Solicitor slow over probate

Trix2

Hi Maggie,

I didn't know you were still battling on. It's astounding how long, and how much manpower is wasted on all this stuff. There ought to be some simpler way!

Glad you are getting on with your house buying and have now find something worth your while. Hope it all goes well. It sounds as if you will be busy next year with that garden. Lots of luck with that, and with the final bits of the IHT.

We are now finally settling back into normal life, after all the setbacks, and quite a few health problems. Nice to be able to look forward to things again. Hope you are too.:beer:

Regards

Trix2

fredsnail

Thanks for the update - the house sounds great - fingers crossed for you - you need some luck now.

I hope too that S2 is successful in getting the brokers to payup too.

ukmaggie45

Unfortunately things aren't as simple as we'd hoped they were by now. OH had a letter from S2 which arrived on Monday.

Apparently S1 did not obtain closing statements when he closed the various accounts. Also he didn't ask for the tax deduction certificates. S2 has asked for clarification as to when we handed him various papers in the August of the year my parents died, which is when the first letter on the file S2 received from S1 was written.

I will now have to go back through all the painful entries in The Big Book to find out as much detail as I can as to what we passed to S1 and when.

I simply do not understand how a lawyer who expects to be paid for work on an estate can simply close down bank and building society accounts and not ask for the various statements needed. Or maybe he just lost them. In which case what else did he lose?

Feeling rather upset again - was beginning to feel that I was getting over all the sadness, but now will have to revisit it to obtain the facts S2 needs. OH and I are feeling like going and chucking bricks through S1's windows! :eek: (only joking, but I do feel really really FURIOUS)

Trix, I'm glad you're finally through the whole business. Sorry to hear you have had health problems. I think bereavement really does knock one's health, and the problems with the %^$*$&%* lawyers don't help either!

Thanks for the good wishes Fredsnail, I'll update this thread again when anything new on the Estates front comes up.

Maggie

HanSpan

Maggie (and others with similar woes) I've read the whole thread with increasing disbelief and anger. I so sorry for how badly you've been treated and I really am amazed at how relatively calm you seem to have remained. I'd have lost it some time ago and probably been arrested or sectioned for what I imagine I'd have done!

I'm very grateful for this cautionary tale - you have given me a poke up the backside to talk to my father and get him to change his will - I was fairly conviced he had a solicitor as executor and indeed he has. So I've asked him to change it to me (assuming he doesn't think I'll argue with anyone else named) or an independant friend asap and register it here Certainty National Wills Register.
please note - later posters have pointed out that storing your will with the probate service may well be a better idea - find the information here: http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1218.htm
I'm an only child and he says it all comes to me barring 5% to a charity, he has stocks worth about £1k and no life insurance so the only thing I'll need to be concerned with is his house which he did an equity release on some years ago and the bank own 75%. Seems to me it should all be pretty straight forward and there's absolutely no need to pay someone to sort it!

I do hope you manage to get your situation sorted out soon and will now continue to keep up to date with this thread with interest.
Thanks

Biggles

HanSpan wrote: »

register it here Certainty National Wills Register.

Why? OK, they only charge £29, but they don't store it, they just record which solicitor is holding it, and the solicitor may charge for that (esp if he isn't an executor). It just seems an unnecessary complication to have to tell next of kin to look at www.certainty.co.uk, who will tell them the solicitor's name, when you could have told them that in the first place! Plus the fact that there's nothing to say that they'll still be around when your father pops his clogs, this 'register' has only been going two years now.

Why not use the Probate Service? They store your will (not just 'register' it) and only charge a £15 one-off fee. Job done. http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1218.htm

Errata

I think this should be in very large letters and information given to everyone who makes a will with a solicotor, willmaker or internet will service.

