slow probate

farmermo

my father passed away in may 2016 and left a will leaving his solicitor as sole executor.
after many delays she finally submitted the iht400 in december.
after hearing of probate fees going through the roof, I got in touch with her to see what was going on a couple of weeks ago.
last week she informed me that when she tried to chase hmrc, they told her that they have no trace of any paperwork.
when I asked her if she'd sent the iht400 registered post, she said hmrc don't accept any registered post.
it's nearly a year now and seem no closer than when we started after losing the last three months.
is this normal, or is the solicitor dragging her heels?

Tuesday_Tenor

>>>>> last week she informed me that when she tried to chase hmrc, they told her that they have no trace of any paperwork.

What is the solicitor proposing to do next?

farmermo

She said she has resubmitted it straight away, I found it annoying that she didn't inform me of any of this until I chased her.
The thing is dad and myself we're running a farm together, and I now own the farm, but with all bank accounts frozen and rural payments agency withholding payment until probate is sorted, it's making things tight!
It just seems to be going on and on

TBagpuss

How long it takes depends an awful lot on the individual case. It is not particularly *unusual* for it to take a long time, as you need to get all the information in about the assets in order to complete the probate forms, and that can be very time confusing, particularly if you have to wait for DWP or HMRC to come back to you about whether any over payments are due back, or anything of that kind.

It would be reasonable to ask her to raise the delay with HMRC and to see whether she can get them to deal with the resubmitted papers urgently if it is they who have lost them, but dealing with HMRC is never easy, and that chances of them admitting any fault is low.

farmermo

Fortunately, because of working with my father and helping him with his finances, I was able to give the solicitor all details of investments, bank accounts and pensions within a couple of weeks of his death.
I was also able to give her details of all beneficiaries.

Yorkshireman99

farmermo wrote: »

She said she has resubmitted it straight away, I found it annoying that she didn't inform me of any of this until I chased her.
The thing is dad and myself we're running a farm together, and I now own the farm, but with all bank accounts frozen and rural payments agency withholding payment until probate is sorted, it's making things tight!
It just seems to be going on and on

You should make a formal complaint under the solicitor's own complaints procedure. If, as it seems, the solicitor has been negligent it might be possible to recover any losses caused by it.