Storage of Wills

Torslanda

Hi all,

About 3 years ago my parents had their wills drawn up by a firm of solicitors.  As part of that transaction, there was an agreement that the solicitors would store the original copies of the wills free of charge (my parents have copies). On the invoice it clearly states: "Additional services as follows: confirm free storage of original wills from 19/2/2019".  However, the solicitors are now writing to my parents offering them a 'new service' which includes 'safe storage of your wills' amongst other things which are totally useless such as 'receive regular editions of our online member's magazine by email'.  It's basically a money-making exercise on their part to try to get people to subscribe to this 'service' for which they will charge £60 + VAT annually, or £180 + VAT for a lifetime membership (the most popular, apparently!).  There is another option according to the solicitors, and that is to return the wills to my parents, for which they will charge an admin fee of... £70 + VAT!!

Needless to say my parents are not happy at these strong-arm attempts to get more money out of them when the original agreement was to store the wills for free (there was no stipulated end date on that agreement, or any intimation that the storage would only be for a fixed time).  Clearly this is a two-pronged attempt by the solicitors to:

a) get more money out of their customers
b) dig themselves out of a hole that they have created for themselves by offering free storage of wills which are obviously taking up storage space in their facility - their letter states "Due to space restrictions in our document store, we regrettably cannot continue offering free will storage for those who do not wish to take advantage of this new membership offer."  (However, if you pay for their 'Family Support Membership' plan they will magically find the available space to store your will).

Whether or not they have storage problems in their facility is not my parents' problem, it's theirs, and as far as I'm concerned there was a contract in place to store my parents' wills for free, which these solicitors are now attempting to renege on.  It's interesting that the solicitors also state in their letter that "we are unable to destroy any documents we hold on your behalf as they belong to you" which is obvious to me.

What I would like to know is what rights do my parents have here and what action should they take?  My attitude is that there is a contract in place to store the wills for free which the solicitors (not my parents) are trying to vary or terminate, but my parents do not accept these new terms.  So, for example, if my parents did absolutely nothing, then what would happen?  The way I see it is that the contract remains in place, the new terms are NOT accepted by my parents so no 'Family Support Membership' fees can apply, and as they will not be requesting the return of their wills, no 'admin fee' will be chargeable either, and the solicitors are of course not able to destroy the wills, so they are in a bit of a quandary have no option but to continue to store the wills for free and the status-quo will remain.  Is this a reasonable assumption on my part?

Regardless of the fact that we do not intend to pay these solicitors any more money, my parents do not favour the option of ignoring their correspondence so I am going to have to draft a response to these solicitors on their behalf.  What should this response be?

All advice is gratefully accepted, thank you.

elsien

Store it somewhere else. Much easier than getting into a battle with them. 
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/store-a-will-with-the-probate-service/how-to-store-a-will-with-the-probate-service

Torslanda

elsien said:

Store it somewhere else. 

But won't that involve paying their 'admin charge' to get the wills back from them?

cymruchris

My first step would be to write back quoting the original package you purchased asking whether that's still valid, and why you've been sent this new 'offer', and see what the response is first. You might have just received one of their mass marketing emails where this new package is available to include lots of things as you say, including will storage. However, you ONLY have will storage, and that was agreed to be free. If they then want to pull out of that original agreement for whatever reason, then that's for them to decide, but you shouldn't be penalised to get the original wills returned as a result. 

RAS

Torslanda said:

elsien said:

Store it somewhere else. 

But won't that involve paying their 'admin charge' to get the wills back from them?

Firms used to offer free storage in the expectation that they get nice fees to do probate, but that happens less often.

Yes but believe me that's going to be a LOT cheaper than trying to extract the will from the solicitor's after your parent's death. Add two zeros and some if they get difficult.

I'd pay "under protest" and once the wills are returned, put in a formal complaint. 

Are the solicitors also executors or did your parents avoid that trap?

Torslanda

cymruchris said:

If they then want to pull out of that original agreement for whatever reason, then that's for them to decide, but you shouldn't be penalised to get the original wills returned as a result. 

My thoughts exactly.

Torslanda

RAS said:

Torslanda said:

elsien said:

Store it somewhere else. 

But won't that involve paying their 'admin charge' to get the wills back from them?

Firms used to offer free storage in the expectation that they get nice fees to do probate, but that happens less often.

Yes but believe me that's going to be a LOT cheaper than trying to extract the will from the solicitor's after your parent's death. Add two zeros and some if they get difficult.

I'd pay "under protest" and once the wills are returned, put in a formal complaint. 

Are the solicitors also executors or did your parents avoid that trap?

Thankfully they are not the executors.

olgadapolga

A bit off the wall here but if the solicitors won't release the original wills FOC, why not get new ones written when the next free will-writing session comes around (usually every November, I seem to recall?) Presumably the copies of the wills your parent hold could be used as the basis for new wills?

It's a bit of a cheek to charge £70 + VAT to release them (is that per will?) when they were storing them for nothing. What will they do if your parents don't respond/refuse to pay for either "service"?

user1977

Torslanda said:

elsien said:

Store it somewhere else. 

But won't that involve paying their 'admin charge' to get the wills back from them?

Was the admin fee already payable under the existing agreement? If not then there shouldn't be a charge.

Torslanda

olgadapolga said:

A bit off the wall here but if the solicitors won't release the original wills FOC, why not get new ones written when the next free will-writing session comes around (usually every November, I seem to recall?) Presumably the copies of the wills your parent hold could be used as the basis for new wills?

It's a bit of a cheek to charge £70 + VAT to release them (is that per will?) when they were storing them for nothing. What will they do if your parents don't respond/refuse to pay for either "service"?

Exactly!  That was my original suggestion... do nothing!  Then what will they do?   But unfortunately my parents are rather more passive than I am and prefer not to ignore correspondence.

Torslanda

user1977 said:

Torslanda said:

elsien said:

Store it somewhere else. 

But won't that involve paying their 'admin charge' to get the wills back from them?

Was the admin fee already payable under the existing agreement? If not then there shouldn't be a charge.

Nope, I don't believe it was.  In fact, for a firm of solicitors, the 'contract' in this regard seems rather sparse and lacking.