Solicitor location in relation to deceased

Mr_Sark

So, I intend to employ a solicitor to deal with the estate of my brother, I live three hours away from his home (he died at home). 

I have rung two solicitors local to myself, who both seem surprised that I am not using somebody based near my brother's home, so is it normal to use one local to the deceased or local to the relative dealing with the estate ?

I have a contact living near by brother who can keep an eye on the house etc.

I have tried searching here and google.

user1977

Closer to the executor would make more sense (to the extent it's likely to be helpful for any face-to-face meetings, otherwise it's kind of irrelevant). Are they actually refusing to accept an instruction?

polar_pig

For a simple estate I'm not sure whether you will need face to face meetings (unless you want an initial meeting to vet the solicitors before appointing). Most things can be done by email, phone and post. I suppose a local one to you might reduce posting burden of critical documents such as providing original Will, your ID documents etc.

Conversely a solicitor near your brother's house would know local estate agents etc. and might make arranging a house valuation, insurance, clearing, selling etc. a bit easier maybe. Although if you have a contact there, maybe they could help with this.

Either way is do-able.

Mr_Sark

Ok, thank you, both comments are pretty much what I was thinking, I don't expect the Solicitors to have to attend the house etc, which is why I was puzzled by their comments.

maman

I can't see as it makes much difference. Perhaps they expected you might use the solicitor who drew up your brother's will? That's not essential but maybe it's what they expect/hope in the profession. 🤔

Daniel54

Condolences for your loss.

Assuming you are an executor ,then someone will still have to do quite a lot of legwork to gather information,even if you are using a solicitor to pull everything together and submit whatever forms are needed etc.

I'm one of three executors and we are using a solicitor in the area where my late aunt lived but 90 minutes away from me..So far I have only had to visit them once for the initial meeting .Other than that,most issues have been dealt with electronically and where wet signature has been required I have used the guaranteed next working day delivery service at the post office.

We have found it useful to use the same local firm when selling and conveyancing the property involved in the estate

I'm sure you have much to do,but a priority is to ensure the property is properly insured ,assuming it is now unoccupied.

Savvy_Sue

What do you want them to do? Do you actually need to use one? Because they'll want a shed load of information from you in any event ... and by the time you've provided the information, you've done most of the work! You don't have to answer that, btw, I realise that there are times when a solicitor is the best answer: beneficiaries who might feel disgruntled, for example. If it's complicated financially, then an accountant might be more use than a solicitor. And you can of course just take advice on particular issues, rather than instruct them to handle the whole thing. 

If you wanted them to clear the house, you'd want one near the house, but you don't want that (and it would cost multiple shedloads ...)

We used one near me for selling a probate property: deceased lived about 70 miles away, and my co-executor was about 30 miles beyond that. I am not sure my co-executor ever needed to see the solicitor. I used to meet the solicitor on the train on our way to our respective offices: we never conducted any formal business there but it was helpful to just check he hadn't forgotten us. Obviously we were using an estate agent local to the house.