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Can Administrators sell assets to their kids?

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Eaglemate

Junior Member
Here's the blueprint, yall.

I am an heir to my grandfather's estate.

There was a piece of property up for sale, and was offered to the heirs, higher than it's value. The administrators were notified it was too high, but that there were interested heirs.

Two months passed. The heirs then received an email that the property had been sold for a whopping 40% less than it's appraisal, to a dealer. Without offering it at any lower price than the original offering.

The dealer was then contacted, and he denied he'd bought the property.

The administrator was confronted, and admitted that it hadn't really been sold to the dealer, that she instead sold it to her son (We'll call him Bob), for the benefit of one of his relatives. Bob, interestingly, is the guardian for 4 of the minor children heirs. AND he's an attorney. Bob knew the property was appraised forty percent above what he'd bought it at. He also knew the other heirs had not been notified, had not consented to the sale, nor to it's being sold at that price.

Are there any problems with this that anyone else sees?
 


tranquility

Senior Member
The administrator breached more than one of his fiduciary duties and, if the facts are exactly as you laid out, may have committed a crime as well. You need to get an attorney and sue him for a breach of those duties. Normally the property would be gone, but here there may be a collusion between the administrator and son and son and Bob and the property may be retrievable. Nothing here is right and administrator is clearly on the line for damages and, probably, punitives. If administrator has any money, it will be easy to get an attorney on contingency. If not, it will be harder but still probably possible.
 

Eaglemate

Junior Member
What about the attorney who bought the property? Isn't this cheating the very kids he's charged with protecting?
 

seniorjudge

Senior Member
Here's the blueprint, yall.

I am an heir to my grandfather's estate.

There was a piece of property up for sale, and was offered to the heirs, higher than it's value. The administrators were notified it was too high, but that there were interested heirs.

Two months passed. The heirs then received an email that the property had been sold for a whopping 40% less than it's appraisal, to a dealer. Without offering it at any lower price than the original offering.

The dealer was then contacted, and he denied he'd bought the property.

The administrator was confronted, and admitted that it hadn't really been sold to the dealer, that she instead sold it to her son (We'll call him Bob), for the benefit of one of his relatives. Bob, interestingly, is the guardian for 4 of the minor children heirs. AND he's an attorney. Bob knew the property was appraised forty percent above what he'd bought it at. He also knew the other heirs had not been notified, had not consented to the sale, nor to it's being sold at that price.

Are there any problems with this that anyone else sees?

Why did you intentionally leave out the name of your state?
 

Eaglemate

Junior Member
What folks? Sorry, I am a bit ignorant of these matters.

The minors? Well, they are pretty small and wouldn't be able to make heads or tails out of any of it.

Or some other folks?
 

Eaglemate

Junior Member
The story coming down the pike now is that they had no requirment to notify the heirs, and communication of any kind is a courtesy to the heirs. And they can sell property any way and at any price without our consent.

Thoughts?
 

Eaglemate

Junior Member
SeniorJudge, sorry, I missed the URL.

Wow. I understanding filing a Complaint is pretty serious stuff. This situation must be worse than your every day run of the mill "oops, sorry, I lost file" situation.

But then again, what if this same guardian picks up a $500,000 house for $200,000 on the same basis he and the administrator used on the personal property?

Then he's whacked the four kids he's supposed to be guarding.
 

tranquility

Senior Member
The story coming down the pike now is that they had no requirment to notify the heirs, and communication of any kind is a courtesy to the heirs. And they can sell property any way and at any price without our consent.
All true.

They don't need to notify the heirs and the communication (and the offer to sell to them first) was nothing more than a courtesy. They can sell the property in any way and at any price without your consent.

BUT, selling the property to his son as a price which seems less than the fair market value is a breach of any number of fiduciary duties.

Why are you not going to an attorney as advised? Why are you continuing to even talk with the administrator or anyone else? Get to an attorney. He might advise you to go to the police. Stop posting what if's.
 

Eaglemate

Junior Member
Because Tranquility, I understand this could cost the administrator her JOB as executor, and the attorney who bought the property, his LAW LICENSE.

And I want to be certain that this is illegal and unethical by EVERYONE'S standard before I get into the business of questioning someone's career. That's heavy stuff and I want to make sure that this is the right thing to do.
 

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