Poor service and support : Probate and full estates .....

[Quovadisuk]

I will try and keep this brief although this does have a lot of history to it .

My wife lost her mum, and we appointed a solicitor to look after probate and full estates service. We chose this solicitor as they offered a live track system where any members of the family can log in to monitor progress and to check on accounts received/paid. This suited us as many family members live overseas, and doing it this way showed transparency, and all was given a password to log in 24/7

There were many people dealing with the account that ether left or moved positions and to be honest the account got in a mess with missing files and indeed information given was incorrect which indicated there was £66,000 plus missing, when in fact it was not . Many of files did not open, and many times it was impossible to log in.

We asked for an account statement and much was missing or incorrect . At this point, my wife and I went through the account ourselves which took us days, and made a formal complaint in writing recorded delivery to the solicitor outlining our dis satisfaction and the issues found.

Response was slow but we did get a reply stating that the accounts were in progress, the missing files was a computer error, and access was due to upgrades.

We did have a new young lady take over the account, and she was really good, and started sorting the file out for us . She agreed it was in an appalling state, but would make great efforts to sort it.

Many apologies were made for the errors from different quarters, and we felt that the official complaint had had some effect of taking the complaint seriously

We have now learnt out of the blue, the young lady has left, and the live file has just stalled again, and all the accounts that should have been paid have not, and the emails sent do not appear on the tracker file anymore?

I Immediately sent a complaint email direct to the solicitor nearly a week ago and heard nothing. It will be 2 years that this has been going on next month, and no indication that this is going to end soon . My wife is unable to take ownership of her mums grave as no payments has been made from the estate funds, nor are we able to organise headstones as again no payments have been made despite the requests to do so on many occasions we note the solicitor has already taken his fee, much earlier in the case?

I have looked at raising a complaint via the legal ombudsman but they seem overloaded with cases already and this could take months. I would like to ask what is the best way forward in really to finalise the probate and estate issue, but also what action can be taken against the solicitor who has been sitting on over £700,000 in cash from the sale of property some months back. Are we at liberty to ask for the interest on this money, should we ever see conclusion to this stressful situation.?

It has got that bad, it has caused rifts and arguments in the family, with even the allegation of fraud, when in fact the error was the solicitors, and we have had to ask for counselling support due the the stress and anxiety this has been put upon us from all angles. All we wanted was to do was to do it right and to make sure everything was transparent for all to see . It looks like we are being given the run around once again. Any suggestions appreciated ...... Stressed!!!

[dslippy]

A terrible story.
Who has probate?
Concentrate on the services core to the management of the estate. Yes, they overpromised, but what matters are the core issues about managment of the estate.
Yes they are due to pay interest, but the amounts are vanishingly small.

[Sam101]

Having made a formal complaint to the solicitors, you should have received a formal reply stating what would happen next. That letter is a requirement of the SRA and tells the client the procedure. Has that procedure been met? If the time limit that the solicitor needs to reply to you about the complaint has past, you should move on to the Ombudsman.

I appreciate that there is a backlog with the Ombudsman department, but it would appear that this solicitor is, at least, incompetent and at worst, I hesitate to say. However, the Ombudsman is there for public protection and if you cannot move forward with the solicitor, then this needs to be done.

Have you tried speaking with the senior partner of the solicitors, or the solicitor who is appointed to deal with complaints?

I feel that others may wish to try to help with guidance and wish you well in this terrible matter.

[Quovadisuk]

Thank you for your reply its appreciated . The complaint was sent to the senior manager(ess) following the complaints procedure laid out by the the company . This saw the matter referred to the manager in control ( who is also a partner ) so both were aware. I have spoken the the solicitor by phone a few weeks back who assured us that despite the lady leaving matters would move very fast as the person taking over only had three cases … I asked him/her to make contact with us to introduce themselves ,so that we can work together but this did not materialise either and the live file remains static . Nothing has happened nor have we had any further communiques ?

[dslippy]

Again, who has probate and is therefore the actual client?

