Disclosing a Will before probate

[stewamax]

X claims to have the latest Will of the deceased AND claims to be an executor.
Y, who doesn’t get on with X, was led to believe by the now-deceased that he would be a beneficiary and executor.
X starts gathering the estate assets in readiness for probate, refuses all contact with Y and refuses to disclose the Will (which may or not be the latest).

My understanding is that unless they have renounced executorship or hold power reserved, named executors (up to the cap of four) need to jointly apply for probate. Y suspects that X will simply apply on his own claiming that he has the agreement of the others to do so.

What can Y now do to force X’s hand before probate to disclose the Will he has?

[SalvorHardin]

Yes, all co-executors have to apply for probate. If X applies for probate without the consent of the other executors X is breaking the law. The probate application is only valid if signed by all executors, unless they have renounced being an executor.

If I was Y then I would tell X that if they are lying about the will I will go to the police once I have seen the will because Y is probably committing fraud.

Y could tell X that as soon as probate is granted Y will get a copy of the will anyway. X cannot stop this because in English law a will becomes a public document as soon as probate is granted. Getting a copy costs £1.50 if done online.

If X is lying about the contents of the will, then X is committing probate fraud which is a criminal offence. Y says they will go to the police if this happens.

Lying is also a breach of X's fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries, so X can also be sued by them.

[Clitheroekid]

X claims to have the latest Will of the deceased AND claims to be an executor.
Y, who doesn’t get on with X, was led to believe by the now-deceased that he would be a beneficiary and executor.
X starts gathering the estate assets in readiness for probate, refuses all contact with Y and refuses to disclose the Will (which may or not be the latest).

My understanding is that unless they have renounced executorship or hold power reserved, named executors (up to the cap of four) need to jointly apply for probate. Y suspects that X will simply apply on his own claiming that he has the agreement of the others to do so.

What can Y now do to force X’s hand before probate to disclose the Will he has?

Your post seems to assume that Y is a joint executor, but other than what he was told by the deceased does he have any evidence that he actually is? It's inherently very unlikely that X would attempt to obtain probate by himself if Y is a co-executor, as the only way he could do so would be to make a false statement in the application, which is not only a criminal offence, but one that would be bound to come to light when probate was granted.

Assuming Y is not a co-executor than he doesn't have any right to see the Will before probate.

However, as he was told that he was an executor he should write to X pointing this out, and asking for a copy of the Will. If X still refused to release a copy then it would be possible for Y prevent a grant of probate being issued by lodging a `caveat' at the probate registry. However, though this might persuade X to co-operate there's no guarantee it would do so, and ultimately Y could get saddled with some costs if it turned out that he had no justification for doing so.

He's probably better off just accepting the situation and entering a standing search at the probate registry - https://www.gov.uk/government/publicati ... -form-pa1s This will ensure he's notified as soon as a grant is issued. He can then obtain a copy of the Will and check that all's in order.