What can I do about an executor who won't say whether she has the clearance certificate?

A reader asked me the following question about an estate:

"What can be done if an executor refuses to say if they have a clearance certificate or not as they are using it as an excuse not to distribute assets? Only an executor can check status via CRA but it's been over 8 months already and I a wondering how I'll know when she receives it if she is unwilling to say?"

First of all, I have to assume that you are a residuary beneficiary of the estate, because those are the only people with a right to ask questions like this of an executor. If you are not a residuary beneficiary, you are out of luck and have absolutely no way of forcing the executor to tell you anything.

Let's look at the 8 months issue. It really does take an unbelievably long time to get a clearance certificate from CRA, and many an executor has been wrongly accused of intentionally delaying an estate while waiting for the certificate. There isn't anything an executor can do to speed this up. Keep in mind that if it takes 8 months to get a clearance certificate, that doesn't mean 8 months from the time the person died. It means 8 months from the time the executor applied for it. The executor is not able to apply for it until the estate is wound up, which could be a year after the person died, meaning the clearance certificate might not turn up until 18 - 24 months after the person died.

I don't know anything about the specific estate you are involved in, but I can tell you about the general rule known as the executor's year. It may apply to your situation. The concept of the executor's year states that an estate without complications (such as a lawsuit or claim, difficult corporate winding-up, etc) should be completed in a year. If it it not, the residuary beneficiaries have a right to take the executor to court to push for their inheritance to be distributed. There may also be legal consequences for the executor, depending on the facts of why he or she has failed to distribute the estate.

Don't try estate litigation of any kind without an estate lawyer. Check with an estate specialist in your area to see whether this option is open to you, and if so, how to go about it.