Incompetent solicitors.

flora135

Hi, a bit of a long one but I'll try and  not confuse things. My FIL passed away Dec 2020. He left his estate to my husband and a sum of money to my eldest son. Probate has not yet been granted. His will originally included 2 grandchildren from his daughter, his daughter was to recieve nothing due to him believing she had recieved substantial amounts of money from him in the past. In 2007 after my son was born he changed the will to include my son. After several years of no contact with his daughter or her children, in 2011 he removed her 2 children stating that he didn't know them and as they were now 18 and 20 they could have had contact with him if they wanted to. 

This was all done through a local solicitors that has now been brought out by a big company with no local office. After 22 months of waiting and being told the delay is due to covid backlog at the probate office they have now said that they have been unable to find the original copy of the will. They knew this 12 months ago and part of the process is proving that they have done all they can to find it, they told us they have had to ask my FIL wife if the Will they have (only a copy) was still my FIL wishes at the time of his death which she confirmed. They were asked by the probate court to serve notice on my sister in law (we don't know what this means) she has stated that the will was destroyed as her father wished to revoke it. Our solicitor say they know this is false as although they don't have the original copy they have a letter from the original solicitors confirming after my FIL changed the will in 2011 that they are in possession of the will. My SILs solicitor has asked to join the grant for representation application, again we have know idea what this means.

We feel really let down by the solicitor, by misplacing the will they have opened a can of worms involving my SIL. The solicitor dealing with it has changed 3 times due to illnesses and maternity leave, they have hinted twice that they had lost the will but each time they quickly backtracked and said they have it, they confirmed that previous correspondence from the probate office was sent to the wrong address which also prolonged things.

Are we being unreasonable in feeling let down by a solicitor who my FIL put his trust in and can anyone explain where my SIL stands legally as she has blatantly lied. 

Thanks for reading, i feel better just for venting😊

poppystar

Yes, you have been let down by the solicitor! I experienced the same incompetence and it took a lot of perseverance to get the solicitor to admit to it and to provide the evidence for the probate office to show they had tried to find it. I doubt in either of our cases they actually sent anyone to their secure storage as it would be a needle in a haystack operation if it was misfiled with someone else’s papers. 

It sounds like it is now in the hands of the probate office for them to make a decision. I guess from what you have described they needed to contact your SiL because under intestacy she would have benefitted. I had to sign a Statement if Truth to indicate there was no such person who might have benefitted under the rules of intestacy. Unfortunately this has given her the chance to tell what is not the truth from your description.

I think her solicitor wanting to join the grant of representation is them saying they want to be given the power to jointly administer the estate if the probate office revert to the intestacy rules. 

I hope that they listen to what your MiL has said. It is a shame that because of the involvement of the solicitor you are not in a position to deal with the probate office yourself. I have to say I refused to use the solicitor that lost our Will to do the probate - and when they suggested I did I pointed out a few home truths about their service! 

Sorry, I’m not sure this helps but you have my sympathy over this. Do vent away as needed! 

Pennylane

I am wondering whether the SIL has placed a caveat on the Probate application and the bit that you say you don’t know what it means is them serving a Warning on her.  

I had a rubbish solicitor too but what do you do?  I chose someone who was supposed to have years of experience in Probate etc but he was pretty useless and charged me a fortune. 

flora135

Thank you poppystar, you have explained it in a way a simpleton like me understands! 

Its so upsetting, my FiL was adamant she would recieve nothing for reasons he clearly explained in the will and anyone close to him knew his wishes too. It honestly makes you wonder why even bother with a will when it seems to complicate things. 

My husband has spoken to the legal ombudsman now who have said that we certainly have a case against the solicitors even if it goes our way we can still bring a case against them upto 3 years later.

Thank you again for your input, I'm sorry you went through similar. 

kipsterno1

Does your FIL's wife not inherit anything? 

flora135

kipsterno1 said:

Does your FIL's wife not inherit anything? 

No, this was a second marriage for them both and they married later in life. The house belonged to my FIL and both had their own money even splitting shopping bills in half! The will states she is to live in the house and is responsible for the upkeep until her death basically. We always knew that is what was stated in the will because my FIL spoke about it often, she was with him when he wrote the will. He also told us when anything happened to him we would need to toughen up, he wasn't wrong!

If the probate office decides the will was revoked (it really wasn't) i think as his spouse she inherits the first 250,000 then half of whatevers left and the other half split between my husband and his sister, that would mean the house would have to be sold so its not a good outcome for us or out step MIL.

poppystar

Just a thought but was the original of the previous Will destroyed? Not that you want to revert to that obviously but if it does exist (and solicitors haven’t lost the whole file!) then there is an argument, if the probate office decide not to accept the latest Will existed, that therefore the previous one wasn’t revoked so would stand. Hopefully that would at least give the life interest back to the wife. I was asked to provide the previous Will when I sent in the lost Will form. If the original of the previous one does exist I’d certainly want to argue against a return to intestacy and instead to the previous Will. It’s awful you have to deal with this after the death but do fight it - solicitors can’t be allowed to get away with this! They should be fighting for you  but my experience was that they really couldn’t care less about the effects of losing the Will and the added difficulty is that I wasn’t their client, my father was. You should not lose out.

TBagpuss

I don’t think that would work as there is a copy of the current will and that will, almost certainly, state that all earlier wills are revoked. Revoking the second will wouldn’t un-revoke the first one.

flora135

TBagpuss said:

I don’t think that would work as there is a copy of the current will and that will, almost certainly, state that all earlier wills are revoked. Revoking the second will wouldn’t un-revoke the first one.

Yes you are right, the "misplaced" will was the only original with a codicil added each time he changed things. he did everything properly so if he wanted to destroy the will he certainly would not have done it in front of the one person he had stated in the will was to recieve nothing, and each time he changed the will it stated that his wishes concerning his daughter had not changed. 

The more i read about it the more i think SIL doesn't stand a chance, the solicitor has proof that they held the will, SIL has no evidence that she saw my FIL destroy it.

poppystar

TBagpuss said:

I don’t think that would work as there is a copy of the current will and that will, almost certainly, state that all earlier wills are revoked. Revoking the second will wouldn’t un-revoke the first one.

I think that is what is illogical in copy wills not being accepted under these circumstances because it means the copy is good enough to revoke the previous Will but not good enough to stand as a valid Will. 

Interesting why probate office want to see a copies of all previous wills when one is lost if they are all considered revoked? 

flora135

I honestly don't understand why a copy of the will held by the solicitor can't be used, so instead of following FILs wishes in a copy, someone who knows nothing about him or our family can make the decision that the one person who wasn't in his life can get her own way just like she has all her live. Its crazy. The solicitor seems to think it won't come to that but the stress and anxiety is horrendous. Thanks for all your input I'll update if when things happen.