How long do solicitors take to retrieve a will from storage?

Crater

Our legal advisor has just told me (via the receptionist) that the reason he hasnt' returnred my call is that a family will "hasn't arrived from storage yet". But he was told over 3 weeks ago. Is this the new normal now? Thanks for any comments from experience.

JGB1955

When I retrieved my father's will (during lockdown in 2020) it took about 10 days.  At the time they were only accessing their storage once a week.  In my opinion 3 weeks is excessive (and the reason our own wills are kept in an unlocked, but fireproof, safe at home).

born_again

Crater said:

Our legal advisor has just told me (via the receptionist) that the reason he hasnt' returnred my call is that a family will "hasn't arrived from storage yet". But he was told over 3 weeks ago. Is this the new normal now? Thanks for any comments from experience.

Would guess that it depends where they store them. If it is in their building them should be pretty quick. 
If they are using one of the 3rd party storage co's, such as Iron Mountain. Then they can take weeks. Especially if they do not know exactly which box it is stored in & have to keep requesting various boxes.

poppystar

At the three week point I was getting worried and annoyed - not without reason as the Will was eventually never found. Keep the pressure on them, even if the storage is off site it should be organised well enough that active Wills can easily and quickly be retrieved. 

sheramber

Although he could confirm what was in the Will it took a complaint to get my solicitor to send the Will.

It was sent with the comment that that he had more important cases to deal with.

user1977

born_again said:

Crater said:

Our legal advisor has just told me (via the receptionist) that the reason he hasnt' returnred my call is that a family will "hasn't arrived from storage yet". But he was told over 3 weeks ago. Is this the new normal now? Thanks for any comments from experience.

If they are using one of the 3rd party storage co's, such as Iron Mountain. Then they can take weeks.

Only if they have some cheaper “terrible service” option - in my experience Iron Mountain can get items delivered the next day. And Wills are more likely to be stored on site anyway (they don’t take up much space). I suspect the answer in the OP’s case is more likely to be “oops we forgot to do that 3 weeks ago”.

Crater

Thank you everyone for the updates. It turned out (I suspect) that the real story was that "they forgot they DID do that 3 weeks ago" as it turned up very soon thereafter.

This firm has kept the will a long time in good order, whereas the very reputable firm that stored our own wills originally, were predated by another firm and eventually everything was taken over by - can't remember their name, a firm or organisation authorises to rescue and relocate documents from failed firms. We knew nothing until we got this strange letter which turned out to be genuine! But that is another story.