ITC Legal Services - Avoid Them

Freefall2009

Help I'm 1 of 2 executors to my late father’s will and I was pushed into using ITC now they have been dealing with my father’s estate for the last 8 months and have yet to finish. Their reason is that the house I live in is 75% owned by me and 25% left to my brother. At this time my wife and I cannot buy out the 25% so I have asked them to windup everything and provide the beneficiaries with any money in the estate. They are refusing to do so till the house is sorted although I didn't ask them to deal with the house. What can I do as I could do with at least getting an interim payment from the estate to help with the family finances... Have they the right to hold onto all of the money or can they be made to release some if not all?

maninthestreet

Freefall2009 wrote: »

Help I'm 1 of 2 executors to my late father’s will and I was pushed into using ITC now they have been dealing with my father’s estate for the last 8 months and have yet to finish. Their reason is that the house I live in is 75% owned by me and 25% left to my brother. At this time my wife and I cannot buy out the 25% so I have asked them to windup everything and provide the beneficiaries with any money in the estate. They are refusing to do so till the house is sorted although I didn't ask them to deal with the house. What can I do as I could do with at least getting an interim payment from the estate to help with the family finances... Have they the right to hold onto all of the money or can they be made to release some if not all?

Who left 25% of house to your brother - your father? If so, then it is part of your father's estate.

Super09

datostar wrote: »

The dozy beggars just sent a statement addressed directly to the deceased, despite having been informed of the death 3 weeks previously, so I've got all the information I need and the Probate Application has gone in. I won't speak to them again until the Grant of Probate is in my hands. They should be hard put to find any more excuses then and there'll be no reason for any more importuning by or on behalf of ITC, alias Bereavement Section.
Contrast with the local solicitor I saw to get 2 certified copies of the will done He charged me £5 and spent 15 minutes or so giving me free advice. Excellent chap!

This is typical of ITC, I should iknow I used to work there. We had cases where accounts were frozen in error all of the time and deceased people were sent letters addressed to them.

In 1 really severe case a gentleman's account was frozen when his son passed away. Obviously he was grieving enough that his young son had suddenly died but then was inconvenienced further by having his account blocked. Barclays and ITC in their wisdom then decided to hold staff meetings and people were reduced to tears with the manner in which these meetings were conducted. In a call centre/processing area where there is no training what do you expect??!

portlandboy

Freefall2009 wrote: »

Help I'm 1 of 2 executors to my late father’s will and I was pushed into using ITC now they have been dealing with my father’s estate for the last 8 months and have yet to finish. Their reason is that the house I live in is 75% owned by me and 25% left to my brother. At this time my wife and I cannot buy out the 25% so I have asked them to windup everything and provide the beneficiaries with any money in the estate. They are refusing to do so till the house is sorted although I didn't ask them to deal with the house. What can I do as I could do with at least getting an interim payment from the estate to help with the family finances... Have they the right to hold onto all of the money or can they be made to release some if not all?

Hi,
Firstly, who is the other executor of the will. If it is the brother who has been left the 25% share and he is prepared to wait for his share to be paid off by you at a later date, then if you both tell ITC that you wish to leave the property as it stands, they should not do anything with it. Ask a solicitor for guidance to be 100% aware of your rights. Of course ITC would benefit from any sale that they arrange which is likely to be why they want to deal with it. Your local land registry should be able to put joint names on the assention forms and may also offer advice on the situation. If ITC have obtained probate and collected any monies owing to the estate you should both tell them that their job is done.
If however, the other beneficiary is not happy to wait for the money you may well have no option but to sell. This may of course take far longer to deal with if the property remains unsold in the current market, no matter who sells it. From experience, again using local agents is better than ITC, who will employ an agent in your area but add their charges to the agents' fee.
Finally, an advance of estate funds will cost you at least £250, which was the fee ITC were charging in 2008 to release funds from an estate. They will release a percentage of the estate, though not all, as they will want their fee kept back of course. They will tell you how much they will release, but (again from experience) it isn't worth the fees.
Once again, if possible I suggest you both get a 30 minute slot with a local solicitor and see what they advise. Every "rule" that ITC come up with seems to benefit them over the customer. And, as they are not regulated by an official body, they can make the rules up as they wish. Things will seem a lot clearer when you have a bit of knowlege of the rules from an impartial person.

Indisguise_2

ITC are not solicitors and therefore in order obtain probate they use a firm of solicitors to submit their applications and extract the grant. It is because they are not solicitors that they are not regulated in any way like solicitors are by the law society. The solicitors that they use will be named on the grant of probate in each case and the grant is a public document that can be obtained from any probate registry when a written request is submitted together with a £5 fee. Although you cannot complain to any regulatory authority about ITC legal services you can complain to the law society about the solicitor that they have used to extract the grant (as they are putting themselves into a position of responsibility by allowing ITC to use them in this manner) then the solicitors they are using may stop allowing them to use them (as the law society does have the power to remove their practising certificate and stop them from trading). This would leave ITC searching for another firm to take on their work. They do not have any solicitors within their firm that can take out a grant for them.

