Sad Inheritance Issue

[comebackjimmy]

Hullo all

 

I would appreciate any help and opinions you can give on the following:

 

A lady friend of mine borrowed quite a lot of money (I believe in excess of £9000) in order to buy a car on behalf of her daughter. It was agreed between them that the daughter would repay by instalments and all went well until the daughter was discovered to have a terminal brain tumour.

 

Sadly and inevitably she died leaving some £5,200 still to be paid to her mother.

 

It then turned out that the daughter left the car in her will to her boyfriend. As there are no other assets in the estate my friend understandably wants the car to be sold in order to repay to her as much as possible (It is thought the car would get maybe £4K now).

 

She has had a letter from the executor agreeing that she can have the car but the boyfriend has instructed a solicitor who has written insisting the car is legally the property of the boyfriend and demanding it be handed over.

 

My friend currently has custody of the car in a secure place.

 

I wonder if anybody can comment and in particular answer the following:

 

1. Am I right in believing the estate must settle creditors claims with whatever assets it has to hand, irrespective of individual bequests?

 

2. Is it the responsibility of the executor to ensure this happens?

 

3. Is my friend within her legal rights to now sell the car in order to recover what she can in light of the letter from the executor or is this strictly the responsibility of the executor?

 

4. Given the poor mental condition of the unfortunate daughter, can her will be challenged?

 

I will get some wording of the various letters of the case put up here as soon as I can.

 

Many thanks to all for reading and commenting.

[steampowered]

I'm a bit reluctant to advise on this without knowing exactly what the will says. For the purposes of the following answers I am assuming that the will specifically said the car will go to the boyfriend, with the residue (or left over) to go somewhere else. I am also assuming that the money borrowed was an unsecured personal loan, not a loan secured against the car such as a logbook loan.

 

1. Yes. However, any debts should first be paid from the residue not from specific named gifts such as the car. For example, if the daughter has a bank account and the will does not specifically name that bank account as a gift to someone, the money in that account would need to be used towards the debt before the executor can use the car.

2. Yes.

3. Yes, assuming the existence of a legally binding contract between the daughter/mother and assuming that selling the car is the only way to repay the debt. Ideally the executor would want to keep the boyfriend's solicitors informed in order to minimise the risk of legal action.

4. Possibly, but it is very difficult to do and would mean proving that the daughter lacked capacity to make the will. If the daughter still had all her faculties then her will should be valid.

 

One aspect I am a bit concerned about would be proving that there was a legally binding loan agreement in place between the daughter and the mother. It may be worth 30 minutes with a solicitor to get some formal advice on this.

[comebackjimmy]

Thank you steampowered

 

I will take your reply back to my friend and try to get some clarity on the points, particularly the aspect of a legally binding contract between mother and daughter.

 

My current impression is that there was nothing written down as such (they were family after all) so we would need to rely on the statement of the mother and proof of previous payments if it came to asserting the claim.

 

I understand (but will clarify) that the car is the only thing of value in the estate.