VIC Father's Will - Family Not Communicating with Us - What to Do?

[neirbod]

My son's father passed away 3 months ago and executor of will does not want to act. We have no idea where the will is and his family does not communicate with us at all. They are always saying "we know nothing", which may or may not be true.

We have applied for probate to obtain a copy of the will but this is taking a long time due to courts being very busy.

Is there another way to find out where the will is and what is happening? His death happened in NSW and we live in VIC. The family lives in QLD. The family has stated at the funeral they will fight for our son not to receive anything.

 

[Sophea]

Hi Neirbod,

If an executor does not want to act, they are able to renounce probate. To do this they must sign and file a 'renunciation' with the Probate Registry of the Supreme Court. If they refuse to do this or if they can't be located the court may order that probate be granted to someone else or make other orders for the admin of the estate.

Unfortunately there is nothing you can really do to skip the line or hurry up a probate application, and it will be necessary to get probate if he owns real estate. The executor should know where the will is and as a child of the deceased your son has a right to see a copy of the will when it is obtained. Once you know what's in the will then you can fight for your son's rights to inherit whatever is in the will for him, but I don't like your chances of trying to convince a court that an inheritance should be taken off the deceased's child to be given to them.

Here is some more information about probate and your options - Probate - Legal Documents - LawAnswers.com.au