My mother in law passed away a month ago. In her legal will the contents of the house and property were in be divided equally between the 3 ...

Question

My mother in law passed away a month ago. In her legal will the contents of the house and property were in be divided equally between the 3 siblings, after the house is sold. The house hasent even been put up for sale and my husbands siblings have pretty much emptied the house without telling my husband.My mother in law had alot of money and alot of expensive things. Since finding this out he has asked for a few specific items, some jewerly for our kids and a few things of his moms that meant alot to him. They basically both ignore them or in the case of the jewerly my sis in law told him there wasnt anything left but some old costume jewery, she gave the rest away. We know she is lying.beside the fact 1/3 of it according to the will should be his. She had an extensive jewerly collection worth alot of money.My husband doent want his share for selfish reasons he wants our children to have something nice from his mom.The execator is a family member and really doesnt want to be bothered. Would this be considered stealing from my husband since he didnt get his share. He has not taken out 1 thing from the house because the will said after house sold.Hes not a break rules kind of person and his sibs took advantage of that thinking he wouldnt do anything about it.

Answer

While you did not ask a question, if any of the three heirs are concerned with the criminal activity, that sibling (be it your husband or otherwise) should have already seen a lawyer and made an appropriate probate court filing. Potentially, someone is going to jail or getting sued. But as long as he chooses not to hire a lawyer, nothing will get fixed, and if he waits too long, he will never be able to complain.

Answer

You never address the only important issues. Is there an estate pending and who is the executor? The house should never have been emptied before the executor has had a chance to inventory and appraise items for tax purposes as well as distributing the estate. Obviously the executor has been lax here.

The executor immediately needs to apply for probate and failing that anyone else may do and get a restraining order preventing any further dissipation of assets. Once appointed, a personal representative will be able to compel return of the items and if not returned may seek other legal relief.

I agree with Attorney Ashman. If your husband is a named beneficiary then he needs to go and get a probate litigation attorney who practices in the county where the estate is or will be pending. This is unfortunately going to be nasty and expensive very quickly (if the siblings are that greedy that they cleared out the house in less than 30 days then this is going to be an ugly battle) so the estate assets had better be worth it.