April King Legal

Doodleberry69

The above company have my parents original wills which they agreed safe storage of and no fee for this but have recently introduced a family membership and will not now store FOC unless membership is taken out, they will return original but at a cost £84 or will keep but will deduct storage costs from the estate.
We have appealed this but this has been rejected and has been aggressive and dismissive in all correspondence with them (when you can get hold of them)
My parents also paid a large amount of money for a very simple mirror will and POA over £1600 which I also feel is extortionate as could have done some much cheaper - and to now be asked to pay more money is both criminal and preying on the vulnerable - any other experiences of this or advice on this would be greatly appreciated.

Savvy_Sue

Do they have a copy of this will? If they take it to a local company and write new wills, then those currently held by April King will have no value. It will also enable your parents to check the wills still do what they want. 

Even if they don't still have copies, visiting a local solicitor would enable new wills to be written for almost certainly considerably less than the original sum paid. 

And there's also Free Wills month (for simple wills), and all year round for certain charities.  

Malthusian

What exactly does the contract they took out with April King originally say?
If April King previously agreed to store the Wills for life and is now reneging on that, then not only do they need to give the Wills back free of charge but your parents are owed a partial refund.

MSE_Kit

Hey @Doodleberry69, Kit from MoneySavingExpert here. 

Do you (or anyone else concerned) have access to / a copy of the original terms & conditions from April King when you first had the will written which you could send to me, please? My email address is kit.sproson@moneysavingexpert.com.

Thanks

savingsavvysurfer

Savvy_Sue said:

Do they have a copy of this will? If they take it to a local company and write new wills, then those currently held by April King will have no value. It will also enable your parents to check the wills still do what they want. 

Even if they don't still have copies, visiting a local solicitor would enable new wills to be written for almost certainly considerably less than the original sum paid. 

And there's also Free Wills month (for simple wills), and all year round for certain charities.  

£1,600 seems extortionate for mirror wills and setting up lasting power of attorneys. Did both of them have both types set up? OPG fees are £82 per power of attorney so that might have increased the end cost but not to the extent you have mentioned (maximum would have been £328 for those fees).

 As Savvy_Sue mentioned, if they'd rather create a new will 'Free wills month' is now running and might be suitable if they are after basic wills.

Dannyw

I have sent an email to Kit as we are in the same predicament with April King for our joint wills.

Smiling_john

I'll email Kit as well. I was appalled when I got the letter about charging from April King. I wrote to them and have had no reply. I then phoned the solicitor and company director I'd previously dealt with. He said he would get head office to phone me. No phone call so far. I have a letter from them from 2006 confirming receipt of my will "for storage and confirming there will be no further charge for this service"

4leafclover_2

How on earth can that amount be justified for returning a will. With a similar company we were going to be charged postage for returning, but with a bit of discussion had it sent to their local office to collect for free in person. 
Unfortunately there was no comeback for all the money spent with the  company (thousands) and broken agreements as the company the agreement was made through had closed without informing people.

Smiling_john

Not sure about no come back. It appears my will supposedly in safe storage with one person was passed on to another presumably for payment. Surprisingly the two company names appear very similar. I've had a long letter back from AK, though not from the CEO who I had written to. I'm now out of country for a few weeks but will return to issue when I get back. These people should not be allowed to get away with this and certainly not continue in practice.

JayDeeN

Storage charges was never part of the deal – never mentioned when the quote was submitted nor in subsequent correspondence regarding the process to be applied when I die.  Before the MSE article appeared, I had reasonably offered to collect my will or pay a postage charge but they would not accept either.  The correspondence became progressively acrimonious largely due to the attitude & unprofessionalism of the staff who handle emails.  Now there is an impasse where they say they will only deal with my “legal representatives”, denying it seems my right to “represent” myself. Not sure what leverage I have, other than through the likes of Trustpilot etc. Has anyone made better headway?

Malthusian

Make a formal complaint to the solicitor if you haven't already, and if they don't cough up the Will and a partial refund within eight weeks, take the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman. https://www.legalombudsman.org.uk/how-we-work/consumer-journey/
Apparently April King Legal is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority but their individual solicitors are. Presumably the regulatory details and SRA number of the solicitor you used should be on their correspondence.