deed of variation?
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Instruct you solicitor to ignore any further communication unless it is a valid court issued document. Remind him that you will not be paying any further costs relating to this "claim" and concentrate on the matters that you are paying for.
Quite frankly, if there had been any substance to this claim, they have had more than enough time to state their case. As it is, they are out of time and would need to go to the high court with a pretty compelling argument as to why they should be allowed to file a claim now. It will cost them dearly for the privilege, and have a very slim chance of being granted permission.
Treasure the moments that you have. Savour them for as long as you can for they will never come back again.
That's exactly how I replied: formal claim, court order or I'm not interested. I will follow this up with a question over paying for any more futile responses, because I'm certain they all end up in File 13 anyway. They / their solicitor appears to be playing a cruel game, we've had these threats of a claim for six months now, every time we ask them to deliver we get "ah but we're still working on it". My problem is that they could keep saying that until Doomsday and this may well be the intention, they have opened a window through which they can prod me whenever they feel like it. My solicitor seems to be playing along with the game. Presumably saying I'm not funding this silliness any longer will get a response from at least my side - such talk usually yields a reproachful reply within minutes if not sooner. Anything else and you can expect a delay of five days or so. Meanwhile my solicitor will be drafting up a 'robust response' for me to approve which will cost me a fortune and achieve nothing. What the solicitor should really reply is for the opposing side to 'go to glory' leaving them in no doubt whatsoever. :mad:
When one parent died half a property came to me in their will, but no Land Registry paperwork was completed at that stage. When the surviving parent died the property came to me entirely. Now the solicitor says because of the missing LR paperwork the deed transfer needs to be formally 'conveyed'. I said okay to this (what else could I say under the circumstances?) now a month later they say the conveyance will be delayed 'because they are busy with the approaching new tax year'. Does anyone know what this mysterious 'missing step' in the transfer of the deeds to my name might be please - is it a further form perhaps? If they are dragging their heels can I not request the deeds back from them and submit them myself to the Land Registry? If the LR then dawdle I will have lost nothing time-wise because all I get from the solicitor is 'hurry up and wait'.
Thanks.
I would simply tell him "No reply required". Ignoring someone can sometimes just as effective as telling them where to get off. If you (or rather your solicitor) refuse to acknowledge any further communications, I suspect your opponent will start to get upset
Pandering to every letter gives him the satisfaction that it is costing you time and money.
Treasure the moments that you have. Savour them for as long as you can for they will never come back again.
That's exactly where we should be. At the moment the tail is wagging the dog and the dog is responding, so the tail wags some more. If we just stop responding they have to 'put up or shut up', there's no other option. I'll suggest this to my side next week.
Will update.
Thanks again
There are solicitors who act on your behalf. And there are solicitors who don't.
You've got one that isn't. The complaints being made in this case are out of time, as your solicitor must realise. Attempting to bring an action which is out of time requires the agreement of the High Court, which is only forthcoming if there are extremely compelling reasons which are unlikely in this case. Moreover, if you had to wait on the offchance that an out-of-time action might proceed before distributing an estate, you could never distribute anything: an out-of-time action might be raised twenty years later. It is, in the end, your decision, not your solicitor's, as to whether you are frightened by paper tigers or not, and it is your decision whether to ignore the posturing and proceed. If your solicitor will not obey your instructions, you need another solicitor.
Yes I agree with everything you say - the situation is ridiculous. I am working on another approach now and will update. Paper tigers all well and good but these people also hold the deeds to my only home and that is something much more substantial, at the moment I feel the deeds are being used as a carrot (or a goad?) to induce me to play along with the costly solicitor response & reply game. The solicitor has shown every intention of holding onto my deeds as long as possible, as opposed to processing them and conveying them to the Land Registry as I asked. I can be and am being blinded with science here because I do not understand why my deeds are being withheld from LR, nor do I understand why I cannot simply forward the deeds to LR myself?
Many thanks.