Exploitive solicitor fees for simple, low value probate?

lillpup14

Any advice for me please. Over £7000 is being taken from my late father’s estate to cover solicitors fees (the entirety of his savings). £1800 was charged for e-mail correspondence to myself. Other charges are for work repeated due to mistakes and interestingly to cover postage for letters received (£179 for 8 letters). I don’t believe this to be ethical or correct but I am finding it very difficult to challenge as no-one offers consumer rights in cases such as this? I am in the process of escalating my concerns to the legal ombudsman but would welcome any guidance from anyone with any knowledge or experience that would help me in this matter… TIA X

Grumpy_chap

lillpup14 Posts:1 Newbie 

Today at 4:36PM

Any advice for me please. Over £7000 is being taken from my late father’s estate to cover solicitors fees (the entirety of his savings). £1800 was charged for e-mail correspondence to myself. Other charges are for work repeated due to mistakes and interestingly to cover postage for letters received (£179 for 8 letters). I don’t believe this to be ethical or correct but I am finding it very difficult to challenge as no-one offers consumer rights in cases such as this? I am in the process of escalating my concerns to the legal ombudsman but would welcome any guidance from anyone with any knowledge or experience that would help me in this matter… TIA X

Has the Solicitor privided a full breakdown of their costs and hours spent? Letters and e-mails are not the time to type and hit the send button, but the time to research and compile the facts and then to type and hit the send button.

How long was the probate process?

How many questions and issues arose in the process?

jaybeetoo

Who appointed the solicitor? Was it specified in the Will? If it was a low value probate then it is usually really simple to do yourself. We’ve just done it for my late mother-in-law and it was quick to complete the online form. Probate was grated a week later. If you have to use a solicitor, it’s always best if you can do as much work as possible up front (e.g. register the death, provide a list of accounts/investments/utilities/etc. and provide final statements).

elsien

As above, who appointed the solicitor? If they were acting as executor, were they asked to relinquish? If not, then someone should have checked out the fees before using them.

lillpup14

thank-you for your comments. They have provided a breakdown of costs for half of the charge.. e-mail correspondence is charged at 6 mins hourly rate just to receive or send, perusal is charged separately. There is an outstanding £1550, that has not been broken down despite requests?? Unfortunately, being completely ignorant of the process and uninformed about our choices. We (my brother and I) appointed them. Especially as they assured us that it was simple and was at a reduced hourly rate (trainee) I was expecting it to be around £3000/£4000??. Thanks again x

lillpup14

just to add they said they couldn’t give a quote at that point!!

AdrianMessenger

It does sound out...bloomin' ...rageous. £7,000!

I was involved with a family situation - where no will existed. The basic amounts were handled with the relevant bank. In such cases, with no massive finances being involved, and the 'tell us once' service used for HMRC, etc, no probate was required.

Keep_pedalling

Did your father’s will appoint the solicitor or did the executors?

lillpup14

both the executors named by my dad in his will are both deceased. He only had £7000 in savings but he had a £90,000 property so probate was necessary. In retrospect.. I did choose to have it handled professionally but was massively misled about price.. was never explicitly given a quote!! :(

Pollycat

Did you actually need probate?

My mum died in a care home with no property and not a lot of savings.

We were told by her bank that we didn't need probate.

elsien

There was a property - in the post above yours. The OP originally made it sound as if it was just the savings but the estate was more than that.