Will not probated, personal items removed

[ETW_]

I'll try to make a long story short. My FIL died in 2002, MIL (husbands step mother) suffering from rare complication of cancer, so my husband filed to probate his father's will.

Everything was left to my MIL first and then my husband in the event she preceded my FIL in death.

The case is still on going and the will has not been probated. In the meantime we found out that MIL sold the house (all with her sisters help) and will not return any of my husband's personal items as well as things given to him by his grandparents. So many sentimental items... large portraits of his grandmother and two great aunts as little girls, hand made furniture, cedar chests full of granparents things,the Family Bible, childhood pictures of him and his sister....All gone. All theses things were in storage at his fathers house.

As I said this all started in 2002 and the will has not been probated.

What can we do to get back these things? What if they no longer have them ?

Thanks for any help

 

[lwpat]

If everything was left to your MIL, then she had a right to sell the house. If was probably in both names with right of survivorship so it did not go thru probate. As for your husbands personal items, how are you going to prove they were his? You can file suit against the MIL but she is going to claim they belonged to her. If you can find out where they went, you can buy them back. Good luck.