Law firm who has will gone in to liquidation

Newly_retired

Although we had been informed which firm had taken over our original solicitors, it took a long time to get my husband’s will back.  I got mine quickly, but they said they couldn’t find his. This was three months before he died. When he died I stressed the urgency and ten days later it was found. It turned out that some idiot had been searching under the wrong name( one of his forenames instead of his surname). 

user1977

poppystar said:

then the alternative route would be to proceed with getting Letters of Administration rather than Grant of Probate. 

Not sure that's appropriate as surely you'd have to make a (false) declaration that there's no Will?

poppystar

user1977 said:

poppystar said:

then the alternative route would be to proceed with getting Letters of Administration rather than Grant of Probate. 

Not sure that's appropriate as surely you'd have to make a (false) declaration that there's no Will?

It’s a difficult one but if there is no copy of the Will, no receipt from solicitors for making a Will and the people dealing with the solicitors documentation claim it doesn’t exist then to all intents and purposes there isn’t a Will. There being one becomes just family hearsay effectively. 

If that hearsay indicates a situation that is identical to what would happen under intestacy then there is no danger of comeback even if the Will should suddenly appear. If it was believed to be different to intestacy then I agree it would not be appropriate.

If it helps, when dealing with HMCTS over our lost Will, they asked exactly that question of me and had prepared an affidavit for me to sign to say that the distribution would not have varied from that which would have applied under intestacy. 

I agree that is different to going straight in with a Letters of Administration application but at what point in the process or time should it be accepted that there is no Will? 

The OP should certainly not have found themselves in this situation. My father had also done what we would advise on here and had a properly drawn up and regularly updated Will. He would have been so distraught to know how through the solicitors unprofessionalism a long drawn out process began and only limited Probate was ever obtained. In getting as far as we did it was due entirely to my father’s excellent record keeping - I could provide a copy of the Will, receipt for it, confirmation it was in secure storage etc. And the fact that he had and shared this paperwork with me also meant I realised when they tried to fob me off with an earlier Will! 

It would be interesting to know what HMCTS would advise when someone says there was a Will but there is no available evidence of it. Would they say go for LoA or what? OP - if there is no copy of the Will and no other evidence for it and it follows intestacy it might be worth contacting them for advice.