[Sam101]

Try and speak with the senior solicitor and explain that unless you have his personal attention to this immediately, you will be communicating with the Ombudsman's office. He may not appreciate that you are still being ignored and mention that the office has already taken their fees despite the matter not being dealt with. Something that is rather frowned upon with many, more professional practices.

Does the solicitor have the only authority to obtain Probate and has this been completed by them?

[Quovadisuk]

My wife holds the authority for probate, and yes the solicitor has been granted probate through the correct channels over a year ago and shows on the tracker file ( fortunately ) kind regards

[dslippy]

Sorry, still confused. Probate has been granted - but whose name appears on the grant. This matters because it affects who is the client, and who can complain.

[Quovadisuk]

My wife appears on the grant. She has authorised me to be the contact point for the family on her behalf . ALL correspondence and decision making is undertaken by her, which I action on her behal . Trust this clarifies …regards

[Quovadisuk]

I thought I had better add my wife being the name on the probate signed the complaint which was sent recorded delivery.

regards

[dslippy]

You thought correctly. The issue is that she is the client, not you.

[Quovadisuk]

Having had no response from the senior partner to a further complaint sent to his personal email on the 5th July 2022 . We telephoned the company on Monday, to ascertain who was now dealing with the estate. I did make it clear that although the issues experienced was not directly his fault ( as he had just taken over the account ) but the ongoing situation of the account has been appalling . He agreed there had been issues with the account over the period of nearly two years, but confirmed the statement that he had only three cases as given to us by the senior partner was incorrect and would be speaking with him about this . I asked why there has been been no contact from him despite the promises this would happen , and the response was that that was his fault and apologised. ( no doubt he has many cases then the three suggested )

My main complaint to him is that over the time of the account it suggests others had checked the file and all was Ok , how can this be when so many issues were evident?

Why has payments still not been made from the estate funds despite many requests ?

why is it that the case is only looked at occasionally and not followed through ?

His response was that he will look at the account in greater detail but even he couldn’t find files which he also found frustrating, In fact he was asking us what issues were still outstanding ?

He has promised to come back to us in a couple of days .. we will see what develops

I have spoken with the ombudsman, and will no doubt start to raise a complaint as we feel there is something radically wrong in how this company operates . My wife was present at the time being named on the probate and also confirmed her concerns to him also . Regards

[Quovadisuk]

Just to update events . We have filed a complaint with the legal ombudsman, but the delay in moving forward with this has been slow .. initially had to wait 6 weeks to acknowledge the complaint, now it appears we have to wait now ( not sure how long ) for an investigator to become available . … Anyway , we were sent forms to sign in regards shares to be sold by the solicitor, ( this has been going on since Sept 2020 ) when we.look at these forms, they seemed familiar, so we sat down and went through the file from 2020 to Sept 22 and find they have been dealing with the same shares and referencing to them at least 15 times and yes, the papers sent for signing were indeed already completed as signed months ago, so all this time we have been going in a circle as different staff come and go and start again . what also transpires is that the share certificates that we posted in 2020 have gone missing, despite them being sent recorded delivery and now learn that the share quantities now differ from 2020 which even the solicitor has questioned . Surely there must be a case of malpractice here ? The whole file seems to be in disarray and has ongoing issues and we cannot get monies released for headstones despite ongoing requests. The house was sold months and they are sitting on over £750,000.00 but do very little . Whilst we will wait to determine how long we will need to wait for the ombudsman to look at what is going on . If it’s not favourable is it possible to find a forensic? Solicitor specialist to take a look at what is going on as we think the whole case has been mishandled . It would need to be on a no win fee basis as despite the vast amount of monies held it is the estate funds that really belong to other family members and shouldn’t be used for this purpose, and I know without even asking, that the family members involved wouldn’t agree anyway. The situation we find ourselves causes us much stress and distress, not only with the bereavement, but also the ongoing non action of the solicitor but also the pressures from certain family members. We are in our 70s and could well do without this , and we both have had to take counseling because of it. Any suggestions or guidance appreciated .