Co-operative Legal Services Probate

Number_Five

Hi all,
I instructed Co-op Legal Services to handle the probate for my grandfather's estate and now i'm regretting it.  Is there anything I can do to stop the process and use someone else ? The following is an account of what has happened so far. 

Someone came out to see us at home from CLS and before I knew it I was signing the contract and waiving my right to the 14 day cooling off period. I felt under pressure to sign as he seemed to expect it. They are charging us a fixed fee of £8600 for dealing with a simple estate of one house, one bank account and two benificiaries and have taken the original will away which is now at their Bristol office with our case handler. I have now learnt that I probably could have instructed someone for half the price. They use a company called movewithus to do the valuations on the property, which sent two local estate agents to value the property. When I asked one of the estate agents what the value of the property was they said they couldn't tell me and i'd have to wait for the report and not to be concerned if it has been under valued as the corporate does that sometimes. This left me feeling really uncomfortable and confused. Our case handler sent out the initial paperwork for us to sign and got our addresses wrong. It has been a week now and i'm not sure she has made any contact with the utility companies as yet and the buildings insurance runs out in a couple of weeks. I don't think the grant of probate application has started yet. Since instructing CLS I have read really negative reviews about them on trust pilot, reviewers saying they don't recommend them as they are over priced, make a catalogue of errors, take to long time, don't care about the customer and additional costs are accrued. I don't feel good about using them anymore. I don't feel they are very ethical. I instructed them for a full probate service to take the stress away but now i feel even more stressed. It's only been six weeks since my grandfather's death and i'm still grieving and i'm full of anxiety because i feel i have let my family down by instructing CLS. I'd like to use someone else but I don't know if I can now i've signed the contract and I'm concerned they will not return the original will. If anyone could help  I would be so grateful.

Many thanks in advance.

Keep_pedalling

I think it is probably too late to cancel the contract, but using someone else would almost certainly be the wrong thing to do, as a simple estate is best carried out yourself. 

Have you instructed them to sell the house as well? 

4leafclover_2

Sounds like my experience.