How long should probate take

Grumpysally

I know this is a bit of a 'how long is a piece of string' question, but should probate take over 12 months when the deceased has left everything to the surviving spouse? There are shares involved but again this should be a straight forward transfer.The solicitor seem to be taking a unacceptable length of time and is terrible at returning phone calls.
Thanks, A

a11waysindebt

The initial probate process should take a month to get the papers back.

Was there a will left as you state everything was left to the spouse.

I've been fighting one case my self for nearly 2 years and yes solicitors do take the pee when replying to cases.

Tao81

Alie, so sorry to hear of your MIL's predicament. From my experience probate can take however long the solicitor decides they want it to drag on and some will make sure that it's kept as complicated and as drawn out as possible since they have a vested interest in doing so.

Not sure this will help by sharing this with you but just as an insight into exactly what can go on....... here goes.
When my father died, unfortunately although I was the main beneficiary my dear Dad decided, purely based on the fact that I wasn't then living near his home town, that for my convenience he would make his brother and sister the executors of his will......What a mistake! He would have turned in his grave if he had one!
Sadly my uncle died a 4 months after my father and unfortunately for me my aunty was extremely jealous of my inheritance! As soon as the solicitor got wind of this they dragged it out and their fees totalled, down to the last penny, exactly that which came directly into the estate funds!!!!!! :eek: :mad: Pure daylight robbery at the time which made me extremely angry, but unfortunately there was little I could do in that situation! :mad: They seemed to be a law unto themselves!! :mad: :mad:
My father's estate involved the transfer of a small house (with no outstanding mortgage), a small amount of shares, a works pension and any money /savings he had in the bank. It should have reasonably only taken a 3-4 months at the outstretch to complete, however, in reality the firm of solicitors dragged it out for over 18 months and as mentioned grabbed all monies in his estate leaving me solely with the house which I was threatened they would cause to have to be sold (by increasing their fees for work I presumed!!) should I continue with my challenge to them on how unreasonably long they were taking to complete the process of probate ?!!:eek:

I don't know what you can do other than change solicitors if you know of a good one that you can trust?! This may inevitably cost your MIL dearly and extend the time for completion of probate simply by the nature of involving someone else who inevitably has the capacity to decide to equally take advantage of the situation as the current solicitor would appear to be doing, judging by your level of distress?!

I wish you every success with your endeavour to get this sorted but personally have very little faith, due to my own past experience, of a system that is so open to abuse by unscrupulous professionals who are often more than willing and find it so incredibly easy to take advantage of vulnerable individuals or circumstances!!!!

I apologise if this post is unhelpful or causes you any further distress.

All the very best and here's hoping that your experience turns out to be vastly different to mine! You'll be in my thoughts.

Primrose

if this is a straighforward case it seems to be that the solicitor is being very tardy. One of an Executor's duties is to clear the estate as efficiently as possible. If the solicitor is not even bothering to return phone calls, I suggest a letter be written giving him a deadline to perform, saying that the beneficiaries are extremely unhappy with the way that he is handling the matter and that a formal complaint is going to be made to the Law Society.

Mikeyorks

Agree with Primrose ..... it seems exceptionally long for what you intimate is relatively straightforward. I would ask the Solicitors for an accurate time stamped breakdown of what they've done to date .. and time to full completion.

It's normally bad news getting a Solicitor involved with a relatively clear cut case. So a probing enquiry which clearly says 'enough' .. then sit on them.

moonrakerz

Mikeyorks wrote: »

Agree with Primrose ..... it seems exceptionally long for what you intimate is relatively straightforward. I would ask the Solicitors for an accurate time stamped breakdown of what they've done to date .. and time to full completion.

Then ask for a reduction in their fees because of the time they have taken !!

Grumpysally

Primrose wrote: »

if this is a straighforward case it seems to be that the solicitor is being very tardy. One of an Executor's duties is to clear the estate as efficiently as possible. If the solicitor is not even bothering to return phone calls, I suggest a letter be written giving him a deadline to perform, saying that the beneficiaries are extremely unhappy with the way that he is handling the matter and that a formal complaint is going to be made to the Law Society.

This is what I have been suggesting to OH. Also that he keeps a record of dates and times of any phone calls made.

Grumpysally

Tao81 wrote: »

Alie, so sorry to hear of your MIL's predicament. From my experience probate can take however long the solicitor decides they want it to drag on and some will make sure that it's kept as complicated and as drawn out as possible since they have a vested interest in doing so.

Not sure this will help by sharing this with you but just as an insight into exactly what can go on....... here goes.
When my father died, unfortunately although I was the main beneficiary my dear Dad decided, purely based on the fact that I wasn't then living near his home town, that for my convenience he would make his brother and sister the executors of his will......What a mistake! He would have turned in his grave if he had one!
Sadly my uncle died a 4 months after my father and unfortunately for me my aunty was extremely jealous of my inheritance! As soon as the solicitor got wind of this they dragged it out and their fees totalled, down to the last penny, exactly that which came directly into the estate funds!!!!!! :eek: :mad: Pure daylight robbery at the time which made me extremely angry, but unfortunately there was little I could do in that situation! :mad: They seemed to be a law unto themselves!! :mad: :mad:
My father's estate involved the transfer of a small house (with no outstanding mortgage), a small amount of shares, a works pension and any money /savings he had in the bank. It should have reasonably only taken a 3-4 months at the outstretch to complete, however, in reality the firm of solicitors dragged it out for over 18 months and as mentioned grabbed all monies in his estate leaving me solely with the house which I was threatened they would cause to have to be sold (by increasing their fees for work I presumed!!) should I continue with my challenge to them on how unreasonably long they were taking to complete the process of probate ?!!:eek:

I don't know what you can do other than change solicitors if you know of a good one that you can trust?! This may inevitably cost your MIL dearly and extend the time for completion of probate simply by the nature of involving someone else who inevitably has the capacity to decide to equally take advantage of the situation as the current solicitor would appear to be doing, judging by your level of distress?!

I wish you every success with your endeavour to get this sorted but personally have very little faith, due to my own past experience, of a system that is so open to abuse by unscrupulous professionals who are often more than willing and find it so incredibly easy to take advantage of vulnerable individuals or circumstances!!!!

I apologise if this post is unhelpful or causes you any further distress.

All the very best and here's hoping that your experience turns out to be vastly different to mine! You'll be in my thoughts.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience, Tao. This is exactly what we are dreading.

dmg24

If there is a will, it is possible to sort out probate yourself.

There is lots of information here that may help x

notisis

Please check the terms of your client care letter (the solicitor must provide one at the outset). This will state who is dealing with the matter, the hourly rate, expected length of transaction in normal circumstances, billing periods like monthly, quarterly or end of transaction, who to complain to etc.

If having looked at this and any other correspondence which suggests the time scale should be much shorter, keep a note of all correspondence that has passed between solicitor and client including phone calls, and then write setting out the disatissfaction to the person named in the client care letter who deals with complaints. Keep copies of everything. If no satsifactory reply is received with a week (do state you expect a reply within this timescale) contact the Law Society Complaints arm (now known as solicitors regulation authority - details on web). Take the complaint further.

I would also mention who do the solicitors report to? If the executors named in any will are other than your mil then that will add a complication.

Good luck.

notisis

Sorry - should have added that if the person originally instructing the solicitor is other than the surviving spouse (possibly because they were not named as executor in any Will) or there was no Will then yes probate can take longer. A solicitor will report to and take instructions from the executor(s) and not the beneficiaries (unless they are one and the same).