Very difficult situation regarding grandmother's will

gll5dm

The only thing about the above is the solicitor will simply say he is waiting for input from previous trustees and cannot do anything until they get in touch (as that was his excuse recently for waiting since middle of January for a response to an email he sent to the previous trustee). So what's the point of the formal complaint, really?

We complain, saying it's taking too long, they're not communicating with us as promised, it's not been wrapped up as they had assured us it would be. They get back in touch and say they can't complete it until they hear back from previous trustee(s). I don't see what the Legal Ombudsman could do about that to speed things up?

Obviously I am no expert on this matter so please point out if something obvious is missing here.

badmemory

A proper written complaint may well concentrate their minds. If it isn't in writing it doesn't exist. There are a lot of threads on this forum that say we rang and complained & they did nothing so we rang again & they had no idea we had complained.

Yorkshireman99

gll5dm wrote: »

The only thing about the above is the solicitor will simply say he is waiting for input from previous trustees and cannot do anything until they get in touch (as that was his excuse recently for waiting since middle of January for a response to an email he sent to the previous trustee). So what's the point of the formal complaint, really?

We complain, saying it's taking too long, they're not communicating with us as promised, it's not been wrapped up as they had assured us it would be. They get back in touch and say they can't complete it until they hear back from previous trustee(s). I don't see what the Legal Ombudsman could do about that to speed things up?

Obviously I am no expert on this matter so please point out if something obvious is missing here.

Simply not so. Solictors are obliged to have a formal complaints handling procedure. Write, by letter, not email, to the senior partner setting out logicly and unemotionally what your complaint is. All it will cost is a little effort and a stamp. It will have much more efect than posting on here. Sorry to be blunt but the ball is in your court.

gll5dm

Yorkshireman99 wrote: »

Simply not so. Solictors are obliged to have a formal complints handling procedure. Write, by letter, not email, to the senior partner setting out logicly and unemotionally what your complaint is. All it will cost is a little effort and a stamp. It will have much more efect than posting on here. Sorry to be blunt but the ball is in your court.

No need to apologise, I truly value your advice and have done throughout this thread. Thanks once again for commenting!

gll5dm

Official complaint has been sent in the post and would have been received by yesterday at the latest. Let's see if they bother responding ...

gll5dm

Obviously not expecting an answer yet but it's been a week since my complaint would have been received.

Any ideas what the maximum time is they are allowed to take before responding?

Yorkshireman99

gll5dm wrote: »

Obviously not expecting an answer yet but it's been a week since my complaint would have been received.

Any ideas what the maximum time is they are allowed to take before responding?

I don.t know what the time limit is but 14 days seems reasonable. The important thing is to keep up the pressure an document everything with dates and times. Contemporaneous notes carry much more credibility.

Malthusian

In the finance world there is an explicit duty on firms which receive a complaint to provide an initial response "promptly". In the vast majority of cases the initial response simply acknowledges the complaint and includes a copy of their complaints procedure.

I haven't been able to find out whether the same is true in the legal world, but I agree with YM that 14 days is reasonable to confirm receipt.

The Solicitors Regulation Authority does say explicitly that if they haven't resolved the complaint to your satisifcation within eight weeks you can go to the Legal Obmudsman.

gll5dm

So now the solicitors will have had my formal complaint two weeks and are yet to acknowledge receipt of it. Emails from over two months ago have not been responded to and phone calls not returned.

What should the next step be? Approach the legal ombudsman and explain the situation?

buildersdaughter

I think you could at least make enquiries of the Ombudsman, good luck, and thank you so much for updating us.