me out. The problem seems to be with right to privacy and rights of leasees. If the landlord is backing her up then even if I bring the cops, bodyguard they will still sue for intimidation (that's what the sheriff told me). I called probate court to see if there were any other papers or orders they could provide so that the police could accompany me and they are clueless or don't want to give advice. Before my attorney and I parted he wanted the girlfriend to get a lawyer and we both make lists and then do it amicably through lawyers. However she never retained a lawyer because she has no money, so basically this is going to drag out if I don't start a civil action. However she could have gotten rid of most things by now since 2 weeks have gone by and she has his mother, sister and brother helping her (pretty frickin sick family). The only thing she couldn't do legally is sell the cars but I wouldn't put it past her to do something illegal.
As far as the bank account she WASNT on the account however ...and this is news to me...if someone uses your ATM card with password code then the bank views it as consent from the card holder. We checked with the sheriffs so the money is gone unless I want to prosecute her on behalf of the estate. That's what I wanted to check out here first before consulting on attorney. And if I did a civil suit could I do it from MY home state of FL and make her have to travel (this is where the estate bank account is set up) or do I have to do everything in TN where the probate is going on?
I was also wondering since I have proof that my ex's mother is helping the girlfriend if I could sue her too civil case. I mean basically it's her and girlfriend preventing me from doing my job as an administratrix. The bank said
"if you had of notified us when he died we would have froze the account" however I didn't know the account existed until 4 weeks after his death and even if I did I didn't have my papers from the court. Catch-22 but they still maintain that it was mutual consent even though it is obvious on the statement that she was pulling 200 a day out from the time he died until the account was cleaned out. We are talking about 2,700.

So I guess I'll have to get a civil lawyer and go after the girlfriend and the mother. Then I guess they could turn around and counter sue and the lawyers get rich. What a F*** up legal system we have.

Yes, you should sue the witch. Check to see what the financial limits are on a small claims court case to see if you could file a case there. If the small claims court can't handle it then of course a civil suit would need to be filed.

At the exact date that the death occurred, this money belonged to the estate, and so any withdrawals she made after that is technically stealing/theft. Best of luck to you in recovering what is rightfully yours!!

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

Thanks I will do that. I called the TN probate court and they have forms to fill out for an insolvent estate. I had his mail forwarded to me and it's a real eye opener. All these years he has been telling his family that I'm the one that made the "family" debt. Let's see I have zero debt (we both had a clean slate 2 years ago)and at last count he is over 65,000 in debt with only 240.00 in the bank, no real estate and two cars paid for that are worth 3,000. And the guy was a VP of a big engineering company. He had everyone fooled except me of course. The sad part in all this is that he left three young children and left some of his life insurance to his 87 year old mother just to be vindictive to me. She's the one that's siding with the girlfriend in all of this. The minute he died she retained a criminal lawyer which I thought was strange considering she not even an heir.