My Solicitor can get no reply from another solicitor!!

[Bobbyboy]

My brother in laws partner died last May 2022 and the home they lived in [which they jointly owned] now needs to be sold, as his attorney he has asked me to appoint a solicitor to deal with this, which I did last August.
Since then nothing has happened and our solicitor has written, emailed and phoned and gets nowhere, the solicitor dealing with my brother in laws partners affairs just will not reply.
Now because of the very cold weather and the house being empty [my B.I.L is in a nursing home] a pipe has frozen and burst doing a lot of damage, and we are unable to do anything about it because her solicitor will not answer our repeated questions regarding insurance and the way forward.
Help please, this is driving me mad and is not something I wish to deal with in my old age of 82 years.

[charitynjw]

Do you have access to the premises?
If yes, have you turned off the mains water supply?
Has unoccupied property insurance been obtained?

[atticus]

Has a grant of Probate been obtained for the partner's estate?

[Bobbyboy]

Do you have access to the premises?
If yes, have you turned off the mains water supply?
Has unoccupied property insurance been obtained?

Thanks for your reply.
Yes we do have access to the premises, water is now turned of and central heating is drying things out.
Regarding insurance we have no idea, my brother in laws partners solicitor did phone us back last October to say that they would be insuring the property but we have not been told who with or any of the details, and that is what I am trying to find out, but she will not reply to my of my solicitors phone calls, emails or letters.
I am beginning to fear that is not insured!

[Bobbyboy]

Has a grant of Probate been obtained for the partner's estate?

Thank you for your reply.

We have no idea because they will not speak to me or my solicitor! We are completely in the dark about it all, we were never told that she had died or when, we only found out via a next door neighbour!
It all seems a complete mess.

[atticus]

you can check at the, Probate Registry https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/ - hasn't your solicitor done this for you?

[Bobbyboy]

you can check at the, Probate Registry https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/ - hasn't your solicitor done this for you?

Just tried this and no results so assume not.

[Bobbyboy]

How long does it take to get a Grant of Probate?
It is 9 month now since my BIL partner died!

[Manxman]

1. Have you asked your (or rather your brother's) solicitor how this needs to be progressed?

2 I was under the impression (perhaps mistaken) that failing to respond to a fellow solicitor's correspondence was a serious disciplinary matter.

3 Is there a good reason why your BiL's interests are not being represented by the same solicitor that is dealing with his partner's estate? If they were joint owners of the house it's inconvenient that there are two separate solicitors.

4 Sorry - not trying to be nosy but you have power of attorney from your brother in law, yes? I presume he doesn't have capacity to cope with all this himself?

(You don't need to answer 3 and 4 on this forum if you don't want to, but you might want to consider those questions)