Settling an estate

mountainofdebt

How long generally does iit take to settle someone's estate?

Will is pretty basic - everything split between two benefiiciarires - and no house to sell at the moment.

aylesby

I have settled our family estates after a solicitor took over a year and charged £ks. There is a local probate office and they are so helpful.
Three months is my quickest and it’s the taxman who slows you down most. If there is a need to advertise in the press for debtors and creditors then you have more delay.

saver_sam

When my grandmothers estate/will was settled it took 4 months to do via a solicitor - there was no house to sell as she was in a rest home at the time. Our slow down was the state pensions I think.

martindow

I'll second Aylesby's post and suggest that you do it yourself. The probate people are very helpful; it is just form filling and then an appointment an appointment a few weeks later at the probate office. If the estate is below the inheritance tax threshold there is nothing complicated for the inland revenue; if it's above there is a more complicated form but their people I have also found very helpful.

Solicitors will charge a lot of money for doing this work and there are plenty of horror stories regarding very slow and expensive solicitors. If a solicitor does take it on, you will still be the one who has to find bank statements and other paper work relating to the person who has died, which I found a more difficult task than filling in the forms.

Good luck! It's not a pleasant task to have to do but you will feel proud of yourself once it is done.

mountainofdebt

Thanks guys for your posts.

Unfortunately we have no choice about doing it ourselves.....my late FIL appointed a firm of solicitors who at best appear useless.

As far we know they had all details of utility suppilers etc but as yet have had no communication about the estate that is to be divided between hubby and SIL which has surprised hubby as (apart from the house which is a total nightmare situation) everything is straight forward.

Oh well add that to the list of jobs to be done in the New Year!

martindow

I hope that it all works out soon for you. May be it would be worth posting a new thread asking for advice on hurrying up solicitors or finding out whether you can take it back from them.

the_lawson

Most solicitors will decide on the work they will do on any one day according to prompts by mail/email/telephone calls. Diaries play a part but not as much as prompts. The daily work schedule is more reactive than proactive. So you need to ensure they have something to react to rather than leaving it up to them to deide when to advance the file.

Better to write to complain/chase and do so also by email -much more direct - but be sure to use the direct email address of the solicitor not the info@ address.

Write a polite letter setting out the time it has taken and requesting an indication of what steps have to be done and how long it will take. If the timetable slips write a further letter making this clear and requesting a fresh time estimate.

Regular polite letters/emails requesting information to show you are clsoely monitoring should ensure your work is prioritised better than otherwise might be the case.

If you do not receive responses, then always copy in the senior partner and, ultimately request your concerns to be treated as a formal complaint for which there will be a procedure.