12 months dealing with a <£30k estate - where do I stand?

AidanEngland

Hi all.

My father passed away last year and, as he lived 100 miles away from me, my family suggested we use their local solicitor (with whom they had been dealing since moving to the area 30+ years ago). It seemed a sensible choice as they were well-known to the family.

My father had no property, just a couple of old pension pots and bank accounts, so the estate's value was well below the threshold for probate. At the time, it seemed all would be quite simple. As you've probably gathered from the title of this post, we are just now approaching the end of things. Turns out our solicitor had made a mistake in one of the payment release forms, which had not been picked up by the pension provider or the solicitors in the last 8 months or so of correspondence. 

Whilst I'm typically not one to complain for the sake of getting something, I feel that my family and I have (in addition to the mental/emotional strain of still pursuing this a year on) been deprived of the inheritance we're due, which realistically could have been with us last autumn had this "clerical error" not got in the way.

From my old work in financial services, I know that the Financial Ombudsman have been known to award statutory interest for cases in which a company has unreasonably held/delayed payment of a customer/client's funds. Does anybody have any idea whether a similar precident would apply in legal dealings?

I'm fortunate not to have needed legal services until my dad passed, so feel a little out of my depth throwing complaints around without knowing the ins and outs of things.

Hope this all makes sense, thanks in advance.

p.s. Today the estate documents have -finally- arrived in the post.

cymruchris

12 months doesn't sound extortionately unreasonable even though it sounds a fairly straightforward estate. I imagine without the mistake you would have received it a little sooner as you say - but mistakes do happen. You haven't been deprived of it though as such, you'll be getting it, just at a slightly longer timescale than you expected. Have they unreasonably held it or delayed it? I'm not sure a mistake would fall into that category, as it wasn't intentional. I'll let those with more knowledge give more streamlined advice, and I too am also going through my dad's estate process at the moment, so understand what you're going through. (from my understanding there also has to be a period of time that passes to ensure any debts are addressed before the estate is distributed - so it's not always as simple as pulling in the money and sharing it out)

sassyblue

There should be interest payments due from whoever is holding the funds. Do you know who it is at this stage?

solicitors have to hold client funds in a separate account to their own business accounts so you will receive interest but it’s only bank interest, nothing amazing.