Solicitor slow over probate

sdooley

Glad things are beginning to pick up - and glad that you have found someone who seems to know what they are doing a bit better.

ukmaggie45

Just a bit of an update.

We had solicitor 2's terms and conditions and costs come on Saturday. Two copies, one to sign and send back and one to keep for our records. Costs are painful but not quite as painful as we might have feared... Unless things get complicated of course!

Solicitor 2 has written to solicitor 1. I will be interested in what he has to say!

Husband has signed the agreement to terms and it will go in today's post.

Bit more good news is we've had another offer on the parental flat. We're not getting too excited just yet, but it did re-enthuse us on the flat clearing process, so spent Sat afternoon and evening boxing up more stuff. Finally emptied the wardrobes! :j Was upsetting doing that, but at least it's over now. :beer: Some clothes gone to charity, but there are some that need a wash first. Might get to that tomorrow.

Still more to do, but the major part of the small stuff is cleared now, maybe another 2 or three big boxes. Then it's just the fridge, microwave, my Dad's desk, and a couple of dining chairs. Oh and a rather large and heavy chiming clock. We'll prob get a man with a van for those.

There's a newish bed (only been slept in for about 2 weeks altogether over the last 10 years I guess). It's got the fire certificate thingy on it, so I'm hoping maybe the Sally Army might be interested in that.

Will let you know when there's anything further to report on the solicitor front.

sloughflint

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Costs are painful but not quite as painful as we might have feared... Unless things get complicated of course!

But remember that you might never have known about the 120k so well worth the money in view of the current state of affairs.

Has solicitor 1 given you T&Cs and costs yet?

sloughflint

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

Solicitor 2 has written to solicitor 1. I will be interested in what he has to say!

I bet you would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when he read that letter and the penny finally dropped.

sdooley

I was intrigued to read in the newspaper today about this outfit, taking advantage of the ability of non-qualified organisations to operate in the probate field now. A fixed price obviously has some advantages, and they seem to offer a similar basic service to what the banks do.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/sep/20/inheritancetax.legal

A combination of some basic service like this and something more specialised for the tricky questions might work.

sloughflint

sdooley wrote: »

I was intrigued to read in the newspaper today about this outfit, taking advantage of the ability of non-qualified organisations to operate in the probate field now. A fixed price obviously has some advantages, and they seem to offer a similar basic service to what the banks do.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2008/sep/20/inheritancetax.legal

A combination of some basic service like this and something more specialised for the tricky questions might work.

Interesting article.
I take it the company being used is this one:
http://www.trustcorporation.com/

Our core service is Probate and we offer a multi-discipline approach. We have a specialist legal team, accountants, tax specialists and property experts sitting amongst our case managers, who look after our clients....
....As well as Probate, we offer support for clients who need to sell a property or who are looking to reduce their IHT liability by using a Nil Rate Band Discretionary Trust or Instrument of Variation.

One the face of it, it all looks promising but I keep coming back to ( and look for) what are their qualifications, who are they answerable to and what insurance do they have. I couldn't find anything.

With regards to the bit in bold above,I could be being very unfair to the company but when you read of companies as described in this article:
http://www.dudley.gov.uk/welcome/news-in-dudley/march-2008/man-fined-for-false-claims
making these claims:

we employ our own team of LLB - Law Degree Qualified Will specialists).

one can't help but be cautious especially with DWTs and DOVs.

sloughflint

I've taken another look at that website and must have missed the meet the team page yesterday. In its favour there are a couple of STEP members and:

Where we act as executor we provide a guarantee that all of the legal and financial liabilities of an executor will be met. These guarantees are under written with Professional Indemnity Insurance.

ukmaggie45

sloughflint wrote: »

But remember that you might never have known about the 120k so well worth the money in view of the current state of affairs.

Has solicitor 1 given you T&Cs and costs yet?

You must be joking! :mad:

Given the lack of communication etc I am hoping that he will be significantly cheaper than solicitor 2. But somehow doubt it! He's supposed to be doing some stuff about where all the stuff is (apologies for garbledness - have been wrestling with scanner and printer for hours trying to copy stuff for solicitor 2 and it's done me brain in ) which hopefully might arrive in the next week.

ukmaggie45

sloughflint wrote: »

I bet you would have liked to have been a fly on the wall when he read that letter and the penny finally dropped.

:T :rotfl: :rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::T

ukmaggie45

Sorry this update is a bit late - had friend round today to fix lost slates (from last spring) on the roof. So now am knackered.

Yesterday husband had phone call at work from solicitor 1 about the letter he received from solicitor 2...

He will be replying "robustly" to solicitor 2.

Will be interested to see what he says if that is allowed and possible for me to.

Been making copies of documents most of today, to give to solicitor 2 if required.

Am really tired, sorry this is terse again.

Thanks to all who contribute to or read this thread.