Excessive solicitors' fees?

hb47_2

My father moved to Belgium with his (Belgian) wife when he was 83 - he became ill after beingthere for about a year and died in hospital in May 2011. His wife was heartbroken and very infirm and on a lot of medication. She finally died in November 2011 - before the estate of my father had been sorted out.
They had 'mirror' wills which were written for free under an Age Concern offer. The executors were a firm of Cornish solicitors (local to them when they lived in England).
When they got to Belgium they took out a contract which ensured that whichever of them died first, everything went to the other.
When my father died, it was established that the English wills stood and the Belgian solicitor who had written that contract for them was acting for my father's wife. He basically did nothing for 5 months and then refused to deal with it - he said his English wasn't good enough and he didn't respond to any of my queries or emails. He was replaced by another Belgian solicitor who did speak English and was altogehter more professional. so far so good.
But these solicitors are now questioning the cost of the Cornish solicitors bills. They are charging £5,144.41 and £1,726.80 respectively for handling my father's and subsequently his wife's probate.
The Belgian solicitors have asked me if these costs are usual in England. They seem very high to me - but does anyone have any idea please? I'm not sure what to do.

getmore4less

Get a breakdown of the charges.
you also probably need a set of estate accounts

It can get complictaed when you die overseas and there are foriegn assets usualy needs special consideration and cross border specialist

TonyMMM

How big were the estates ? ... it is quite common for solicitors to charge a % of the value in addition to their hourly charge when dealing with probate. The charges should have been made clear at the outset.

Get a breakdown showing exactly what they are charging for.

loubel

Without knowing how large or complex the estates were it is hard to comment on whether the fees were reasonable. But unless the estates were incredibly small those fees don't stand out as high to me.

Solicitor fees for probate work are usually either on an hourly basis or a % of the estate or a combination of the two. When firms are appinted as executors they are entitled to be paid for everything that they do in relation to the estate. You can ask the solicitors for confirmation on how their fees were calculated.