Solicitor complaint about legal rights

john110375

My solicitor told me that my step father didn't have legal rights because he had been given life rent. Roll on 6 months later and my stepfather claims his legal rights and I get the house back, it's flood damaged and all my mums possessions are gone despite being left to me in the will. If id been told about his legal rights then I would have addressed it 6 months earlier thus saving me time and solicitor fees and maybe the house wouldn't have been damaged too much if at all. I haven't paid my solicitors fees yet, should I complain about the advice I was given?

buddy9

Legal rights in this context is the entitlement of a surviving spouse to a monetary part of the estate. However accepting a legacy in a will extinguishes the legal rights entitlement.

So in this case it looks as if the legacy, a liferent, was declined in preference to a money payment. But it took 6 months to reach that position.

john110375

My complaint is that my solicitor said that my step father didn't have legal rights. My step father has gone to his solicitor 6 months after my mother's death and found out he has and taken them. This then meant a lot of double legal work because my step father gave my solicitor paperwork that I'd already provided months earlier. 

tacpot12

Yes, you should complain about the advice you were given, and you should ask for redress from the solicitor and propose that the redress is taken from their fee. You took actions or decided not to take actions based on your understanding of the advice you were given. If the advice was wrong, they seem to be liable. 

Do you have home insurance on your own name? Do you have legal expenses cover? If the policy stated when oyou find out that the legal advice you had been given was wrong, you might have some insurance cover to sue the solicitors that gave you bad advice. 

Be preapred to settle the case without going to court. Some money is better than none. 

buddy9

Where a beneficiary of a will also has an entitlement to legal rights, then it is a normal practice for the executor to ask the beneficiary whether they wish to claim or renounce their legal rights. If the solicitor acting for the executor has failed to do this, then it looks like a shortcoming.

ProbateNewbie

Can I just ask - legal rights, is this just a Scottish thing? Not heard this term in the various reading I've been doing on Wills.

Keep_pedalling

ProbateNewbie said:

Can I just ask - legal rights, is this just a Scottish thing? Not heard this term in the various reading I've been doing on Wills.

It is a Scottish thing and thank goodness does not apply to the rest of the UK.

Although the solicitor gave the OP the wrong information, I can’t see it would have actually made any difference to the situation they are now in. I understand a spouse or child has 20 years to claim LR, so at least this has happened early on in the process. 

buddy9

Keep_pedalling said:

It is a Scottish thing and thank goodness does not apply to the rest of the UK.

Although the solicitor gave the OP the wrong information, I can’t see it would have actually made any difference to the situation they are now in. I understand a spouse or child has 20 years to claim LR, so at least this has happened early on in the process. 

It doesn't quite work that way. A beneficiary is asked to accept or decline and the 20 years limitation is then irrelevant. 

user1977

ProbateNewbie said:

Can I just ask - legal rights, is this just a Scottish thing?

Yes. Essentially a spouse or children always have a right to claim some of the estate, no matter what any Will says or whether they were a dependant:

https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/103869