Solicitor problems..help please

Gothicfairy

Several months ago my father passed away, I am the only executor (other then the solicitor should I die etc)

The day after he died I called them to get the original will as the funeral company and hospital were asking to see it. I got nothing so called back a week later and still got nothing, I did have a 10 minute call with someone there ( whoever it was that answered the phone) they gave some advise but to be fair most I had already received from the hospital and was only being polite rather then just hanging up.

I still had not received the will but the funeral company were happy to allow me to deal with things and I paid them out of my own money. I then had to sort out bank accounts etc and again the lack of will was a problem so emailed the solicitors ( no reply) and called again 3 times with no luck.
In the end I did speak to someone who was shocked at it all and sent me 3 copies of the will but still not the original and to date I have still not received that.

I sorted out all the banks and companies and even went to the solicitor and paid CASH for a small estates document to be signed.

Everything was done and over as far as I was concerned until I got a very short and sharp letter from the solicitors asking for £120.00 for the work done.
I emailed and asked for a breakdown and again waited 2 weeks with no reply. I spoke to the law centre and they gave me some advice but could not do more until 28 days had passed or they replied to me. But even that help might not do me any good.
I then got a reply( by email , copy of the signed for letter yet not delivered) but it was basically: enclosed is the original will and your charges are 3 copies of that and the phone call.

At no point was I told I would have to pay for the phone call and the copies were not needed as all I wanted was the original.
This whole thing made a horrible time even worse and I am really not happy with the idea of paying for something I did not need or want based on not being told I was going to be billed. Also as I paid in cash at the office why was I not told about the bill then.

What can I do ? I can not afford this bill as there was nothing in my fathers account and had I even thought that I would have to pay someone to answer the phone I would never have called in the first place.

Gothicfairy

No thoughts then. Would it have worked better if I had put compo in the title ? ( I jest of course)

dzug1

Gothicfairy wrote: »

Several months ago my father passed away, I am the only executor (other then the solicitor should I die etc)

.

That may be the problem. If the solicitor is named in the will then he is entitled to execute the estate and claim his fees. He doesn't have to relinquish control to you - it sounds as though ultimately he did so, once he slowly cottoned on to the situation, but is still entitled to be paid up to that point. And several months is not long in solicitorland.

Moral - never name a solicitor as executor. Whoever you do name can use one if they see fit, or do it themselves if they feel capable.

lincroft1710

Why would a funeral company and hospital want to see the will??

5 yrs ago my father died in hospital (NHS) and I was sole executor. I had no such request from either the hospital or funeral director

cabbage

You could always go through the firm's complaints procedure and then take it to the Law Society and make a complaint

lindos90

We had a problem with our solicitor (conveyancing not wills) but we were advised to firstly go through their complaints proceedure, and if that failed (which it did, as they did not reply within the agreed time scale) then go to the LCS..

http://www.legalcomplaints.org.uk/home.page

Depends how you define the problem, the law society deal with some issues, the LCS with others, but you have to be really clear about the type of complaint, theres also a time limit of 6 months from the end of the work.

Im so sorry that this has happened, it must be a terrible time anyway, without having to persue a complaint like this.

Gothicfairy

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Why would a funeral company and hospital want to see the will??

5 yrs ago my father died in hospital (NHS) and I was sole executor. I had no such request from either the hospital or funeral director

I was not the Legal next of kin so a will was required as my fathers requests were for a natural burial which is slightly different for the hospital and funeral directors in this area. Not sure it matters why I needed it though as it was mine to have and should not have been witheld.


I have now recieved the will but that is months later and they still say charging me for copies was the right thing. They did not do any other work on the estate and are billing for the one phone call to get the will ( nothing else as I now have a small break down of the charges IE 2x copy of will plus 10 min phone call about the will charged at half hour rate)
My complaint has been passed to their complaints person but I don't hold much hope based on what I know so far.
I will try the Law Society again and see if they can shed any light on what I need to do now as I am not really sure how I would define the complaint or what difference it would make depending on what I picked..
Thanks for the advice Lindos

Gothicfairy

sloughflint wrote: »

Easy. Take your pick:
From what you've written they've failed on several counts. I take it you've never signed any terms of business?

Do not pay that bill.

Not so. It is quite clear from the information provided by the poster that this situation does not apply here.The solicitor is not executor as the OP is still alive and kicking.


I am not entirely surprised that you didn't receive the original based on phone calls. I'd have expected them to ask you to go in with some ID for yourself and perhaps a death certificate and then got you to sign for the fact that the will had been released.

Thank you for that.

I never signed anything nor agreed anything, my phone call to them was to inform them my father had passed away and that I needed the will, based on that call I sent the death cert with my wage slip and bill (as advised) and they sent me the copies of the will but not the original. As I needed a small estates form filling in I went to the office in person with my documents and paid cash at that time for the signature. Again nothing mentioned about "my account" with them or any work to date.

lindos90

I would wait for them to call back (the time they state in their complaints preceedure) and then just go straight to the LCS. Dont leave it too long, you only have 6 months from the end of their work, after then its difficult to get LCS to take it up.

I would say they acted wrongly on a number if issues, the LCS will take details and set it out for you, exactly what the issues are, and send that to the solicitors for their comments, the LCS can then decide if you should ahve a refund etc.

Hope all goes well, keep us informed of progress and outcomes, as it can help others in the future with similar problems to read a resolved thread.

Baggysdad

Why bother wasting your time making a complaint to anyone?

You don't have a contract or a relationship with the firm - there is no basis on which they can issue you with a bill.

Throw the bill in the bin, get on and enjoy the sunshine and let them whistle for their money.

B

Gothicfairy

They are saying that they do have a contract with me as I am their client ( because the will lists me as executor) However I have spoken to the Law Sociaty and they were shocked by it all and told me that the solicitors had broken a number of " rules" and that they would take my complaint and pass it to a case worker to deal with. I am putting together a full email with attachements now and will send it ready for business start on Monday and then leave it in their hands but I am certainly not going to pay the bill until they make their ruling.
With any luck at the end of it all their will not be a bill to pay and the solicitors get a slap on the wrists.
My Dad was old and we knew he was going so this has not been too hard on me all things being equal and I have support around me but it would be horrible to do all this alone and having just lost a child or partner.

I will keep on with the complain as I agree with the above post about common good etc.