Wills

See Gov.UK link above. Also don’t forget to name an executor, who doesn’t have to be a bank or solicitor.

Dibs the bikes.

Surely they've suffered enough and should be set free?

executor

If I know who's going to execute me, can I add a revenge clause in the will? :)

That’s an executioner. Executor is the person calling the shots at a large company.

Someone dies who is owed money (quite a bit) and the other party refuses to pay up. Evidence of the owed amount is in the form of a cheque that was t paid in due to illness and is now more than 6 months old.

Any thoughts on steps to take and by whom (executor of the will) would be greatly appreciated.

That debt to the deceased forms part of their estate. It is down to the executors to chase.

Great, that’s what I thought but really helpful to confirm.

Sorry, a follow up - what if the executors are stymied in chasing up, would that be a matter for small claims or another route?

Legal action would be their recourse and yes small claims if the case is sub£10K. It is a debt matter to the estate now.

Slightly analogously my own father died in May. I'd been estranged from him for 10 years mainy because of the woman who he'd started living with when my momm died in 1999. My brother and sister are his executors and they rang me shortly after his death for some 'advice' (I'm a Commercial lawyer). Apparently shortly before he died large sums of money had gone out of his account into a joint account with thi woman and straight out into her own account. They wanted to know what to do... I said call the police as they had a fiduciary duty to the benefiaciaries of the estate to recover the cash which was potentially criminal...it's ongoing!

Blimey, that’s really tough - hope it resolved soon!!!

An update on the above - the debtor is now saying that they’ve visited the bank and the cheque is fraudulent (seems unlikely that the bank would say that as they don’t have the actual cheque but hey ho) so, along with not paying what is owed they are alleging fraud. Nice.

Small claims court it is

So, gave the other party one last chance to resolve.

The response? Doubling down on the fraud bit (while acknowledging that the signature is genuine and not reporting the fraud to the police so that they could properly investigate) with no evidence bar “it wasn’t presented to the bank as she knew it was a fraud”. But they added in that the broad correlation between the cheque date and a dementia diagnosis for the signatory could not be a coincidence. Which was nice to hear. But they did offer to be reasonable if we could tell them what the cheque was for which, given that only two people knew, one had passed away and the other now has advanced dementia, was not exactly good faith.

A Pre Action letter was sent and ignored so small claims application submitted today.

This isn’t about the money but not letting people trash talk my mum with no response (and while the small claims approach won’t address the trash talking, it seems that pursuing the debt is at least a way to follow through); regardless of outcome, I’ll have tried and it’ll be closure.

Once I’ve hammered frozen sausages into their lawn and called son and his wife spiteful cunts.

Unrelated, I signed up to my employer's will writing scheme thingie.

I've already run out of frozen sausages for them.

Sounds like you’re on your way to ridding yourself of those cunts, good on you.

If this had happened across the pond I’d say you have a lovely slander case against them, because by claiming it’s fraud they’re saying you’re committing a crime. I expect you probably prefer just to wrap it up instead of taking some of their money to teach them a lesson though.

Can't slander the dead.

(Sorry Big_Ted if delving into legal hypotheticals around your real live situation is bothersome; let me know if you’d prefer I redact this post)

Saying or sufficiently inferring that someone has committed a crime when they personally know they haven’t, is slanderous (depending on jurisdiction).

As I understand it, Big_Ted is presenting a valid cheque, and the debtor is saying it’s a fake. In doing so:

1) They’re committing fraud, as they’re knowingly misrepresenting facts in order to permanently retain for themselves money that they’ve committed via cheque to pay to another. And,

2)They’re stating Big_Ted possesses a fake cheque and is attempting to cash it to their detriment. Then, either:

2.1)They’re inferring Big Ted didn’t know the cheque is ‘fake’, but now that Big_Ted’s aware and still trying to cash the cheque, Big_Ted’s committing fraud.

Or

2.2)They’re inferring Big_Ted did know the cheque is fake and is attempting to claim on it, committing fraud.

In both situations they’re knowingly, falsely accusing Big_Ted of a crime. Ergo, they’ve opened themselves up to a slander suit.

Separately, and depending on the jurisdiction and personal circumstances, if they’re knowingly falsely alleging criminal conduct on part of a deceased person, the estate could sue for damages. In certain cases, the deceased’s next of kin or business partners could also sue, if the false claims expose them to damage by association or if the deceased’s reputation as an intangible asset is still financially valuable to the heirs.

Thanks @lynx and @Leshaches, much appreciated.

It's unclear whether the accusation of fraud is against me or my mum (who was 85 and bed bound for pretty much all of her last year). Either way, with no evidence to support, it is distasteful at the very least. Oh, and they've made the accusation verbally and in writing.

Ll:Dr "Chat shit, (hopefully) get banged"

Sorry my misunderstanding.

Basically talking shit/slander is expensive expensive to proof. Fraud is way easier. What is happening is very hurtful and perpetrated by shit filled hate bags that are stealing oxygen.

Hey Ted please keep talking with us or someone as bottling these feelings up does not end well.

Oh and too right.

Brief update - have just received a response to the Pre Action Protocol, way too late as, with no response, have already moved to the next stage.

Wait a minute, they dated the letter 16th October, fuck. Then we look at the post mark on the envelope and it’s 21st November…..

Leaving aside that nonsense, they assert that they have acted reasonably throughout (agree. Bar the accusations of fraud and insinuating timing the alleged fraud to coincide with diagnosis. Oh, and repeated bad faith “tell us what it’s for and we’ll arrange payment” which is inconsequential and will only result in “it’s not legitimate”) and the course of action taken is disproportionate. The view from their faux moral high ground must be decent.

On we go.

And I’ve being buying up discount sausages and freezing them in anticipation.

Glad to read this. Please keep us updated when those scoundrels get their comeuppance.

Expected flex - they are contesting in full with their detailed response due by 24th….

Ok, so an update.

I hadn't heard back from the Smalls Claims Court, tried to follow up a couple of times but after 30+ minutes in a telephone queue gave up, figuring it was just stuck in a backlog.

Today, for reasons I don't understand, I looked in our long disused mailbox (postie always pops the mail in the porch) and found, along with pizza delivery and blind selling flyers, two letters from the Small Claims Court.

The first said that it was a case that they would consider and that I needed to make a return, the second that if I didn't comply within week it would be struck out. Frustratingly the second deadline expired well over a month ago.

The first letter included the other parties 'defence' which had the usual irrelevance ("partner no longer lives at the house", "my mum didn't pay bills", "the bank would have likely challenged suspicious factors concerning the cheque" etc) but no refuting that the cheque was signed by the account holder.

This is really frustrating. I'm not really invested in recovering the money (ok, I am a bit) but more in getting closure and holding these people to account for chatting shit about my mum (I'm still not clear why, when they think that fraud is involved, they have not referred it to the police. Actually, I am sure).

I think I'm going to have to start the claim again (and check that bloody postbox!)

Oh, add in that son has PoA so stayed that his dad should t have issued any cheque for over £100 - wouldn’t a responsible PoA have removed a cheque book from the equation as well as, with capacity apparently an issue, not allowed his dad to drive (neither happened, obviously)

Doing a will and they want £1400 for "lifetime" stuff

https://info.wsl-wills.co.uk/lifetime?location=Lifetime

Anyone else do this kind of thing? It's meant to save money on solicitors if we kick it and they store it properly and stuff. £100 deposit then 15 months of payments totaling ~1500 quid