Brothers at war over £1.8m will
Top doctors fight to force less successful sibling out of mother’s home... but he says he was her carer and deserves bigger slice
TWo wealthy doctors whose brother never flew the nest are trying to force him out so they can get their share of the family home following the death of their elderly mother.
Dominic and Jeremy Heath, who both forged successful careers in medicine, have taken the family row to court.
Their brother Timothy, 62, a ‘self-employed creative’, still lives in the £1.5million north London house they grew up in.
Their mother Rachel Heath, who died aged 93 in october 2015, split her estimated £1.8million estate equally between her three boys and appointed them all executors.
But Timothy believes he deserves a bigger share as he acted as an unpaid ‘primary carer’ for their mother while his brothers visited only occasionally. Dominic, 53, and Jeremy, 65, say he is ‘over-egging the pud- ding’ and should move out of the house so it can be sold and the cash fairly shared.
They asked a judge to remove Timothy as an executor due to an ‘ inherent conflict between his duties as an executor and his own personal interests’. Tensions between the brothers spilled over at the High Court.
Timothy told Dominic: ‘You are employed as a consultant and you have multiple properties. You are a wealthy man. I don’t own a house and I don’t have a pension or a steady income. I’m not prepared to be bullied by people who have pursued a career with money and don’t value things that don’t attract money … I don’t think I should be made homeless or put into penury if it can be avoided.’
Dominic, a father of four, disputed Timothy’s claim to have been a full-time carer and told him: ‘It’s not your house, it’s Mum’s house.’ He added: ‘I have admitted I am financially wealthy. I have saved assiduously. I am happy with where I am in life, but I want my children to be happy, and that’s why we are in court, because you are not allowing my children the contents of our mother’s will.’
Mr Justice Carr heard the brothers’ parents bought the Grade II-listed Hampstead home in 1965. Dominic and Jeremy left home to achieve £45,000-a-year live-in carers, distinguished medical careers, Timothy said he too cared for their barrister Mark Baxter her, unpaid, for eight years. He said. Dominic is a consultant told the judge this ought to be ophthalmologist who lives in recognised with a bigger slice Hertfordshire, while Jeremy, of her estate. His brother who the judge heard has Dominic, he claimed, ‘visited reached the ‘top of his field’, about once a month and stayed lives in Wales. for an hour ‘ while Jeremy visited
Timothy is a maths graduate ‘about twice a year’. and a qualified barrister, but He said: ‘I never asked to be has never been employed, Mr paid … but my brothers took Baxter said. He has lived in none of the burden. They pursued the house since he was ten their careers and pensions and devotes his time to ‘creative’ and their income … my projects and a William work totally collapsed.’ Blake society, the court heard. Timothy said he made their But while his mother had two mother’s final years ‘richer and allowed her to die in her home, rather than in the secure mental unit my brothers wanted to send her to’. He added: ‘ You cannot have a society where somebody dedicates their life and is denied compensation or a roof over their head.’
But Mr Baxter told the judge Timothy was ‘over-egging the pudding by saying the care he gave his mother prevented him establishing himself in life’.
Mr Justice Carr accepted Timothy had acted as a fulltime carer. He said: ‘I am not satisfied that Timothy has acted in any way improperly … nor do I accept that he has acted deliberately in any attempt to frustrate probate.’
But he found there was an ‘ irreconcilable conflict’ between his claim on the estate and being an executor.
The judge ordered Timothy to step down, to be replaced by an independent solicitor.
He ordered the doctors to pay their own £25,000 court costs, and warned they may also have to step aside if further conflicts of interest arise.
‘It’s Mum’s house, not yours’