Heir Hunters refusing to hand over money from estate

KBUCH20

I’m hoping someone can offer some advice on how to proceed. My sister and I were unexpectedly contacted by a solicitor to say we had been named as beneficiaries in a Will.  However, the estate had been intestate for 8 years so had been picked up by a well known Heir Hunter firm. The heir hunter had tracked down a family member and proceeded to administer the estate to this person. For unknown reasons, they didn’t do a Will search until very late on in the process. This was the point the solicitor contacted us and applied to get the grant of administration removed for the other family member (not sure if that’s the correct term). They didn’t contest the Will.  The probate has now been completed by our solicitor (the whole thing has taken 18 months), with my sister and I named as the recipients.  However, the actually money is with the Heir Hunters who are refusing to hand it over unless we pay their fees, which they say they have reduced.  The solicitor has repeatedly contacted them to say as they have no contract with us no fee is due, and has requested a copy of the contract they had with the previous family member which she suspects was a ‘no money, no fee’ contract, again they have refused to supply this. The solicitor has said we can either agree to pay their fee to resolve it quickly so the money is released or she can refer us to their disputes department. We’re unsure of what to do as the total estate is £15k, minus replying state funeral and the solicitor fees as they stand, this will leave around £10k. The fee the HH are requesting is £2k, obviously if we fight it the solicitor costs will probably exceed this.  I wondered if there is a way we can resolve it ourselves but Heir Hunters don’t appear to be regulated by anyone. Obviously we wouldn’t have known about the Will if the HH didn’t pick it up but they worked for the other family member and seemingly made a mistake by not doing a Will search early on. From a quick google it looks like they have done this kind of thing before and heavily criticised for the way they operate. 

Should we just pay the fee?  Are they able to hang on to the money in this way? 

Thanks! 

Dox

Either pay the fee, or face a long and probably expensive saga as you battle to get your hands on the cash. I know which I'd do.

pphillips

Check to see if company has signed up to alternative dispute resolution on www.cedr.com/consumer/

Silvertabby

My heart says fight, but my head says pay the £2K and move on.

Contesting this would almost certainly cost you more than £2K in legal fees.  It may even cost you more than £10K. 

Malthusian

£4k each or fight for £5k? No brainer, take the £4k. Then add another snotty review to their pile of snotty reviews.

It's still a £4k Brucie bonus you were never expecting to have, otherwise you'd've applied to administer the estate 8 years ago when your benefactor/ess died.

pphillips

Silvertabby said:

My heart says fight, but my head says pay the £2K and move on.

Contesting this would almost certainly cost you more than £2K in legal fees.  It may even cost you more than £10K. 

My head says fight, the heir hunter either need to request payment from the person who signed the contract or write the fees off as a loss.

Silvertabby

pphillips said:

Silvertabby said:

My heart says fight, but my head says pay the £2K and move on.

Contesting this would almost certainly cost you more than £2K in legal fees.  It may even cost you more than £10K. 

My head says fight, the heir hunter either need to request payment from the person who signed the contract or write the fees off as a loss.

Depends how close OP is to the family member who had been told that they were the beneficiary.

Shedman

Much as it probably galls to pay the Heir Hunters fee the situation is, as you say, you probably wouldn't have known about this inheritance without their intervention (given it was 8 years ago that the deceased died).  To be fair to them they will probably have expended a fair amount of effort and some expense to get death certificates, locate family member etc.  Its a total unexpected windfall as far as you are concerned.  Maybe the best solution is to go back and make them a counter offer of say £1k with the 'threat' of legal action and a long drawn out process for them which may result in them getting nothing at the end if they don't accept. Not ideal but if they go for it then at least you'll have the £9k soon as opposed to waiting a long time for an extra grand.

pdel61

I'd generate as much publicity as possible, MP, papers, local papers, social media and then fight them.

MobileSaver

pdel61 said:

I'd generate as much publicity as possible, MP, papers, local papers, social media and then fight them.

Sometimes I would agree but in this particular case life is too short; the Heir Hunters firm won't care about bad publicity and will counter that the OP would never have known about this windfall but for their time and effort.

The OP will almost certainly have to fight this in court with all the time, effort and stress that involves. I think that even if the OP wins the case, the magistrate will decide that the Heir Hunters were not being unreasonable in asking for their fees and so costs will not be awarded against them - in other words the OP will have to pay his own legal costs.

My advice, pay the fees with gritted teeth, enjoy your windfall and move on with your life. (As Shedman said you have nothing to lose by trying to negotiate a discounted fee but if they decline just immediately move on.)

pphillips

MobileSaver said:

pdel61 said:

I'd generate as much publicity as possible, MP, papers, local papers, social media and then fight them.

Sometimes I would agree but in this particular case life is too short; the Heir Hunters firm won't care about bad publicity and will counter that the OP would never have known about this windfall but for their time and effort.

The OP will almost certainly have to fight this in court with all the time, effort and stress that involves. I think that even if the OP wins the case, the magistrate will decide that the Heir Hunters were not being unreasonable in asking for their fees and so costs will not be awarded against them - in other words the OP will have to pay his own legal costs.

My advice, pay the fees with gritted teeth, enjoy your windfall and move on with your life. (As Shedman said you have nothing to lose by trying to negotiate a discounted fee but if they decline just immediately move on.)

In civil cases, the general rule is that the loser pays his own costs and the winners costs.