How long should all this take

nexttonothning

Hi,
Advise please.

My father in law died on the 26th August 2013 aged 94yrs.

His estate comprised of a property, a field of 6 acres and a yard with machinery, 4 bank accounts.

He had a ‘partner’ who ‘bought’ a half share in the house. (It was a cottage F-i-L owned that they then renovated and extended). The yard adjoined the house.

He appointed his solicitors as executors and trustees of the property as in the terms of the will his partner can live in the cottage until either she leaves of her own will, vacates the property for more than 6 months without informing the trustees or dies.

Due to M-i-L not using her allowance when she died 8 years ago this apparently can be added to F-i-L’s allowance (£650,000)? The estate is worth way below that amount roughly £400,000.

In the will the Land, yard and machinery has been left to my husband’s brother (R) and his son (C) (there has unfortunately been a family upset between my husband and his father which resulted in father in law in 2010 basically cutting my husband out of the bulk of the estate, too complicated to explain further) – (though (R) is very cross with this outcome and has already said the (M) will have half of his share whatever the outcome).

Father in laws half of the property is left in trust between M & R.
Residual monies from the bank accounts are left between M & R after a sum of £50,000 to his partner and all sols fees etc have been paid.
The property, land and machinery were valued by a surveyor on the 19th September 2013 though this report was only sent onto the solicitor on the 28th October after I had queried WHY it was taking so long. We did query the valuation of the property (once we were given the report) as we thought is on the low side again I had to chivvy the solicitor about the time this was taking (3 further weeks) she said the surveyor stood by his original valuation.... Think he was being mizzy at having his valuation queried....!!

Today we had a letter from the solicitor stating that probate had been obtained on the 20th January 2014 and that they expected it to take a further 2-3 months before F-i-L’s estate was concluded.

Included in the letter was confirmation that the solicitor’s fees would be £10,000 plus vat, plus disbursements and more vat.

Is this a fair charge? Seems a lot.....!! as no-doubt the disbursements will add up to several more thousands plus even more vat.

Should it take so long?

Any advise/comments on the above will be gratefully received.

SmlSave

2-3 months from the Grant of Probate sounds rather optimistic to me.


And £10,000 plus VAT and disbursements sounds realistic for the administration of an estate although if they are estimating costs now they've probably estimated in their favour.


It certainly matches roughly what the firm I work for would charge although we would never estimate a cost because some cases generate a lot less work and some (large estates/arguing family) cost more.

getmore4less

solicitors seem to take months to do things that competent lay people do in weeks.

NAR

getmore4less wrote: »

solicitors seem to take months to do things that competent lay people do in weeks.

The reason being that they have a caseload to take care of, not just one. Yet another reason for not having solicitors as executors.

SmlSave

Working on probate files (I'm only a sec though so no solicitor training) the delay seems mostly caused as companies take their sweet time to reply to letters asking for final figures as of the date of death. Although if the estate owes them money they appear to be much quicker at replying! *rolls eyes*

Plus if a solicitor is the Executor then Section 27 Notices are always done which delays distribution by 4-6 weeks straight away.

After seeing some clients argue I think (although I'd rather save the money) to first appoint my DH as Executor and then solicitors (should he die) rather than my children or two people.

getmore4less

IME most of the delays are because things are not acted on promptly.

when they are things take weeks. When not months

Owlman45

Hi, some estates with property to sell etc. take up to 14months to administer, if there are family disputes or debts with government departments to repay it's going to be longer. In my experience as an executor for my Fathers estate in 2005 it can take at least six months for a relatively straightforward estate not using a solicitor.
Brian.

madbadrob

SmlSave wrote: »

Working on probate files (I'm only a sec though so no solicitor training) the delay seems mostly caused as companies take their sweet time to reply to letters asking for final figures as of the date of death. Although if the estate owes them money they appear to be much quicker at replying! *rolls eyes*

Plus if a solicitor is the Executor then Section 27 Notices are always done which delays distribution by 4-6 weeks straight away.

After seeing some clients argue I think (although I'd rather save the money) to first appoint my DH as Executor and then solicitors (should he die) rather than my children or two people.

Section 27 takes 6 weeks minimum. Then if someone comes forward they have to be given time to provide proof of the debt, the solicitor to do all the requied checks etc.

Rob