Problems with Solicitor handling Will

Lilycat

Hi

Not sure if anyone can help or not - My Mums Uncle died a few weeks ago and his will which was made many years ago was lodged with a solicitor. We went to see the Solicitor last week as my Mum is virtually the sole beneficiary - he was asking for inventories of the contents of the flat and valuations of all the jewellery mentioned in the will even though the majority of it is cheap stuff.

I have taken some photos of the flat as he asked for but advised that I was not doing an inventory as there was really nothing of any value in there at all. He has now written back acknowledging this but asking for valuations of the jewellry pieces - my question is has anyone else been in this situation and where would be the best place to take the jewellry to be valued reasonably - as I mentioned earlier probabably all but one small diamond ring is cheap jewellery.

This whole thing is so upsetting my Mum - I want to ring the Solicitor and tell him due to the nature of the pieces we are not going to do this but my Mum is becoming frightened of him and wants to take the whole lot to be valued,,,I guess at some cost!

This is all new to us having a solicitor dealing with everything - must admit we thought it would be easy !

Many Thanks


Lilycat

tanith

I had to have jewellery valued for a divorce case and took it to a small local jeweller who charged 1% of the value...if as you say the jewellery is worth very little then it won't cost much at all..

RobertoMoir

Can't help with where to get jewellery valued, sorry, but I can maybe shed some light on the solicitors behaviour, as I've recently lost someone in my family and am going through a similar process right now.

The value of the 'estate' has to be ascertained as part of settling its affairs, and this is part of why you're having this issue I think. See this and this article on probate and see if that explains a bit more of what is going on and why. Keep in mind when looking at the value of estates mentioned there, the solicitor doesn't know the value of things, which is probably why they want them valued. From a one-line description in a will it can be difficult to tell if an item is 18th century pure gold or 21st century argos.

And lastly, of course, sorry for your loss. This sort of legal business only adds to the pain, I know from our own experiences, but it sadly does have to be dealt with. The solicitor is doing what they have to do, albeit in what sounds like an unsympathetic and unhelpful manner.

Errata

This is particularly difficult as individual pieces of jewellery are identified in the will. One option would be to take them to a local jeweller who will charge for the valuation. I had a relative in the same situation, she took the jewellery to a pawnbroker and asked how much it could be pawned for !

Craftyscholar

tanith wrote: »

I had to have jewellery valued for a divorce case and took it to a small local jeweller who charged 1% of the value...if as you say the jewellery is worth very little then it won't cost much at all..

They will probably ask what you want the valuation for, if not make sure they know it is for probate.

McKneff

Craftyscholar wrote: »

They will probably ask what you want the valuation for, if not make sure they know it is for probate.

I agree that you should take it to an independant jeweller, they rely on
local trade and are usually fair and reasonable.

Yes, make sure they know its for probate,

quotes for insurance cover are completely differnt.
regards
annie