Legal Question in Civil Litigation in New York
claiming property of the deceased
my brother died. when he died he named me beneficiary and I received his pension money. Now I find out he has a storage unit in NY and i've been paying on it for about 8 months. i need to know what I need to do to gain access to it. I have the keys but they won't let me use them because I am not him even though i've been paying the storage fee by check and from Florida.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: claiming property of the deceased
Who is the executor? This should be a simple matter for the executor to clear up. But if the executor submits proof of succession and the storage company still refuses to act, you may need to get a judicial order.
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Re: claiming property of the deceased
It depends where your brother was domiciled when he died and whether any formal proceeding was instituted in Surrogate's Court (if it was here in NY). If he had a will this would be probate; no will, could be either letters of administration or
a small estate proceeding, if the value of his assets did not exceed $10,000.
These proceedings result in the court issuing an official document known as Letters testamentary
which permit the estate rep to gain access to safety deposit boxes and storage facilities and the like.
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