Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Ohio

Estate attorney is not doing his job. I am co executor of my mothers estate, along with a younger brother. The attorney had allowed my co-executor to have kept me out of all decisions, allowed him to live in the house belonging to the estate, allowed him to keep control of all mail, correspondence, estate checking account, etc., allowing him to keep me locked out of the estate house which is address on file with Probate Court. The attorney has allowed co-executor to keep water bill and cable bill in my deceased mothers name and pay those out of his personal account. My co executor forced me to sign 3 blank checks out of the estate account. Of course, I should have gone to the Probate Court and requested a hearing BUT, I complained to attorney by email, by phone calls, in person and he just ignored me. Attorney never explained to either of us what forms had to be filed and when each filing was due to be filed. We both assumed he was handling matters according to the Ohio law and court rules. He never explained anything to us. My co executor had his girlfriend go thru all the tangible personal property of the estate and throw out, destroy, damage, take, give away assets of estate. I tried talking to my brother, co executor, but he did not listen to me and the attorney said he could do what ever he wanted. The estate was filed with Probate court on Nov 7, 2013. The assets are mainly real estate, with many valuable antiques within the home. Even though the Will leaves all household items to my brother, co executor, it also instructs us both or one of us if other refuses, to sell any and all personal assets in order to pay debts and settle estate as fast as safely possible. The survey was complete and filed with the county May 13, 2016 and we have been waiting since that date for attorney to prepare deeds for us to sign so he can present them to filed with the county. Attorney asked surveyor by phone back in May if surveryor did the deeds!! Attorney has been passing the blame by saying executors are holding up deeds by not signing paperwork, this is what he tells my other brothers who are beneficiaries. Attorney tried telling me the county had the wording all wrong in legal descriptions surveyor provides, BUT THIS IS NOT TRUE. I have confirmed all of this myself with county engineers tax map dept. In July this year I decided to pull up the estate case online and read the docket.....Nothing had ever been filed on time. Notices were mailed in my name to the estate address and of course I had no knowledge of this. I have now read all the ORC and Probate Court Rules, and knew I had been signing my name to filings with incorrect and left off information. I questioned things constantly and he always said the court didn't care as long as the final account was done properly. He mailed an invoice to the two beneficiaries that are not executors and later a copy to estate address, asking for everyone to pitch in equal amounts and pay his invoice. I do know the judge has to approve his attorney fee before it can be paid and there is no money in estate account to pay it because my coexecutor did not listen to me about us selling some things to create cash to settle estate debts. WHAT SHOULD I DO to insist attorney get the deeds prepared??? He filed a status report with probate stating that we had land surveyed into parcels but did not state it was done May 13 and we have been waiting all this time for attorney to prepare deeds, he made it sound like survey was just completed. I emailed attorney on date account was due to be filed at probate asking him if had these forms ready for us to sign so they would not be late again, his reply was everything is current with Probate. Late notice was sent a few weeks later, I know from the docket. Attorney put forms in my home mailbox without notifying me, with no explanation or a note, nothing. Then when I called him he said they had been put there a week prior, which is not true, I had a Rx arrive the day before I found them so I know he did it after dark. He has never mailed anything to my home address, so you can see that I find this to be very shady behavior. He had back dated them also, and told my older brother I was holding up paperwork that kept him from preparing deeds. The 3rd partial account, service to heirs, status report and waivers he forgot to include HAVE NOTHING to do with preparing the deeds. HOW DO I DEMAND HE DO THE DEEDS?? Should I go to probate and let them know the truth about everything and how I just learned that I was responsible for all of this and how ridiculous I feel for trusting the attorney. I never wanted to bring problems to my brother, co executor, because he is na�ve and vulnerable and mother did not ask for him to be my co executor anyway, she wanted him to be a back up executor in case something happened to me, so that court wouldn't be able to consider one of the older siblings. The attorneys wife, who has since died, she typed it into the will as co executor....attorney was suppose to correct later and mom could re-sign but she died before that occurred. I just want estate settled, Im shocked it has been allowed to go on like this without extensions being filed and approved. It is effecting my health, I cant sleep, I cant concentrate on my life and family. Please advise


Asked on 9/18/16, 1:29 am

1 Answer from Attorneys

Christine Socrates Meyers, Roman, Friedberg & Lewis

If you have this many issues and do not have any confidence in the attorney that you and your co-executor have retained to represent your mother's estate, you can fire him and retain new counsel to represent the estate and wrap it up property. You need to have clears lines of communication with your attorney, if not, it is difficult to accomplish the matter at hand which is settling the estate, paying debts and distributing assets. In the very least, you should have an independent attorney review your case file and determine if it was handled properly and if additional work needs to be done to close the estate. I you would like a free consultation, please find the contact information for my office at www.socrateslegal.com.

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Answered on 9/19/16, 11:18 am


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