What is a resonable time to make a payment after probate granted?

yorsiwel

Probate was granted to my late father's estate 3 months ago, but the Solicitors he appointed as executors have given no indication of when they will make a payment. All previous attempts to get them to give any indication of when they will complete tasks have failed. They just say it will be done in a "reasonable time" without defining what that is. I do not think 3 months to pay a few bills and collect in money from a couple of accounts is reasonable. I suspect the delay is because these Solicitors did not establish several assets and liabilities before applying for probate, claiming that these such sums did not need to be reported to the Revenue. They then did nothing to establish the amounts until probate was granted. 

Instructing them to make a payment by a specific date will be "noted" and ignored. A complaint will be met with the response that the time taken is "not unreasonable". It is now 16 months simce my father's death and we have not seen a penny from his estate. Has anyone any advice on how to make them pay up or what would be considered reasonable?  

SeniorSam

Although you may feel that it is a long time, in fact it is not at all unreasonable. You need to bear in mind that any executor, be it professional or lay person has a duty to the beneficiaries to carry out their responsibilities. If they did not work correctly, then they could be in very serious trouble.

The time to consider being unreasonable is within one year after |Probate has been granted, although many executors complete within 6 months.  All the assets need to be clarified and documented as the executors need to supply detailed accounts of their calculations and they need to advertise in the Press to ensure that there are no debts outstanding that need to be dealt with.

It is a very tense time after someone has died, but think about how your father would want to have his estate dealt with and in fact your own estate and the executors you choose. Would you expect then to cut corners just to please beneficiaries. I expect not.

aroominyork

IIRC, after my mother died the solicitors made a part distribution from the assets collected, and a final distribution after all the loose ends had been tied up. Maybe one of the professionally qualified forumites can confirm if that is possible (or if my memory is playing tricks...)

Uxb1

Most solicitors will wait until at least 6 months after probate before doing any distributions.
Its due to some obscure provision in the inheritances and dependencies act of 1975 - that bit is from my dim memory where unknown children have 6 months after probate to come forward from underneath a stone and make a claim on the estate under the act.

After that as per previous reply then distributions are made in part/stages until a final winding up distribution is made after the residual beneficiaries have signed and accepted the estate accounts.
so most estates fall into the category of probate approx 6 months after death (as that is when IHT is payable by) and then distributions around 1 year after death.

Then there the complex ones where charities are involved and who want to argue and not reply etc where the answer is in multiple years!

Thrugelmir

Executorship carries legal personal responsibilities. Caution is therefore a primary consideration when winding up an estate.  

p00hsticks

Uxb1 said:

Then there the complex ones where charities are involved and who want to argue and not reply etc where the answer is in multiple years!

... or the ones where property needs to be sold (don't get me started !)

yorsiwel

Thanks for the replies. It is now 16 months since my father died, so apparently it's reasonable for solicitors to take over 2 years to wind up a straightforward estate. This is why solicitors should not be named as executors for such estates.