Why not use the Probate Service? They store your will (not just 'register' it) and only charge a £15 one-off fee. Job done. http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1218.htm

ukmaggie45

Hi there HanSpan, welcome to the thread! Hmm, not sure which smiley to use - I'm jumping up and down :j that someone else has found this [STRIKE]tale of woe[/STRIKE] case study, but I'm sorry you are looking at, but glad it may help you talk to your Dad while you can still do so. IYSWIM!

HanSpan wrote: »

Maggie (and others with similar woes) I've read the whole thread with increasing disbelief and anger. I so sorry for how badly you've been treated and I really am amazed at how relatively calm you seem to have remained. I'd have lost it some time ago and probably been arrested or sectioned for what I imagine I'd have done!

Once we managed to find another solicitor (S2 in this thread) everything became easier as S2 wrote to and was in touch with S1 so we didn't have to any more. Phew, wipe brow! :j

HanSpan wrote: »

I do hope you manage to get your situation sorted out soon and will now continue to keep up to date with this thread with interest.
Thanks

Thank you. I think things will get finished soonish... Depending on your definition of "soon" of course!

Maggie

HanSpan

Biggles wrote: »

Why? OK, they only charge £29, but they don't store it, they just record which solicitor is holding it, and the solicitor may charge for that (esp if he isn't an executor). It just seems an unnecessary complication to have to tell next of kin to look at www.certainty.co.uk, who will tell them the solicitor's name, when you could have told them that in the first place! Plus the fact that there's nothing to say that they'll still be around when your father pops his clogs, this 'register' has only been going two years now.

Why not use the Probate Service? They store your will (not just 'register' it) and only charge a £15 one-off fee. Job done. http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1218.htm

This does seem more sensible now you've explained that. I'm pretty sure I got the place I thought of using from the MSE article which is why I thought it was commonly accepted as a *good thing*! thanks for putting me straight.

Trix2

Hi Maggie,

I'm not surprised you are angry - I thought my solicitor was bad, but yours seems certifiable. Maybe you could get one of your children to look through your records, if it is so upsetting... I know what you mean about that - I feel like throwing all my records of dealings with the solicitor out of the window, and then possibly jumping up and down on them.

Best of luck with it all - and just start looking forward to your new house.

Hope things improve.

Trix2

John_Pierpoint

Hi Maggie,

What an inspiring thread.

(and congratulations to everyone who has given their time to support you in your quest for justice).

Do let us know the outcome, when you feel you can finally close the book (Volume 3 or is it 4 by now?).

I'm fighting my own way through an estate for the 4th time (I had to start young, aged 21, when my dad died).
Even if you do it yourself, there always seems to be some profession or organisation that gets the wooden spoon for disorganised incompetence.

Dad: Solicitors who seemed no know nothing about the benefits system.
Great Aunt: British Gas who tried to sue for a bill that was not my responsibility having repeatedly refused to talk to me and ignored my letters (long story).
Mother: Department of Work and Pensions (still owing the estate 20 GBP) who got a see you in court letter from me and backed off (or at least I think they have as that was 6 years ago).
"Uncle Dog" who died in autumn 2008: The wooden spoon prize this time is on contention between:

1. HMRC, who are just taking too long and seemed to be manned by people who cannot read their on-line manual as well as I can (The job has been deskilled and understaffed by command and control computer systems but no joined up administration ?) :mad:

2. Barclays Bank: Words fail me - I've been passed round between India, Cardiff, Leicester, Liverpool, Warwick, and my local branch. I've written Barclays a dozen letters. I've had replies that contradict each other:rolleyes:. There is nobody in Barclays, who seems to be "on top of their job".
How many accounts did the deceased have?
Abbey: Five
Lloyds: Two
Barclays: ONE
(I've got the money and the beneficiaries have had their shares, but I still cannot get the last step: the interest and tax figures for the period of administration):mad:

If I can make the time, I would like to co-operate on a sticky thread where us end- users contribute what we have learned from experience.

Best wishes,

John

PS Can I go to bed now?:rotfl: