Probate : 16 weeks and counting

poppystar

Singlemummy_2 said:

BooJewels said:v

I'm delighted that those of you desperate for Probate to be granted are finally getting good news. Hopefully things can now progress nicely for you all.

I'm only at 7 weeks since they acknowledged receipt of the Will, but as a seller, it would be a weight off to get it sooner than later, as we have a buyer in a rental, with no chain - I'd hate to lose him because of this.

Hopefully due to him being in a rental he’s happy to wait. 

As the buyer in my situation the most frustrating thing about this is not knowing if probate had been chased and what the responses had been etc so my advice would be to just keep him updated. So now it’s 7 weeks in, just let him know you cannot chase until 16 weeks which you will do if it hasn’t been granted and will update again at that point 

The problem with a buyer in rental is if their tenancy is coming to an end they are likely to have to extend for six months or more even if they might be able to complete on the house in much less time than that.  A friend ended up paying the excess rent for the person at the end of her chain to ensure the chain didn’t collapse completely.

BooJewels

Fortunately our renting buyer has already made arrangements with his landlord - his current contract runs out at the end of June, but he wants to do some work in the house before moving in, even if we were to complete in the next month, so his landlord will allow him to stay on a month to month basis until he's ready to move, as he wants to do some work to that rental property himself before re-letting it.  My own son was in exactly the same position himself, as a renting buyer and it all worked out really well for everyone.  It perhaps boils down to the relationships and personalities of the individuals and how willing they are to be a bit flexible.

@Singlemummy_2 - I know what you mean about lawyers, this is our second estate property sale in under 2 years and I'm incredibly unimpressed with how they conduct themselves.  The last lot were so bad that I didn't use them with this property and this lot aren't shaping up much better.  They just seem wholly inept - from perpetually spelling names wrong, mixing up my sister and my own marital status, ringing one when they wanted the other, losing documents etc etc.  And they do all of this whilst adopting the tone that they're doing you a favour and you're just not worthy of their attention.

Singlemummy_2

BooJewels said:

Fortunately our renting buyer has already made arrangements with his landlord - his current contract runs out at the end of June, but he wants to do some work in the house before moving in, even if we were to complete in the next month, so his landlord will allow him to stay on a month to month basis until he's ready to move, as he wants to do some work to that rental property himself before re-letting it.  My own son was in exactly the same position himself, as a renting buyer and it all worked out really well for everyone.  It perhaps boils down to the relationships and personalities of the individuals and how willing they are to be a bit flexible.

@Singlemummy_2 - I know what you mean about lawyers, this is our second estate property sale in under 2 years and I'm incredibly unimpressed with how they conduct themselves.  The last lot were so bad that I didn't use them with this property and this lot aren't shaping up much better.  They just seem wholly inept - from perpetually spelling names wrong, mixing up my sister and my own marital status, ringing one when they wanted the other, losing documents etc etc.  And they do all of this whilst adopting the tone that they're doing you a favour and you're just not worthy of their attention.

I was going to say the tenant could ask for a month to month contract. So it sounds like it will go ok for you as everyone is aware of what is happening!

I’m hoping now my purchase will proceed nicely; I used this firm for my house sale, the seller is using different solicitors for the sale of the property and the probate and then is dealing with another solicitor to get the deeds  (previous solicitor of the deceased). Obviously I can only chase mine who chases theirs and then it’s up to the seller - but hopefully now probate  is granted they will get on with their part 🤞🏾

Good luck with yours 

oglop

ArGee68 said:

Just catching up with the forum as I'm now in a new battle to get money out of the banks.  We have to jump through hoops to get probate and then jump through a load more to retrieve assets we are entitled to now we have the paper grants.

Congratulations Jowwie, you prove it's important to escalate your case as soon as you can.   

Fingers crossed your house purchase now proceeds smoothly Singlemummy_2.  

oh no, this is my next step. how hard is it? what have the problems been? i was hoping it would be a straightforward and short process

ArGee68

oglop said:

ArGee68 said:

Just catching up with the forum as I'm now in a new battle to get money out of the banks.  We have to jump through hoops to get probate and then jump through a load more to retrieve assets we are entitled to now we have the paper grants.

