Tweet
Hi
Many issues faced during the probate of my mother’s estate.
Her sole Executor became incapacitated which led to the beneficiaries having to replace him with a probate specialist solicitor as Personal Representative. There are unanswered questions about loans to and from my mother to some family members.
Her Will left legacies to 5 grandchildren and the previous Executor, with residuary to 4 children with equal share and 2 charities with 10% each, ( ergo children each have 1/5 of the residual estate )
Solicitor PR took over the executorship in 2021 and asked us for details of any loans or gifts we had to/from the estate. I was my mothers principal carer, looked after her and knew most of her personal choices.
One of my siblings was known to have been lent various soft loans but has persistently refused to acknowledge them, claiming them to be gifted. My mother was not well off. The bulk of her estate is her home.
Solicitor asked for any further information. I supplied a list of known amounts, together with various hand written notes by my mother, her cheque stubs and copies of entries in her bank statements. All this was presented as my Personal Statement to the Solicitor, who, without my consent, circulated it to all beneficiaries and the charities in what he has referred to as a contentious probate, In doing so he also stated he believed this needed a court decision.
He did so without informing any of us in advance that once he had our statements, this would be his action. We had assumed he would simply make his own assessment of the information provided and ask the requisite question to whomever he needed clarification from.
Instead, the solicitor sent a covering letter which extrapolated and misrepresented many parts of my Personal Statement, and openly informed the Charities he anticipated the court were best placed to decide this.
Evidence provided included 3 amounts with hand notations by my mother stating these were loans, which were not followed up, and amounts I say were owed to me for purchases made on behalf of my mother were erroneously represented, leading to a confused and ambiguous account of my affairs.
Family all believe the solicitor PR wants this to go to court, primarily to increase his already excessively high fees (£85k). All other nominal assets eg., pension, shares and bank balance amounts were collected by the first Executor.
Our repeated requests for an interim snap shot of the accounts during the past 3.5 years were ignored.
Many identical emails were sent individually rather than cc’d to the four of us, ie adding costs; certain matters which should have been easily dealt with were poorly handled, and most recently we discovered a number of entries in his account breakdown for fees are doubled up.
The house was sold October 2024. Having made an initial attempt to address gifts and loans in February 2021, the solicitor made no further effort to resolve this until November 2024, just after the sale proceeds arrived in the Client Account. )
No distributions have been made.
Two of the family want to challenge the high fees, and intend to make a complaint about his general poor handling of matters.
However, the Solicitor circulated ( again, separately ) an email today informing us that we either “irrevocably agree” the interim account ( which does not include all known expenses or loans but does include his fees ), or he will send refer it to court.
Family want to avoid the further legal costs of court, and the fees for the work done are outrageous.
If we irrevocably agree his fees now to avoid the further cost of court we are very concerned how to then challenge something we have agreed to later? We feel this is akin to blackmail.
Any advice would be appreciated.
Many issues faced during the probate of my mother’s estate.
Her sole Executor became incapacitated which led to the beneficiaries having to replace him with a probate specialist solicitor as Personal Representative. There are unanswered questions about loans to and from my mother to some family members.
Her Will left legacies to 5 grandchildren and the previous Executor, with residuary to 4 children with equal share and 2 charities with 10% each, ( ergo children each have 1/5 of the residual estate )
Solicitor PR took over the executorship in 2021 and asked us for details of any loans or gifts we had to/from the estate. I was my mothers principal carer, looked after her and knew most of her personal choices.
One of my siblings was known to have been lent various soft loans but has persistently refused to acknowledge them, claiming them to be gifted. My mother was not well off. The bulk of her estate is her home.
Solicitor asked for any further information. I supplied a list of known amounts, together with various hand written notes by my mother, her cheque stubs and copies of entries in her bank statements. All this was presented as my Personal Statement to the Solicitor, who, without my consent, circulated it to all beneficiaries and the charities in what he has referred to as a contentious probate, In doing so he also stated he believed this needed a court decision.
He did so without informing any of us in advance that once he had our statements, this would be his action. We had assumed he would simply make his own assessment of the information provided and ask the requisite question to whomever he needed clarification from.
Instead, the solicitor sent a covering letter which extrapolated and misrepresented many parts of my Personal Statement, and openly informed the Charities he anticipated the court were best placed to decide this.
Evidence provided included 3 amounts with hand notations by my mother stating these were loans, which were not followed up, and amounts I say were owed to me for purchases made on behalf of my mother were erroneously represented, leading to a confused and ambiguous account of my affairs.
Family all believe the solicitor PR wants this to go to court, primarily to increase his already excessively high fees (£85k). All other nominal assets eg., pension, shares and bank balance amounts were collected by the first Executor.
Our repeated requests for an interim snap shot of the accounts during the past 3.5 years were ignored.
Many identical emails were sent individually rather than cc’d to the four of us, ie adding costs; certain matters which should have been easily dealt with were poorly handled, and most recently we discovered a number of entries in his account breakdown for fees are doubled up.
The house was sold October 2024. Having made an initial attempt to address gifts and loans in February 2021, the solicitor made no further effort to resolve this until November 2024, just after the sale proceeds arrived in the Client Account. )
No distributions have been made.
Two of the family want to challenge the high fees, and intend to make a complaint about his general poor handling of matters.
However, the Solicitor circulated ( again, separately ) an email today informing us that we either “irrevocably agree” the interim account ( which does not include all known expenses or loans but does include his fees ), or he will send refer it to court.
Family want to avoid the further legal costs of court, and the fees for the work done are outrageous.
If we irrevocably agree his fees now to avoid the further cost of court we are very concerned how to then challenge something we have agreed to later? We feel this is akin to blackmail.
Any advice would be appreciated.