£900 for a will!!

stamford

Nicki wrote:

No, but they are covered by indemnity insurance (have to be) so if this does happen you have come back, and should not end up out of pocket.

You would be up the creek if the solicitor had gone out of business before the "malpractice" was discovered - which in these legal areas could often be the case - eg some sort of trust arrangement where the death doesn't occur until a few years later.

I ended up paying about £400 to sell a maisonette to put in some sort of one off insurance policy to cover something that was missing from the lease conditions. I was over a barrel the sale would have collapsed if I'd not paid up

This should have been picked up by my conveyancing solicitor 4 years earlier but in the meantime she'd gone out of business so I was unable to lay a claim on her. Solicitor or not I'd happily lay my fist on her if she ever crossed my path

Nicki

Limitation period doesn't start to run until you discover the fraud or the negligence, and it is irrelevant whether the solicitor is still practising or not. You could still have pursued her and claimed your losses. If this happened recently you are probably still in time to do so. You should take legal advice on this.

ohreally

If you're a trade union member you may find a will service is included as part of your benefits.I know people who have had wills done through Amicus and Unison.

pooranddesperate

I really would strongly advise against using anything other than a qualified solicitor to draw up a will. Anyone can set up a wills company, and don't have to have any real experience, knowledge, and might not have insurance. So if anything is wrong with your will (which, lets face it, probably won't be discovered until after you've died) you or your nearest and dearest will have absolutely no comeback if the company is not then in operation.

All solicitors practices have to have indemnity insurance (the law society makes sure that they do), so if any defects are discovered at a later date you can make a claim against the firm - or any firm which now owns them. You will still have a claim against the insurance company even if the firm has long closed.

If you are trying to use complicated schemes to avoid IHT then this, inevitably is going to cost more - as they can be very complicated. It is much better to pay more now, than to have problems later - if there are problems with a will after death then this can cost thousands and thousands and thousands to solve.

i'm not saying that you shouldn't shop around, but be wary of people offering you very cheap wills. there is a reason that they are cheap.

truckle

I got a single will from http://www.surewill.co.uk for £49. I spoke to Colin (the Will writer) on the phone and it turns out I won't need to pay any Inheritance Tax. They took care of storing the will and putting it on the national will register too.