Halifax not accepting Probate granted at High Court

soolin

Just a bit of a vent as I am so cross.

My father died earlier this year and I am a named executor but I struggled with probate as the other executor could not be found. However attended the Probate court in London who accepted that I had made every attemot to find th eother exectuor, and they issued a formal grant of probate naming me as only executor and at that point i paid for a number of extra officially certified copies of probate for the banks.

All the banks have accepted the probate forms and have started paying me out but the Halifax have refused . They will not accept a formal legal Grant of probate and require a copy certified by either a bank or a solicitor, they also require me to complete forms that state that I am the sole executor named in the will and to provide all of the same info that I have already supplied to the courts.

I can't phone the bereavement centre as they only open Monday to Friday and the branch have just said that as far as they know these forms are usual and a grant of probate issued in the High Court of Justice is never sufficient to wind up an Estate.

I have refused to sign their form confirming I am the only named Executor, and that seemed to upset them as they want to know about the missing executor. They have taken another certified certificate to me (which I am not happy about as these embossed copies cost me a great deal of money each) but have warned me that I will almost certainly not be paid out on the court information alone

Arghhhhh

mountainofdebt

If they want a form filled in why not fill it and save yourself alot of stress?

soolin

mountainofdebt wrote: »

If they want a form filled in why not fill it and save yourself alot of stress?

Simple, it requires me to sign to confirm I am the only executor named in the will, which I am not. Even then they will not accept my Court issued probate forms so even if i did sign fraudulently I would be no nearer getting paid out.

Norman_Castle

Halifax have a freephone bereavement advice line here
http://www.halifax.co.uk/contactus/callus.asp#bereavement_help_and_advice
Open until 4 on Saturdays. They may be able to advise you.


From my experience some banks and building societies are excellent at dealing with executors and probate, The West Bromwich BS (cashier ran after me to return my passport which I had left on the counter,Thanks again) and The TSB, were both very good. In contrast, The Nationwide on Erdington high street, were just nasty, rude, unhelpful and unpleasant.

soolin

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Halifax have a freephone bereavement advice line here
http://www.halifax.co.uk/contactus/callus.asp#bereavement_help_and_advice
Open until 4 on Saturdays. They may be able to advise you.

Unfortunately the info on the internet is out of date. All the bereavement departments open between 9-5 Monday to Friday only. (I'd already tried and the branch even tried for me as well as they didn't believe they were not open at all on a saturday)

soolin

St_George_2011 wrote: »

Then you will have to wait and ring them after 9 am on Monday.

Which is why I said this was just a bit of a vent in my original post.

kazzah60

I feel for the OP
it is distressing enough having to deal with the death of a loved one - without needless beaurocracy from banks.

If a HIGH COURT Grant of probate isn't enough- then what is?

my hubby and I had similar issues with one of the banks delaing with his Mums death - the Bradford and Bingley wanted both executors in their office to sign the forms - we explained the other executor was his mums elderly ( 79 year old) disabled aunt and could we take the form for her to sign ( which all other banks had allwoed us to do) -but no - they insisted on her being there, and they spoke to my husband as though he was an imbecile- I was truly shocked at their attitude.

I hope the OP gets this sorted - I quite agree, I wouldn't sign a form telling a lie either!

soolin

kazzah60 wrote: »

I feel for the OP
it is distressing enough having to deal with the death of a loved one - without needless beaurocracy from banks.

If a HIGH COURT Grant of probate isn't enough- then what is?

my hubby and I had similar issues with one of the banks delaing with his Mums death - the Bradford and Bingley wanted both executors in their office to sign the forms - we explained the other executor was his mums elderly ( 79 year old) disabled aunt and could we take the form for her to sign ( which all other banks had allwoed us to do) -but no - they insisted on her being there, and they spoke to my husband as though he was an imbecile- I was truly shocked at their attitude.

I hope the OP gets this sorted - I quite agree, I wouldn't sign a form telling a lie either!

It isn't until you tell a tale like this that you hear other people's probate woes as well, I hope oyu got yours sorted OK in the end.

So far all the other banks have accepted the official grant of probate forms issued by the court, I've even already banked the money from National Savings as they paid out very quickly.

I'll phone Halifax bereavement services on Monday and see if they will listen to reason and if I need to I will call the probate office and tell them that I am unable to obtain a dispersal of funds as an executor using their official forms and ask them for guidance.

I keep thinking that maybe they have got themselves in a bit of a muddle so the internal letter going from the branch stating they have seen the actual official bound grant of probate will be enough to release the funds without any silly forms being signed or solicitors letters being obtained. Fingers crossed

thenudeone

Sorry for your loss.

You don't have to comply with any internal procedure of the bank, especially if by doing so, you would be being dishonest.

Write a recorded delivery letter to the bank's registered office pointing out the facts and telling them that if they fail to comply with your requests within 7 days you will take action against them in the County Court.

If the High Court has issued probate to you, your probably don't even need a solicitor, because there's virtually no chance that the County Court will refuse to accept it.

soolin

Phoned them this morning, the first guy was really difficult, kept telling me that if the letter says they needed a signed copy of probate then I have to pay to get one. I explained I have an officially issued copy with a court embossed stamp and asked him why that was not sufficient as I would be phoning the Probate office to complain..and he hung up on me. Second person I spoke to was more helpful and investigated and it seems that the mail centre for Halifax is in Leeds and the actual bereavement office in manchester and whilst the form was received by Leeds and scanned onto the system the scan is poor and they have since lost the original document so 'the system' just automatically assumed my first was not a legal copy and asked for another. However she tried to get some more info about the other form but I got cut off again.

The third person just said that she would wait to see if the additional copy I handed into the branch on Saturday turns up (apparently no note was made on my file) and if that turns up then I will be fine. She also confirmed that if they can find my original letter (the copy scanned onto their system is not sufficient) that acts as my instructions to close the accounts and pay me up. However if my letters are not found in Leeds then i may have to submit them all over again.

You couldn't make this up it is all so daft.

username

I will PM you with some details that might be of help.