Probate Stupidity

bazster

Filled in the probate forms. Stated Luton as preferred office for interview.

They came back with an appointment at Holborn. What the hell is the point in asking which office you want if they're just going to ignore it?

Holborn is a 2-hour round trip. The interview lasted 7 minutes. What a total load of b******s.

fluffnutter

I suspect there's some sort of target that probate offices need to meet, and an appt at Luton would have missed the target.

It's the same with patient choice in the NHS (not that I agree with it anyway). You choose which hospital you want but if an appt can't be made in the 18 weeks or whatever the target is, they'll make you one elsewhere.

It's more important for the target to be met, than for the appt to be at your convenience. That's targets for you, innit? Despite their being there to supposedly improve things, who cares what the service is like - just tick the bloody box.

Elsewhere

Same thing happened to us - you are supposed to be able to have an interview in Bournemouth, but we were told that there "was not enough demand" and the interview would have to be in Winchester.

When I rang up Winchester to question this, I was told that they had to have 50 people wanting interviews in Bournemouth before they would set a day to send along one of their people to do it.

Well, Bournemouth is stuffed to the gills with elderly people, so I don't think it would take more than a week or two to gather that many... but if they refuse everyone who asks as they request an interview, they'll never get the 50 in the queue. Catch-22 for the executors and an all-round win for the Probate Office.

njhsmee

I had the same thing.....put in for a hull interview and was sent to york.Had to take the day off work and was in there for 4 minutes max....looked at my i.d,swore on the bible and that was it! Due to complications i'm having to file probate for my dads estate and have just requested hull again....maybe they will send me to cardiff next time............

Valli

Never had to deal with this but it seems like an overly-complicated system.
Why can one not swear an oath in a court offices or at a registry office?
Most towns have these!

oldagetraveller

Strange, all I had to do was make a declaration, on oath, in the presence a solicitor in their office. No interview, nothing.

YesWillMan

But you will be paying your Solicitor for the privilege though and the Probate Court Fee, whereas those going to do the interviews only pay the Probate Court Fee.

The Solicitor in your case sends the Probate papers to the Probate Court direct so that they can go through them before issuing the Grant. Of course those who go direct to the Probate Office leave the papers with them for the Grant to be issued.

troubleinparadise

I had a similar situation - wanted a smaller office as it would be more convenient; but was told no, it had to be the main one, Winchester, in this case. I lightheartedly made a comment about cutbacks, and was told "I couldn't possibly say".....

so I think there is a money saving exercise going on here; less staff, less office overheads etc etc

and in my case, 1 hour plus journeys each way for those involved for a 10 minute appointment!

Oldfatgrumpy

I don't understand this bouncing people around the country if it's just for swearing an oath for probate. When I had to do this for probate of my dad's estate in 1996, I walked 50 yards to the nearest solicitor (Commissioner For Oaths) and did it in his office.

bazster

oldagetraveller wrote: »

Strange, all I had to do was make a declaration, on oath, in the presence a solicitor in their office. No interview, nothing.

Ah, but how much did you pay the solicitor? In this case we were looking at solicitors' fees of £3,000, whereas it's a total doddle to do it yourself (just a couple of forms to fill in) apart from this daft pantomime of visiting an office.

Probate has now been granted, BTW, so we managed it perfectly well without handing over a small fortune to Messrs. Sue, Grabbitt and Runne!