Relatives have died intestate, probate dragging on.

smarttart

Unfortunately I do not know how this all works so here goes. My uncle died intestate at the end of April 2024 so everything passed to my Aunty, then sadly she passed away at the end of October 2024 also intestate, she had Alzheimer's.
I spoke with the solicitor, who was originally dealing with my Uncles estate and thought it prudent for her to carry on with my Aunty as she was already dealing with my Uncle, rather than get another solicitor involved and start all over again. I later read on their website that she is a Wills and Probate executive and is training to be a solicitor. Genealogy searches were done back in January this year so they could apply for probate and my sister, cousin and I are the 3 beneficiaries which was confirmed in April.
We were originally quoted £6,000 + vat to do all the work which then rose to £8,500 to £9,500 + vat because of all the extra work involved. I have no idea what all the extra work is as we have had no breakdown of the bill. All I know is she prefers to email rather than speak to us on the phone and every email and phone call costs us £27. Also the solicitors are 22.5 miles from my Aunty and Uncles house so every time they needed someone to access the house (changing locks, putting up a key safe etc) they were sending someone from their area and we are being charged extra for them travelling to the property. She was sending someone from 30 miles away to give us a quote for the house clearance in the end I employed someone local and sent her the bill for £840 which I am still waiting to be reimbursed for I have reminded her and she said I will get it when some money goes into my aunt and uncles account.

The IHT400 documents were sent to us and returned to the solicitor around the 9th May. My aunt and uncles house was advertised for sale on the 12th of May and on the 23rd of June we had a buyer who wanted to exchange on the 31st October.

I rang the estate agent yesterday to be told that probate still hasn't been granted and it looks like this is going to drag on until December.

We've not heard anything back from the solicitor since 27th June. Does this all sound normal ?

poppystar

It’s the downside of using solicitors. They are not just dealing with your case but are probably juggling many others too. Also they will want to take full care at every point to establish who the entitled are, whether there are any creditors lurking anywhere etc. And, as you have discovered, won’t necessarily find the cheapest quote for any work in the way a lay person might.  It all takes time but I do understand your frustration. 

Mark_d

Yes probate takes a long time especially when people die intestate

Flugelhorn

Mark_d said:

Yes probate takes a long time especially when people die intestate

it can be very quick if the administrators are motivate and have all the financial information needed, it isn't necessarily slower than if there is a will - what has made this slow is the use of a solicitor to handle the whole thing.

smarttart

Flugelhorn said:

Mark_d said:

Yes probate takes a long time especially when people die intestate

it can be very quick if the administrators are motivate and have all the financial information needed, it isn't necessarily slower than if there is a will - what has made this slow is the use of a solicitor to handle the whole thing.

There was mention from the solicitor that I was the administrator when I first spoke to her but she said nothing else, as I didn't have a clue if I was supposed to do anything and I didn't have any of my aunty and uncles information to hand and wouldn't know where to start I've left it all to her. As I said we've had no updates since June and I can appreciate we are not her only clients but from what I've gleaned probate should take around 6-12 months and in October it will be a year since my aunty passed and 17 months since we lost my uncle. I can't see an end to this all I can see are her costs getting higher and higher. It is so frustrating.

p00hsticks

From the sound of it if the solicitor is arranging house clearance, locks being changed etc that's more that would normally be expected from just handling a probate application.
Is there any reason why the family did not step up to take charge of this side of things ?   

smarttart

p00hsticks said:

From the sound of it if the solicitor is arranging house clearance, locks being changed etc that's more that would normally be expected from just handling a probate application.
Is there any reason why the family did not step up to take charge of this side of things ?   

It's all a bit of a mess. My aunty and uncle moved into a care home. Their social worker asked my sister and I if we'd be happy to be their LPA's which we said yes. Then for some reason my uncle changed his mind said he didn't want us to do that and he went with to a company who dealt with their finances, let's refer to them as FSC (financial support company as I don't want to name them) and they probably suggested the solicitor to my uncle as they are both in the same building, within spitting distance of each other.  
I later find out that my uncle didn't really consider us as relatives as my dad and aunty were brother and sister and as we weren't "blood" to him he told his social worker me, my sister and our cousin weren't really his nieces as we weren't related to him. Before my uncle died I phoned the FSC to be told that they couldn't speak to us as we weren't down on their list to be spoken to and after he died they wouldn't even tell me when his funeral was. I had to ring our local crematorium up to find out when it was.
The person who was dealing with everything just before and after he passed away was my uncles cousin (by blood), I asked the FSC to pass my number on to her and to ask her to call me but she didn't want to talk to me, no idea why as I had never met her before, she lives 90 miles from us.
Once my uncle had passed away the FSC were more than happy to speak to us and advised me who my auntys solicitor was. The FSC had an afterlife package which included liaising with the coroner, sorting the funeral, sourcing intestate information, putting together a package of information on assets, liabilities, will and family information for the probate solicitor. Attending with the probate solicitors for handover and dealing with any queries thereafter along with a list of other things and as far as I'm aware the solicitor did everything I've just quoted. That was £1000 and then for the £1500 they were charging the estate, they were also supposed to arrange clearance and cleaning of the property (we did that) obtain valuations (which the solicitor did) changing locks and or fitting key safe (which the solicitor did) and then then my brother-in-law changed the locks a second time as their neighbour had access to the property (that's another story altogether). I did phone the FSC and get it reduced back down to £1000 after I complained but I'm not even sure what they did for that.  As I said I have never dealt with anything like this before so I had no idea what I was and wasn't supposed to do, neither did my sister.  Unfortunately we naively presumed the solicitor dealt with everything and she didn't tell us otherwise. The way this is going it feels like it's never going to come to an end.

Marcon

Flugelhorn said:

Mark_d said:

Yes probate takes a long time especially when people die intestate

it can be very quick if the administrators are motivate and have all the financial information needed, it isn't necessarily slower than if there is a will - what has made this slow is the use of a solicitor to handle the whole thing.

What has made this slow is this:

There was mention from the solicitor that I was the administrator when I first spoke to her but she said nothing else, as I didn't have a clue if I was supposed to do anything and I didn't have any of my aunty and uncles information to hand and wouldn't know where to start I've left it all to her. 

OP, time to engage fully with the hapless trainee (who will be under supervision, so the trainee status isn't of itself a concern) and establish what information is needed and who is best placed to get this, and whether she is in any position to give you a timeframe.