Congratulations Jowwie, you prove it's important to escalate your case as soon as you can.   

Fingers crossed your house purchase now proceeds smoothly Singlemummy_2.  

oh no, this is my next step. how hard is it? what have the problems been? i was hoping it would be a straightforward and short process

The frustration is that no 2 banks have the same requirements and I'm dealing with 12 different banks. Luckily, I have accounts with some of them which has simplified the process if they allow only 1 executor to deal with the account closure. However some insist on all the executors signing the forms/paperwork - another inconsistency.

To be fair, most have been OK. Leeds Building Society was the best where I took the grant & closure forms into branch and they transferred the money within 48 hours.  Nationwide were a pain as they will only transfer to another Nationwide account, otherwise they will only pay by cheque which I received after 9 days.   We now have to wait until Wednesday for it to clear because of the bank holiday.

Other frustration is that some require ID to be provided for all executors (we have three) so we are waiting for certified ID documents to be returned from one bank before we can send to another bank - just slows everything up.

Britannia/Coop transferred the money in one amount and the covering letter only put the total - I need the split between ISA and non-ISA accounts so I know what interest has to be declared to HMRC.  I've requested this info but not had a reply so will have to chase again - more frustration and wasted time.

But Lloyds have been the worst so far as they have no formal closure form.   There is £150K sitting with them earning zero interest and although they previously said they would issue payment once they received the grant plus a letter with our instructions for payment, we have only received a letter returning the grant stating they will write to us in 10 working days to tell us what we need to do next????????  Any excuse basically to keep hold of the money for as long as possible. 

We now hit 2 bank holiday weekends so that will delay things further.  

oglop

Grr. Painful. The account I'm dealing with is with HSBC, although my solicitor said they are usually quite fast. I'll be so !!!!!! if I end up with a situation like your Lloyds! Or Nationwide. It's 2023 and they won't let you use anything but a cheque - lol?

Sarahspangles

ArGee68 said: Britannia/Coop transferred the money in one amount and the covering letter only put the total - I need the split between ISA and non-ISA accounts so I know what interest has to be declared to HMRC.  I've requested this info but not had a reply so will have to chase again - more frustration and wasted time.

Britannia/Coop have odd processes - when FIL died we only had to tell Britannia and they dealt with a Coop joint account and all savings accounts. They also - and this flummoxed us for a while - settled his final Coop credit card bill by deducting the balance from the savings that were transferred to the joint account. 

ArGee68

oglop said:

Grr. Painful. The account I'm dealing with is with HSBC, although my solicitor said they are usually quite fast. I'll be so !!!!!! if I end up with a situation like your Lloyds! Or Nationwide. It's 2023 and they won't let you use anything but a cheque - lol?

HSBC is one of the few I'm not dealing with so I don't know.

Another annoyance is that I have a current account with Nationwide but we want everything to go through the estate bank account due to the amounts involved so I had to request a cheque.  But it is ridiculous in 2023 as all the others use bank transfer.

I hope you don't have any shares in the estate because the process of liquidating them is far worse - and potentially expensive due to high admin charges. 

BooJewels

It's astonishing to me how archaic some financial institutions still are.  I've been lucky with banks on the estates I've done, they've all settled very quickly (even with ISAs) and by bank transfer to the nominated estate account.  Even an account they initially told me was above their probate limit.

I've just had settlement from NS&I for her premium bonds - it's taken just over 2 months and they sent the value of the PBs by bank transfer, but 2 x £25 wins she had were sent by paper warrants.  So yesterday, I got 3 separate envelopes in the post, one each with a warrant in and a letter explaining that they'd closed the account and they were sending the winnings separately.   What a complete waste of resources.

oglop

ArGee: there's only a single property and bank account involved in my probate case, and only one beneficiary, which is why I'm so aghast how long it's all taking!

BooJewels: yes, exactly. I cannot understand how everything is so slow. I don't live in the UK currently, so it's even more frustrating because where I live now, things are much more efficient!