How long, on averge does it take to settle a simple will?

marvin

Never been through this before so just after any ideas from those who may have experience of the situation.

My mum died last October the will (which she showed me before she died) is a fairly simple one, house evenly divided between 2 rest = divided between 4 but too date the will has not been settled. It seems to be taking forever, not desparate for the money just want to be able to get this from hanging over me, till its settled cannot really move on.

Will is being sorted by the solicitors who wrote it and my mums ex partner (who no-one in the family other than my mum could stand, although from the fact they were cut out of the will seems she may have gone off them too by the end!). neither of them (solicitors or ex-partner) will even talk to us about the will and its 6 months on the 11th of March since she died is this too long or am I just being paranoid?

Can't even do anything with the ashes as we have no idea if there is anything in the will stipulating what should happen to them.

floss2

First of all, I'm sorry for your loss.

When our mum dies in July 2005 her financial affairs weren't settled until the October - that was with one of my brothers spending time on it full time.

Your hold-up may be with your local Probate Office - ours was fairly quick.

If you are a beneficiary, you should be able to ask the Solicitor for an idea of where they are up to.

adecor

So sorry about your loss. My mum died in May 2006 & we did the probate ourselves. Will was very simple as I was the only beneficiary & it only took about 8 weeks. It is explained in depth here. There is a lot of form filling, but it's pretty easy to complete & saves the costs of the solicitor http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/RightsAndResponsibilities/Death/BenefitsAndMoney/DG_10029716

janeym8

this is never a nice situation to be in.
my dad died 7 years ago and my mum 2 years ago.

i am an only child and was the only person mentioned in the will ie everything was to come to me.
i thought this would be straightforward and initially i was told-wrongly-by a solicitor it would take 6 weeks to settle but it actually took 6 months .
the solicitor who i dealt with at the end(i had changed from the original one in the practise for various reasons) told me it would always take a minimum of 6 months as there is something legal ,i cant remember what,that prevents anything being paid out or houses being put up for sale until this time.i live in scotland so dont know if this is the same all over the UK.

janey xxx

Loretta

6 months seems about normal

patchwork_cat

Sorry to resurrect old thread, but so far we have been waiting 11 months and property is still not on the market, when I jokingly said it won't take 4 years will it secretary didn't deny or laugh, I am very concerned and don't know where to turn I am a residual beneficiary and not an executor.

Mojisola

marvin wrote: »

Will is being sorted by the solicitors who wrote it and my mums ex partner (who no-one in the family other than my mum could stand, although from the fact they were cut out of the will seems she may have gone off them too by the end!). neither of them (solicitors or ex-partner) will even talk to us about the will and its 6 months on the 11th of March since she died is this too long or am I just being paranoid?

Can't even do anything with the ashes as we have no idea if there is anything in the will stipulating what should happen to them.

It's very odd if your mother cut an ex-partner out of the will but left him as a executor. Are you sure he is an executor or is it just the solicitor? In which case the ex-partner should know even less about the will than you do.

Why won't the solicitor explain what's in the will to you?

Pee

If you are a beneficiary , you are entitled to a copy of the Will.

If the solicitor won't give you one, do a Probate Search at York probate registry and get a copy of the will.

If you ask, the solicitor will telll you if there is anything in the will about funeral wishes and scattering ashes.