Solicitor & probate - do they need to contact creditors directly?

how99

Do solicitors need to confirm directly with companies that hold debts or assets before calculating inheritance tax and applying for probate?

We’ve instructed a solicitor to apply for probate for us for my dad’s estate. 

They sent us a questionnaire to complete where we listed all his assets and debts, including money owed. This included a credit card, utilities and money owed to building contractors.

After a 4 week wait from when we submitted the questionnaire they’ve got back to us to say: ‘I’ve contacted all the companies your late father held accounts with, and I am waiting for values of the said accounts so I can finalise the inheritance tax calculations’

I’m baffled by this as I have all this information and provided it in the questionnaire. I have letters from his banks, invoices and final bills that I could easily just have shared with them…

I’m feeling frustrated that this is delaying our application and feels like unnecessary work they are charging us for. 

Am I missing a reason why they need to collect this information again? Or should I challenge why they’ve done this without checking what with us first what we had in terms of letters/invoices?

Savvy_Sue

I would ask them: it may be that there's been a misunderstanding of what you wanted them to do, and that they 'didn't realise' you had all the information they needed. Obviously they'd need to verify the numbers, so perhaps they only checked because you didn't submit all the evidence you had - probably because they didn't ask for it! 

Or it may be that that's what they always do, regardless of what information they're given. 

user1977

Did you actually have date of death figures for everything? In the same way as you need to include e.g. accrued interest for savings, you want to make sure you have an accurate figure for debts, rather than just guess at uncleared payments, interest etc. It’s a normal part of the job to check this stuff, unless you had instructed them to cut some corners…

Keep_pedalling

The real question here is, if you have all the relevant info to hand what are you wasting money and time (probate always takes longer when using solicitors) on having a professional complete probate instead of doing it yourselves? 

user1977

Keep_pedalling said:

The real question here is, if you have all the relevant info to hand what are you wasting money and time (probate always takes longer when using solicitors) on having a professional complete probate instead of doing it yourselves? 

Or if you wanted some sort of halfway house where the solicitors only deal with certain aspects, you need to clarify upfront who is doing what (and check the solicitors are comfortable with that).

Hoenir

how99 said:

I have letters from his banks, invoices and final bills that I could easily just have shared with them…

Why didn't you send all the documents in with the questionaire. The Solicitors aren't mind readers.