Dealing with Solicitors

[pp111]

A relative died a year and three months ago, leaving a simple will and choosing a local solicitors as the executive.

The relatives house has been sold and the solicitors have sat on the money for some ten months, waiting to see if anyone is to come forward that is not mentioned in the will.

Contacting them a few days ago, they are still unable to give a date when the will is to be concluded. Apparently they over-paid on the tax and that needs to be claimed back, and there is an issue with some items that need to be sold.

Thing is that this seems to be a ridiculous amount of time, especially when you consider they still have no idea of final dates and so on.

One of the worst things is how vague they are about delays, costs and so on. They clearly just want to take their time and have no real idea what they are doing or how much it will cost.

I don't want to incur costs chasing them, but seems to me they are doing a really bad job. How do I get them to move a bit faster?

 

[pinkpound]

I feel your pain my uncle died in October and my mother is a joint executor with a local solicitors (which we didn't know about) . He had no property and just renting after a divorce and less then £100k in savings so probate was needed and it is expected to come back 1st week of May allegedly . They have been so slow doing anything and seem to be using "covid" as an excuse . Its been that bad my mother + my other uncle have even swapped there wills to remove solicitors as the 1 of the executors .

 

[Edinho]

Choosing a solicitor as an executor is a bad idea it gives them carte blance to do what they want. Keep pestering them until they are fed up and get a full inventory of where the money has gone and maybe complain to the law society.

Same with wills keep them simple introduce complexity and it becomes worthless.

 

[Voltar]

A relative died a year and three months ago, leaving a simple will and choosing a local solicitors as the executive.

The relatives house has been sold and the solicitors have sat on the money for some ten months, waiting to see if anyone is to come forward that is not mentioned in the will.

Contacting them a few days ago, they are still unable to give a date when the will is to be concluded. Apparently they over-paid on the tax and that needs to be claimed back, and there is an issue with some items that need to be sold.

Thing is that this seems to be a ridiculous amount of time, especially when you consider they still have no idea of final dates and so on.

One of the worst things is how vague they are about delays, costs and so on. They clearly just want to take their time and have no real idea what they are doing or how much it will cost.

I don't want to incur costs chasing them, but seems to me they are doing a really bad job. How do I get them to move a bit faster?

you’d be within your rights to complain if they have not been transparent with you over fees and their costs. Alternatively you could request a costs schedule to see where they’ve been spending the cash. You could also ask what future costs are involved and what timescales are involved.

seems a bit unfair if they’re charging without saying what for and giving you no idea on how the costs are likely to be incurred.

 

[pp111]

you’d be within your rights to complain if they have not been transparent with you over fees and their costs. Alternatively you could request a costs schedule to see where they’ve been spending the cash. You could also ask what future costs are involved and what timescales are involved.

seems a bit unfair if they’re charging without saying what for and giving you no idea on how the costs are likely to be incurred.

They avoid every question that is asked of them. They either just don't answer questions or the do so with a really vague answer. We are completely in the dark.

 

[cheesyboy]

They avoid every question that is asked of them. They either just don't answer questions or the do so with a really vague answer. We are completely in the dark.

Write a letter laying out your concerns and complaints, state the things you want an answer to, give them 14 days to respond and then report them to the Law Society if you aren't satisfied with the response.

My limited experience of dealing with solicitors as a punter (house purchase/sales, will writing, some employment stuff), plus some more experience of managing the auditing of solicitors, leaves me utterly unimpressed with the whole industry. They're almost all ******* useless.

 

[rG-tom]

I'd be complaining to the SRA, not the law society, the SRA actually has power.

Write a letter laying out your concerns and complaints, state the things you want an answer to, give them 14 days to respond and then report them to the Law Society if you aren't satisfied with the response.

My limited experience of dealing with solicitors as a punter (house purchase/sales, will writing, some employment stuff), plus some more experience of managing the auditing of solicitors, leaves me utterly unimpressed with the whole industry. They're almost all ******* useless.

Most people that would actually make a good solicitor go into "big law" and you would never interact with them as a punter. 98% of the solicitors you'll interact to in your day-to-day lives, unless you're an extremely high net worth individual, will be the ones who couldn't/didn't want to make it with a "proper" firm....

 

[Sui]

Contact the senior partner and raise your grievances with them, you'll be expected (I think) to do this before you contact any relevant body.

Hopefully they will have a website with a complaints procedure, if not, contact them and ask for the details of the senior partner. If they are unable to resolve your issue, then you contact the SRA and/or the legal ombudsman, if you mention these they might pull their finger out.

 

[Blackjack Davy]

Aye this cane be a bit of a nightmare my mother was named as executor on a will along with someone else but it places a burdon on them to sort it out, also if there are claims against the will you will probably need to talk to a solicitor anyway as in her case as his previous wife's relatives/children decided they wanted a cut of the will as well (to be fair it was a joint mortgage/income but she passed away years previously) anyway the solicitor had to pay them off with X amount to make them go away. It wasn't even worth for my mother as her part of the inheritence was small almost all the estate went to his worthless son who passed away himself not that long after.

Also my step mother died a few weeks ago and I'm named in the will (probably a small part as we weren't close and she has/had family of her own to leave it to) but due to complexities with spanish inheritence law (lived in spain, has to be executed under their laws) I have to make a special trip to London sometime to witness or sign or declare or something with a London lawyer to make it cogent with the spanish authorities/law/executor(s). Total nightmare. Tax bill is collosal (tens of thousands)

 

[pp111]

Turns out ( when pressed ) they have done nothing in the past nine months. You will be glad to know it's Covid's fault. I also talked to an old friend who happens to know the legal system well and he basically said that unless they are really incompetent it is not worth trying to do anything about it. The main issue is that it was the relative who signed them up to do the job and should have ensured that their terms were acceptable. I guess the lesson there is if you intend to get a solicitor to act as executor don't just assume they will do a good job. Find out how long they take and how much they charge.

 

[hux]

Ime if a solicitor is taking their time, it's to milk as much money possible.

Give them a five day time limit, asking for a full rundown of costs, after which you'll report them to the Law Society.

 

[wonko]

I'm assuming you're a beneficiary and that it's a large enough estate for inheritance tax to be payable. In England at least, I'd have expected the solicitor to have placed a deceased estates notice in the Official Gazette, which gives any claimants a couple of months to come forward - this protects both the executor and the beneficiaries against claims after the estate has been distributed. You could do a search of the gazette to see if a notice was placed before asking the solicitor if they have done it or not. If they have, and no claimant came forward, then you could ask what they are waiting for. If they haven't placed a Gazette notice, then ask why not. Either way, I'd raise it as a formal complaint and go through their complaints process before pursuing with the legal ombudsman. Good luck! (p.s. IANAL, just had to do it a couple of times).