Solicitor slow over probate

ukmaggie45

Hi Folks, things are still progressing at the pace of wading through treacle. :mad: Here's the latest updates from notes in The Big Book.

Friday 17th October. Husband phoned S2. Deed did not arrive with S1 until Monday 13th, when S1 was "in London". Signed by S1 and sent back on 14th, but not received by S2. S2 received a letter from S1 starting "Further to my letter to you on 14th..." so S2 phoned him.

Deed appears lost in the post, so S2 has printed off another copy and sent it DX mail to S1. S2 has also "ever so tactfully" suggested to S1 that he reduces his fees to the estates in respect of the extra (unnecessary) work he did calculating IHT, and the cost of having S2 prepare the Deed when he refused.

Tuesday 21st October. Husband phoned S1 and asked him if he had received husband's last letter (sent on 17th Oct, confirming the phone call on 15th and what was said)- yes. Husband asked if he had sent out cheques to the beneficiaries - no, but since we have the funds (knew that already) no reason not to do so, so will. Husband pointed out that we had requested him to pay out to the 2 GPs as well as the 3 family members for whom he provided addresses in his last letter.

Friday 24th October. Husband phoned S1. He has found our Powers of Attorney (or rather a "member of my staff" has found them) and will put them in the post to us (no charge).

He has not yet stated transferring the bonds/securities/equities into my name. He will start doing this coming week, but "there are so many" that some of the work will run over to the next week after that. Now I wouldn't have thought that they had "so many"... There are shares in 8 companies, some sort of bond or something (tax wrapper?) with F&C Asset Management, and some gilts - not quite sure how many as all the paperwork is at home and we're in Wales for the weekend - between 6 and 12 at a guess, but some have recently matured. Would you think that was "so many" in terms of what most folks who were very careful with their money would have?

The cheques have been sent to the 5 beneficiaries, and one of the GPs had popped in to drop in his acknowledgement.

Husband asked S1 again whether he had any agreement with my parents about charging for his services. NO!!! :mad: :mad: :mad:

So husband asked him to tell him as his co-executor how he intended to charge the estate.

"I charge my time at £185/hour, also the Law Society allows a 'care and conduct' fee of 1 and 1/2 % of personalty and 3/4% of property". (personalty is everything in the estate which is not property) :mad: :mad: :mad: So husband asked him how many hours he had worked so far, but he didn't know! :mad:

Husband will contact legal complaints service and ask for advice on strategy before making a lot of phone calls on Monday.

I am getting more and more upset and furious over all this shilly-shallying. :mad: Not helped by having a bad fall on the patio on Friday evening when we arrived at the caravan in the dark (I have vertigo from a vestibular disorder) so now have grazed right temple and this morning have come up with a horrendous black eye (at least yesterday's headache has abated, touch wood). And no, despite how it looks, I really did fall over and DH didn't whack me one in the eye! Though would quite understand if he did swing out as he too is getting more and more frustrated by S1s uselessness! :rolleyes:

We are wondering if it might be better to get Accountants to transfer the stocks etc as surely they can manage it faster than 2 weeks! Or at least set things in train - I do understand that these things take time, but S1 hasn't even started work on it yet. :mad: Husband will call Accountants tomorrow to ask about that. If S1 protests it could be the time to mention our loss of confidence in him since the Deed business.

He will also contact S2 for progress, estimate of time scale etc, and to make sure they know that S1 has said estate final accounts can be done by Accountants.

Needless to say the price of the equities have fallen through the floor and there's nothing to be done except tear hair out and curse S1. :mad:

Aaaarrrrgggghhhhhh! Will this soap opera ever end? :eek:

ukmaggie45

Things seem to be moving forward maybe.

We got our Enduring Powers of Attorney last week (I think - losing track!), with a compliments slip from S1. Originals only, so we will need to get notified copies done for all Attorneys I think. So need 3 copies and original to be stored somewhere safe I presume.

4th November S2 phoned husband. Had already phoned S1:
Not in till late afternoon.
In London tomorrow (5 Nov).

S2 spoke to Mrs S1 saying:
Why have I had no response yet?
Explained I was going on holiday on 6th Novemeber so needed the papers before then.

Mrs S1:
the papers are "at home".
"So, you can go off on holiday for 2 weeks but he is supposed to be in the office whenever you want to speak to him?!

S2:
"But he seems to have been out of the office for the last 15 months now."

S2 sent the IoV to the Revenue 10 days ago, with a covering letter explaining that it does not affect my mother's estate.

More news today, but awaiting proper notes and information from husband. Will post when I can.

Best wishes to all!

sloughflint

Still reading this thread Ukmaggie. Have also seen your other thread.

Best of luck with it all.

sloughflint

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

We got our Enduring Powers of Attorney last week (I think - losing track!), with a compliments slip from S1. Originals only, so we will need to get notified copies done for all Attorneys I think. So need 3 copies and original to be stored somewhere safe I presume.

Certified copies should have been sent to you free of charge. Cheapskate to the bitter end!

ukmaggie45

sloughflint wrote: »

Certified copies should have been sent to you free of charge. Cheapskate to the bitter end!

At least he isn't charging for them! :rolleyes:

Tozer

ukmaggie45 wrote: »

At least he isn't charging for them! :rolleyes:

In fairness usual charge is £5 per copy.

ukmaggie45

S2 phoned husband this afternoon to say that they had received 2 files by special courier from S1 to their amazement!!! (husband assumes these are one file for each of my parents)

S2 scanned them briefly, and couldn't see anything that needs to be done urgently. But no time to get things moving on just now (going on holiday for 2 weeks tomorrow). We have S2's assistant's name and number if we need anything urgently or need to ask questions.

Guess there won't be much to do until the Revenue get back about the DoV anyway, and who knows how long that may take... I will try look at the papers I have and see if I can make sense of them and the IHT stuff. Will prob take me forever unless I can find the MS Office CDs that are somewhere in the house!

We are still awaiting reply to letter of complaint to S1, will post when (if!) it arrives. Of course we still have a while before the 28 days are up. :rolleyes:

Sloughflint, am so glad you are still keeping an eye on this thread (and the other one too). Your encouragement and input have been invaluable to me - we often feel like just giving up, especially when weeks and weeks go by and hardly anything happens or moves on. Thank you. :A

ukmaggie45

Tozer wrote: »

In fairness usual charge is £5 per copy.

What I meant is that S1 isn't charging for the originals - we can get notified copies later when we have the time and energy to do it. At least I presume we can.

sloughflint

Tozer wrote: »

In fairness usual charge is £5 per copy.

I would hope at least one copy would have been free.:rolleyes:

In my limited experience of this, three copies were free and any more would have incurred a charge.

ukmaggie45

Yesterday was Bonfire Night, so DD & SIL came round and husband went with them to fireworks in the park. So husband forgot to tell me this till he got back and everyone had gone home.

S1 has not sent to S2 the ledgers for the files on my parents from S1's client account. S2 has requested them, will enable them to make real progress when they return from holiday in 2 weeks.

Of course that is dependent on S1 actually sending them. Why do I feel there is a cover up going on at S1's end? I think this is the first time I have managed to put this antsy feeling about all this into words! I am still worried about it all I'm afraid.