Also anybody that has appointed ITC legal services as their attorney to take out the grant of probate on their behalf always retains the rights to take out a grant themselves if they wish to do so. Each grant extracted by an attorney contains a limitation that says that the grant is "limited for the use and benefit of A B until further representation be granted". This basically means that if anybody is unhappy in the way which ITC are dealing with the estate they can complete the probate forms themselves (which they can have sent to them from the probate registry directly or download from the probate service website, which will always end in .gov.uk) and apply for a grant directly which will then show that they are the persons responsible for admininstering the estate (this is called a 'cessate' application). If ITC are holding any money then once you've obtained the grant (which because it is a second grant will only cost you £15 to obtain personally) you can demand for them to release it to you on production of your grant of probate. ITC will then be no longer required to deal with any of the estate or property sales and no longer able to increase any fees they are charging. The only word of warning there though is that it will not stop them from charging a proportion of their fees for what they have done so far.

The best thing that people can do when they are in a situation that requires probate though is to contact their local probate registry first, who will be happy to advise them how to proceed if they wish to apply personally or what other options are available (ie solicitors application, or another family member acting on their behalf).

datostar

The first job my sister had on leaving school in the late '60s was with 'Lloyd's Bank Executor & Trustee Department' in Newcastle upon Tyne. That was in the days when mutual loyalty and respect existed between banks and their customers.
Look what we have now. Lloyd's Bank flushed down the pan; Barclayshark and the rest of the greedy herd of troughers preying on the bereaved via the likes of the vulturous ITC and the rest.
It's everywhere. Tonight I tried to ring my local Police Station. It's an 0845 centralised number so it costs me. I get some recorded boast about how crime is down then the usual crap about pressing numbers. I'm told that if I am a solicitor wishing to speak about a client in custody I should WRITE IN!!! Absolutely incredible. ACPO Ltd. must have thought that one up. Sheer arrogance. Just what do these people think we are?

angrygirlie

Indisguise wrote: »

ITC are not solicitors and therefore in order obtain probate they use a firm of solicitors to submit their applications and extract the grant. It is because they are not solicitors that they are not regulated in any way like solicitors are by the law society. The solicitors that they use will be named on the grant of probate in each case and the grant is a public document that can be obtained from any probate registry when a written request is submitted together with a £5 fee. Although you cannot complain to any regulatory authority about ITC legal services you can complain to the law society about the solicitor that they have used to extract the grant (as they are putting themselves into a position of responsibility by allowing ITC to use them in this manner) then the solicitors they are using may stop allowing them to use them (as the law society does have the power to remove their practising certificate and stop them from trading). This would leave ITC searching for another firm to take on their work. They do not have any solicitors within their firm that can take out a grant for them.

Also anybody that has appointed ITC legal services as their attorney to take out the grant of probate on their behalf always retains the rights to take out a grant themselves if they wish to do so. Each grant extracted by an attorney contains a limitation that says that the grant is "limited for the use and benefit of A B until further representation be granted". This basically means that if anybody is unhappy in the way which ITC are dealing with the estate they can complete the probate forms themselves (which they can have sent to them from the probate registry directly or download from the probate service website, which will always end in .gov.uk) and apply for a grant directly which will then show that they are the persons responsible for admininstering the estate (this is called a 'cessate' application). If ITC are holding any money then once you've obtained the grant (which because it is a second grant will only cost you £15 to obtain personally) you can demand for them to release it to you on production of your grant of probate. ITC will then be no longer required to deal with any of the estate or property sales and no longer able to increase any fees they are charging. The only word of warning there though is that it will not stop them from charging a proportion of their fees for what they have done so far.

The best thing that people can do when they are in a situation that requires probate though is to contact their local probate registry first, who will be happy to advise them how to proceed if they wish to apply personally or what other options are available (ie solicitors application, or another family member acting on their behalf).

Thanks indiguise. I'm assuming with the name indisguise, you probably know your legalities better than most of us, but regarding the set up of ITC using solicitors to carry out the legal work for them so that ITC can remain unregulated, I did contact The Legal Complaints service to get information about taking action against the solicitor who had carried out the work for ITC in my case (as that seemed the only then logic way to get the Law Society able to do something) but I was told by The Legal Complaints service, that as I did not actually appoint the solicitor I cannot make a complaint against that solicitor. ITC had appointed the solicitor (to act on their behalf) so ITC were the client and the only ones who could make a complaint (and I could'nt see that happening!!!)

This is where I was exhausted with options to get ITC and then a twist of fate which fell in my favour........be patient and still hang on watching this space as all will come to light very soon.

portlandboy

...And to add to the above, the solicitors that ITC use (Geofrey-Parker-Bowles, GPB) do seem to do their job when asked to but ITC don't actually ask them very quickly. I never had a problem with the solicitors throyghout the process but ITC did blame them for a lot of the slow responses and delays.
I wonder if GPB are aware that ITC blame the poor service that they provide on their solicitors???

angrygirlie

portlandboy wrote: »

...And to add to the above, the solicitors that ITC use (Geofrey-Parker-Bowles, GPB) do seem to do their job when asked to but ITC don't actually ask them very quickly. I never had a problem with the solicitors throyghout the process but ITC did blame them for a lot of the slow responses and delays.
I wonder if GPB are aware that ITC blame the poor service that they provide on their solicitors???

Another name of professionals who will need to be made aware of what kind of probate company they are being appointed by (unless they are already aware). I have made a note of this firm of solicitors

angrygirlie

I can wave my flag for joy and say that I saved a friend of a friend from ITC when they visited her after she was recently bereaved. She has now gone to a REAL solicitor. PHEW! that was a close one.