Post Office Savings - The nightmare of closing a deceased relative's account

AKOOLA

      Please bear with me.  This is an issue that has dragged on for six months, though it began six years ago!

      In 2013 my friend died, I was the executor of his last Will and Testament.  When he wrote his Will I was using a different surname.  I know my friend had private pensions, savings accounts, ISAs, Premium Bonds and shares all over the place.  I’m not sure if even he could remember them all.  There was only one beneficiary of his Will and she was to receive the entire estate when she became twenty-one.  She was at the time, nineteen.

      Soon after his death I contacted Post Office Savings (POS) to close ISA accounts and the Premium Bond accounts.  They required a copy of the Will and as I was aware my name on it was different to the one I was currently using, I also sent my Deed Poll.  The accounts were duly closed and the money placed into a holding account ready for the beneficiary when she came of age.  As I stated above, my friend had accounts all over the place so I asked POS whether there were further accounts in his name.  To this I was specifically told there were not.

      In early September 2019 the beneficiary, now living in the house left to her by my friend, opened a letter addressed to the deceased.  It was a letter from POS referring to upcoming interest changes to three accounts he held with them, totalling just over £6000.  She contacted POS and was categorically told she had no authority to deal with the accounts, they would only deal with the executor of his estate.  Luckily we remained in contact and so she contacted me.

      A day later I phoned POS and was told they would send indemnity forms out to me for each account and I would need to fill these in and write a ‘letter of instruction’.  During this call I pointed out that I’d asked six years earlier, when I closed ISA and Premium Bond accounts, whether there were any more accounts in relation to the deceased.  The customer adviser said those were completely different departments and they do not communicate with each other.  A few days later the forms arrived and I set about completing them, put them into an envelope along with my ‘letter of instruction’ providing details of the bank account I wished them to deposit the funds in.  I posted this envelope to the address supplied and waited.

      After around two weeks I realised no money had been deposited into the account for which I’d provided details of.  I phoned POS and was told they had received the indemnity forms but not the ‘letter of instruction’.  I was positive I’d included this with those forms, but nevertheless, I offered the account details over the phone.  I was told they were unable to take details from me over the phone and that I would have to write another letter of instruction.  Rather irritated, I constructed another 'letter of instruction'  the same afternoon - providing the same details as before -and posted it immediately.  

      About a week later, still no money had been deposited into the account.  Once again I called POS.  I was told they had not received a ‘letter of instruction’ and that I would have to write another one.  Again I tried to pass the details to them over the phone, but they insisted they had to have it in writing.  Naturally I was somewhat annoyed and explained it was pointless sending another letter as they were completely incompetent.  It was a bit like… ‘Computer says NO!’  So once again I drafted another ‘letter of instruction’.  This time, however, I sent it by recorded delivery.

      Another week passed and again no money had been deposited.  By this time it was approaching the end of October.  I contacted POS to make the now so familiar enquiry  to be told, unsurprisingly, they had not received my ‘letter of instruction’.  I had taken the liberty, prior to making this call, to check whether my recorded delivery had been signed for... and indeed it had.  When I pointed out this fact, amazingly, the customer adviser discovered it was ‘on the system’.  She said they had received it on the 21 October.  She advised me the information would pass to another department and it would take another week to finalise. 

      A week later and still no deposit had been made.  I contacted POS again.  I relayed all that had happened so far and the customer service adviser reassured me that it was all in hand and would be dealt with within the next forty-eight hours.

      The time limit had been and gone, another couple of weeks passed and still no sign of the deposit.  The sudden realisation there were outstanding savings accounts could not have come at a better time for the beneficiary as she was about to move house.  She was also quite keen for me to continue contacting POS, so on the 25 November I called again.  Again I am reassured all will be dealt with within the next forty-eight hours.  In fact I was told to give it until Thursday of that week and call back if I don’t see the results.  For whatever reason I had no time to pursue another pointless phone call when, on Friday of that week, I still saw no money had been deposited.

      The next time I contacted POS was the 16 December.  I managed to speak to a very pleasant customer adviser who advised me that there was an issue with my name change, in that the name printed on the ‘copy’ of the Will was different to that which I am using now.  I explained I would not have sent the Will without a Deed Poll as I was well aware of the discrepancy.  Eventually the customer adviser discovered there was a copy of the Deed Poll attached to the last page of the Will.  She then informs me that they would not accept a copy… they would require an original.  I explained that I would not have sent a copy in the first place.  The Post Office copied my original Deed Poll and that was why it was on their system.  I was still reeling from the fact they had all this information when I’d been told weeks earlier they were completely different departments?  The other issue I had was that I changed my name in 2011 and since them I had left my marital home and was not sure I had the original Deed Polls any longer.  Again, she was insistent that I send an original.  I explained the copy they had was perfectly legal anyway.  If I wanted to, I could download a fancy certificate from the internet, write in the appropriate words, print it off, sign it and I would have a perfectly legal document declaring my intention to use another name.  It would still be perfectly legal even if I'd completed it with a wax crayon!  While I explained this, I also asked the adviser to read the first page of the Last Will and Testament.  The part I was keen for her to hear was, ‘when the beneficiary reaches the age of twenty-one she would become the legal owner of the estate’.  The beneficiary is now twenty-five.  I used the analogy of leaving the customer adviser a present under a Christmas tree, the condition being she would be unable to open and accept the gift until Christmas morning.  Thereafter, once I’d made that gift, she would become the legal and equitable owner of that present to do with as she pleases… sell it, swap it, bin it, exchange it or put it on the fire.  I explained I had no more right to deal with these accounts than my next door neighbour as the beneficiary is now the legal owner.  Unsurprisingly, the adviser maintained the Post Office would only explicitly deal with the executor!  

      There was another issue too.  Since all this began the beneficiary had moved house and my circumstances were such that I was about to set off to Europe for a year and had no legal address.  You guessed it… they could not accept the beneficiaries new address over the phone, I would have to write in.  It was after this phone call I decided to lodge a complaint using an online service called Resolver.  

      Christmas came and went and about mid way through January the beneficiary received a letter, which had been redirected from her previous address and… it was addressed to me!   As I was already out of the country I asked her to open it.  It requested I send an original Deed Poll.  Quite naturally, as I was no longer in the UK, as I have not needed to use a Deed Poll for many years, as the POS have a copy of an original (which they copied themselves), as I had no real authority to deal with these accounts anyway, this has caused me significant difficulty.  I had to make arrangements for someone to visit my old marital home to dig out the document, hoping it was still there.  Eventually it was retrieved and sent, via recorded delivery.  In the meantime, the eight week deadline for POS to respond to my complaint passed.  I received no response from them whatsoever.  The document was not signed for for over a week.  Eventually, however, we see that it was received last week.  Still no money has entered the account.  Resolver also gave me an opportunity to escalate my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.  Following a response from them, it would seem they are too busy to deal with this right now.

      It is six months since this started and we seem to be no further forward.  I’m fed up phoning them, which is more difficult now that I’m not in the UK, and listening to a torrent of lies.  They did not respond to my complaint and now the Financial Ombudsman are too busy.  There must be something more I can do?  I’ve contemplated bringing a County Court claim against them, though I suspect the beneficiary would have to do that and... on what grounds?  It seems these financial giants can mess people’s lives around at will without fear or concern that they will be brought to book.