Co-op Legal Services: Silence!

Lilio8

Graeme.mcghee said:

We were forced to use Co-op Legal for Probate due to my Mother-in-Law's Will and they have been a complete nightmare, just read the 1 Star Reviews on Trustpilot or their Facebook page and you will see the same issues and complaints time and time again. The employ Case Managers with no previous experience and their training is obviously very poor as is management oversight, these people leave regularly which also rings alarm bells. If you need assistance they call a local Solicitor who will be much cheaper and far more efficient. 

Thank you for your reply.

I don't think that I can leave the Co-op now. It's going to cost me quite a bit. I'm on a fixed fee.

tls123

Lilio8 said:

Graeme.mcghee said:

We were forced to use Co-op Legal for Probate due to my Mother-in-Law's Will and they have been a complete nightmare, just read the 1 Star Reviews on Trustpilot or their Facebook page and you will see the same issues and complaints time and time again. The employ Case Managers with no previous experience and their training is obviously very poor as is management oversight, these people leave regularly which also rings alarm bells. If you need assistance they call a local Solicitor who will be much cheaper and far more efficient. 

Thank you for your reply.

I don't think that I can leave the Co-op now. It's going to cost me quite a bit. I'm on a fixed fee.

You can choose to leave them at any time they can’t charge a fee for the whole work when they haven’t even applied for probate. If the estate needs to pay IHT coop mistakes can easily cost more HMRC fines, you do realise don’t you that COOP call themselves COOP legal services but their case managers are NOT legally trained merely call centre/ admin agents if you don’t believe me please see their Facebook page with links to their probate case manager job.

Lilio8

tls123 said:

Lilio8 said:

Graeme.mcghee said:

We were forced to use Co-op Legal for Probate due to my Mother-in-Law's Will and they have been a complete nightmare, just read the 1 Star Reviews on Trustpilot or their Facebook page and you will see the same issues and complaints time and time again. The employ Case Managers with no previous experience and their training is obviously very poor as is management oversight, these people leave regularly which also rings alarm bells. If you need assistance they call a local Solicitor who will be much cheaper and far more efficient. 

Thank you for your reply.

I don't think that I can leave the Co-op now. It's going to cost me quite a bit. I'm on a fixed fee.

You can choose to leave them at any time they can’t charge a fee for the whole work when they haven’t even applied for probate. If the estate needs to pay IHT coop mistakes can easily cost more HMRC fines, you do realise don’t you that COOP call themselves COOP legal services but their case managers are NOT legally trained merely call centre/ admin agents if you don’t believe me please see their Facebook page with links to their probate case manager job.

Thank you again for your reply.

You've just answered the questions I had asked on the other post about leaving the Co-Op after 4 months. I'll have to look for another probate solicitor firm and see if they'll be prepared to take over from the Co-Op.

I am worried!

The case manager wrote to me before the New Year letting me know that she was going to prepare the required paperwork for HMRC.

I emailed the Case Manager the other day asking how are we going to pay the bill. I hope to receive a reply tomorrow. How are we going to pay HMRC if we don't yet have grant of probate, and no access to the account where the funds are? That part is still a mystery to me. I read on the HMRC website that one can apply for a delay in payment, but we shouldn't be at this juncture.

I wasn't aware about their Facebook page. I'm not on Facebook much. I'll have a look, thanks.

Lilio8

Graeme.mcghee said:

We were forced to use Co-op Legal for Probate due to my Mother-in-Law's Will and they have been a complete nightmare, just read the 1 Star Reviews on Trustpilot or their Facebook page and you will see the same issues and complaints time and time again. The employ Case Managers with no previous experience and their training is obviously very poor as is management oversight, these people leave regularly which also rings alarm bells. If you need assistance they call a local Solicitor who will be much cheaper and far more efficient. 

Thank you for your reply.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience.

I thought that by hiring the Co-Op Legal services I was going to be relieved from chore of the admin (I didn't want to make mistakes) and get on with sorting out the house, have less pressure. Instead, I seem to have s**t loads of pressure.

Lilio8

tls123 said:

Lilio8 said:

Graeme.mcghee said:

We were forced to use Co-op Legal for Probate due to my Mother-in-Law's Will and they have been a complete nightmare, just read the 1 Star Reviews on Trustpilot or their Facebook page ...

I've just read the post on the Co-Op L. S. Facebook page. Oh my gosh! It looks like I'm another one who fell for the Co-Op Legal Services' sale pitch What a disaster! 

I'd better not mention it to the beneficiaries or I'll be under even more pressure.

tls123

If you know where the funds are a particular investment/ bank account usually your solicitor would contact that institution and request a form to realise monies for IHT before probate or they use the direct payment scheme all this will be familiar to a decent legal advisor sorry I can’t be more help as I work in a similar area but I’m not legally qualified good luck 

tls123

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inheritance-tax-direct-payment-scheme-bank-or-building-society-account-iht423

Tiglet2

@Lilio8
Have a read of the Gov.com advice on the situation when you can't pay all or some of the inheritance tax before probate has been granted.   

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/applying-for-a-grant-on-credit-for-inheritance-tax

RAS

The one advantage of using a solicitor is that they CAN access funds in accounts to pay IHT before probate is granted.

We ended up using a solicitor purely for this reason, because of difficulties getting an executor to renounce in time, even though they wanted to do so. We couldn't access the required bank accounts, but the solicitor could get the bill paid.

Lilio8

tls123 said:

If you know where the funds are a particular investment/ bank account usually your solicitor would contact that institution and request a form to realise monies for IHT before probate or they use the direct payment scheme all this will be familiar to a decent legal advisor sorry I can’t be more help as I work in a similar area but I’m not legally qualified good luck 

Yes, we know were all the funds are. I simply cannot access them yet.

Thank you for your replies. Much appreciated.