Isle of Man Probate - service delivery address required so I can do it myself

billy99

Hi folks - bit of a niche problem here.

I have volunteered to do Isle of Man probate on a single bank account held at Lloyd's Bank International on the Isle of Man for a friend.

I have done probate before and have done some para-legal work in the distant past, so am up to speed with the process and detail.

1. The account balance is above £5k and requires Isle of Man probate to be done.

2. The Court requires a service delivery address in the Isle of Man - but all the work and swearing the oath can be done elsewhere (in this case the UK).

3. Often the asset holder (the bank) will volunteer a sda to the client but have refused, even though they have in the past - I complained and have got the same answer back.

4. So it looks like a need to use a solicitor (advocate) on the Isle of Man

5. The law society there are not answering any emails, and a recommend advocate from the court isn't responding either when I mention this specific niche service.

6. The cost of probate done by an Isle of Man advocate will be £3.5k + for the amount involved.

I'm starting to think this may be the case of a cartel where it is difficult to get the service without going the whole probate route. I'm planning tomorrow to contact all the addresses I can find and see if I can find someone willing to do it for a price. Would happily pay £250 + vat for this (or more) if needs be. To be precise, all the address would need to be is on the Isle of Man and have a nominated person and address and then the whole envelope would just need to be redirected to me and act as an intermediary address between the Court and myself.

Has anybody got any ruses that might help me move this on - the brute force enquiries / trying to persuade someone to take it on a reduced fee for full probate are my next options

Many thanks in advance for any help someone might be able to give.

Savvy_Sue

did your friend live on the Isle of Man? if they did, I'd see if I could find a friend ... 

Or did they have any ties to the IoM, having lived there in the past? 

Might take a bit of detective work, and there's a slight risk of not using a professional, of course. 

Might an accountant help? 

billy99

Savvy_Sue said:

did your friend live on the Isle of Man? if they did, I'd see if I could find a friend ... 

Or did they have any ties to the IoM, having lived there in the past? 

Might take a bit of detective work, and there's a slight risk of not using a professional, of course. 

Might an accountant help? 

Many thanks for your suggestion - no he didn't he died elsewhere. I'm going to ring/email every solicitor I can find and see if I can do a deal and accountants might be a useful second front. Have emailed a virtual office company as well. My fear is it is a bit of rigged market to keep lucrative work for the island professionals. But I might be overthinking it ! The actual court has been very helpful, but can't give any specific advice,

user1977

Paging @Manxman_in_exile...

billy99

user1977 said:

Paging @Manxman_in_exile...

Loving this amazing Alladin's lamp whatever the outcome, happy to pay good money to a private helper if one can be found  - rather than unduly enrich a 'cartel' lawyer ! Many thanks for having a look  and suggesting this person.

billy99

The bank's response to me ...

I write further to  colleague xxxx email to you dated 2 March 2023, having completed my investigations I am now in a position to advise you of the outcome as follows;

Firstly, thank you for taking the time to make us aware of the problems you have encountered. We do aim to provide every customer with a quality service and it is always disappointing when it is felt we fail to achieve this.

My understanding of your complaint is that you have been advised by our Probate Team that the bank will not provide you with an ‘address for service’.

Please be aware that my colleagues on our Probates Team have advised you correctly and the bank is not in a position to provide you with an ‘address for service’, this is a facility which we no longer offer.

I have referred your request to the Senior Manager of the Probates Team and provided him with your case notes for perusal, however the decision remains unaltered and I am sorry should this come as a disappointment to you.

Whilst you advise the Isle of Man Courts require an ‘address for service’ whilst you are obtaining an Isle of Man Grant of Probate and they told you that the bank would provide this for you, I am sorry this is not the case and I can only apologise they have misinformed you. We will provide feedback to them.

An ‘address for service’ can be provided by a local solicitor and I am sorry you advise that this comes with an added expense.

Your comments are noted that you feel the bank should offer you this service as it poses no risk to the bank, however as a Regulated bank, we have processes and procedures to follow and adhere to.

In closing, I do hope you feel that we have done our best to respond to the issues you have raised, but if you are not happy with our response for any reason, we did send you a copy of our leaflet ‘How to Complain’ which gives you details about what to do next.

https://www.courts.im/court-procedures/probate-and-admin-of-estates/probate-introduction/

8: Address for service

Every application is required to state an address for service in the Isle of Man, irrespective of where the applicant or applicants live. Once an application has been made, the Probate Office will send all further correspondence or documents to the nominated address for service.

If there is no personal representative of the deceased in the Isle of Man you may wish to seek the permission of the organisation in the Isle of Man, with whom the assets of the deceased are deposited/held, to use their address. Organisations will normally grant permission for this, however the onus is on the applicant to check with the organisation first.

If permission has been gained from an organisation on the Isle of Man to use their address as the address for service for the application, it is strongly recommended that the applicant establish the name of the person in the organisation to whom correspondence and ultimately the Grant should be sent. This should be indicated on the application form and will help to ensure that all communication is sent directly to the correct person and therefore prevent any delays in the organisation releasing whatever assets of the deceased they hold. 

Alphatauri

Do they need a physical address or would a PO Box in the IoM be suitable? Royal Mail offer a PO Box with delivery to your home address, it is worth a phone call to IoM Post Office to see if they do the same?

Another option to explore is whether you could set up a Virtual Office with a IoM address and then redirect the mail to your home address? 

billy99

Alphatauri said:

Do they need a physical address or would a PO Box in the IoM be suitable? Royal Mail offer a PO Box with delivery to your home address, it is worth a phone call to IoM Post Office to see if they do the same?

Another option to explore is whether you could set up a Virtual Office with a IoM address and then redirect the mail to your home address? 

A PO box in the IofM requires you to live there as far as I can ascertain. But it may be worth a phone call, so will do tomorrow. I have contacted a virtual office company to see if they could provide this service, it's good money I'm happy to spend for what in essence is a minimal service, so I can move forward and save thousands hopefully for my friend.

We'll see what comes back, but many thanks for having a look and offering some suggestions. It's strange that they still require this, but will accept an oath sworn buy a UK Commissioner of Oaths. That said, the population of the island is only 85,000 and probably everybody knows everybody in this space and have their own laws and parliament and many high net worth individuals and companies.

https://www.iompost.com/for-business/receiving-mail/po-box/

billy99

Talked to the court, they won't accept a PO Box. One solicitor I have asked very disingenuously said... which I know not to be true because the very helpful court told me directly !

Unfortunately we don’t provide an address for service facility.  The problem is that we are then liable to accept further documents and process without having sufficient knowledge of the matter which is in breach of our regulatory requirements. 

We would however e happy to process an application for probate and our standard requirements are set out hereunder including costs.

billy99

Thanks everybody for all your help, and a big shout-out to a PM from a user who offered to go the extra mile. This is really a great place to get help. I found a law firm (via recommendation from the court who have been most helpful) to provide the service for £180 + vat plus disbursements for the postage, which is very reasonable compared to others that have quoted. It pays as always to shop around !

Should anybody come across this post in the future and need the same help, just pm me and I will be most happy to help. 

fortniteandramen

Hi @billy99 popped you a pm but hoping you can send across who that law firm where? In the same pickle but following my dad's death. Thanks!