QLD cascading wills going nowhere

[Meggsie]

Good afternoon, wondering if someone can point me to what is our next step.
Widow died early 2021, leaving a house paid off, no cash and with rates arrears. Council was threatening to take the house and sell it for unpaid rates.
The house was left to her daughter who had moved home 10 years earlier to care for her. My husband is cousin to the widow and we had been making periodical payments (bank transfers) to the council for years to ensure they both had a roof over their heads. We agreed to do this when daughter asked because daughter intended upon her mother's death to downsize and reimburse us.
Daughter has recently died. Now we find out the house had never been transferred from widow to daughter. It is still in the widow's name.
So now the council will likely take the house to sell for unpaid rates, and then who do we lodge a claim against for our payments to rates arrears?
How would I even find out who the executor of the widow's will is/was?
Kind regards, M

 

[Tim W]

Is it an option to simply pay the rates in cash?

 

[Meggsie]

I don't know but that's not my issue. Whoever inherits the house will have to deal with that.
We want to claim the money we've contributed back and at this stage we don't know which estate to claim it off. Neither of them left much cash and I'm not sure which estate we should claim it off.
The widow because she owned the house? Or the daughter (who was desperately trying to manage limited funds) and who did inherit the house but never received it into her name? We don't even know if the widow's will was ever dealt with. No-one seems to know who her executor was.