Does a solicitor have a legal duty to carry out a will in a certain time frame?

Malthusian

Flugelhorn said:

Didn't the legacies just fail as there was no money in the estate?

There's 350 big ones in the estate.

Flugelhorn

Malthusian said:

Flugelhorn said:

Didn't the legacies just fail as there was no money in the estate?

There's 350 big ones in the estate.

ah yes - in the house that the OP doesn't want to sell (was he left the house? - I have got confused)

Sea_Shell

ostlerscidermill said:

Malthusian said:

As we are both co-executors then we are both responsible for getting the will sorted and I am not prepared to sell my family home of 14 years so the solicitors can have their £4000, so I am indeed dragging my feet! 

If you can't pay their £4,000 in some other way then it matters not what you are prepared to do. The solicitors will apply to the courts to have you removed as executor, at which they will win easily. They will evict you, sell the property, and the costs of all this will come out of your share of the proceeds.

 I have been living here for 14 years with no tenancy agreement, so I feel pretty safe here and the will does state it will go to me.

What the Will says is irrelevant if there are not enough funds in the estate, after paying the solicitors' costs, to allow that specific legacy to be fulfilled.

Tenancy rights are not my strong suit so you may want to visit MSE's Housing board. But if you do not have a tenancy, you may have very limited right to remain in the property and the executors could get you out quicker than you think.

my children and the carers all deferred on their inheritance stating his confusion and strokes made them feel uncomfortable about his decision at the time to leave this money (especially as he didn't actually have it) 

You'll need them to renounce their legacies in writing, particularly as another specific legacy has been paid - albeit not from estate funds. 

It sounds like there will be funds in the estate after the property sale to pay the remaining specific legacies, at least in part. So until the carers and your children have renounced their legacies in a way that would stand up in court, they could change their minds.

How much is the property worth?

Hello, 
I'm not going to sell my home of 14 years, for the sake of £4000. It's worth £350.000 although I have collected bank statements to show I have put £100,000 into building it. Which I know doesn't mean anything as it was all in my father's name.
I think the solicitors don't want to cause me too much more grief as they know I have a six-page document, which is a little embarrassing for them, I think I will just do nothing until I have the money. Which I will get, but I'm in no rush and neither are they.
All have renounced their legacies on paper as luckily for me they all wanted to do what was morally right, regardless of what the law says. Even the Red Cross where my father left the most, £20,000 has seen my side and has been lovely. 
I'm very lucky to be surrounded by the people I am.

What 6 page document do you have that would stop the solicitors from pursuing their outstanding invoice, and finalising the estate?

Hopefully you can get the money together to pay them sooner rather than later, so the estate can be officially wound up and you then won't have the possibility of your home being sold from under you, hanging over you.

Did the other beneficiaries obtain independent legal advise on this matter, before renouncing?    As Malthusian said, they could change their minds...especially the charity, unless it's already watertight what they have put in writing.