Money left to me in a will, solicitors want me to pay them for releasing it!? HELP!

DF97

Hi everyone,
I'll try and keep it brief!
I was left money from the sale of my nana's house when she passed away about 10 years ago, this was to come to me on my 21st birthday (2018). However, the solicitor she used to write her will retired around 7 years ago and the company that took over his existing clients never picked up on the trust for me because they 'weren't instructed to' by me or the executors.
After 2 years of chasing and them finally getting their sh*t together, they have got the paperwork sorted with the executors and the bank the funds are with. The bank released the funds to the solicitors at the end of March 2020, the executors received a letter from the bank stating this, and after a lot of chasing on my behalf the solicitors transferred the money to me on the 1st May. I was repeatedly told by the solicitors they hadn't received it, or the bank hadn't released it still! I was obviously annoyed as they were gaining interest on it for those couple of months.

Now, the solicitors are trying to get me to pay them £250+VAT for their work getting the funds released to me! I have received money left to me in a will previously and never had to pay the solicitors? Has anyone else experienced this? Should I have to pay them? 
Surely, when my Nana paid for the will to be written etc, the cost of releasing the money to me when the time came would have been covered in what she paid?

I'm grateful for any insight anyone has. 

happy_hazelnuts

If I were you I would not pay them and tell them to keep them the money you don't want it

fred246

If you're not happy then you can take them to court. Oh dear that's what they do for a living and they should win seeing you have no experience of going to court. The judge who is also legally trained and getting paid a fortune for his legal services is unlikely to side with someone arguing that the legally trained solicitor is charging too much. In short solicitors are the biggest legal crooks around. The best you can do is to kick up a big fuss and hope they will reduce their charges. Careful how you do it though or you could end up in court.

eskbanker

Much depends on exactly what trust arrangements were set up, by whom, and who the trustees are/were, plus the roles and responsibilities of the executors and solicitors (why did you need to do all the chasing?), but it does sound plausible that there'd be some sort of bill to pay if professional assistance was used, even if, with hindsight, you might have preferred not to have done things that way.  What do the executors say, as I'd have expected any bill to be payable by them (although probably ultimately from the same pot)?

Edit: you might get more input at the cheerily-titled Deaths, Funerals & Probate board:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/deaths-funerals-probate

MovingForwards

Yes, you should pay them as you asked them to do the work.
No, the costs wouldn't have been covered by your nan when the will was drafted as she would have only paid for the work to prepare the will and not any subsequent work required upon her death.

newlywed

Did they tell you at any point that you would have to pay their costs? Did they tell you their hourly charges? Did you sign any terms and conditions with them? 

If not, then complain using their complaints procedure. 

Uxb1

When normally you get left money in a will and there are no trusts etc involved it depends on how it was stated in the will
If it was a fixed money gift bequeathed then yes, you would get the full value, with the costs involved in sorting out payment to you etc being met from the residue of the estate.
But if you were left a percentage of the residue of the estate after everyone else had been paid and all debts dealt with then the money due to you would be after the solicitor helping the executor had deducted their charges, plus also after the executor had deducted their expenses.  In this case it is usual to get all those entitled to a % of the residue of the estate to approve this by signing the estate accounts showing these deductions before they are paid by the solicitor managing the estate.

colsten

Why would you expect a solicitor to do work for you for free?

Skibunny40

I would expect the executors/trustees to pay costs in this scenario as they should have been keeping an eye on your money until it was due to be paid to you. From what you've written, they failed in that duty.

Voyager2002

The solicitors have obviously not done their work very well. Say that you are preparing a formal complaint to the SRA and ask them for a complete timeline of when they were instructed and when they did what. Or you might suggest that in view of the extended delays their fee should be reduced: offer them a tenner and see what they say!

colsten

Whether the solicitors fee gets paid by the OP or taken from the estate is 6 in one and half a dozen in the other.