Solicitor verbally offered not to apply IHT interest to the estate but did

[littleharf]

Good evening,

As an executor, I instructed a firm of solicitors to act on my behalf in the administration of an estate back in March 2021. It was clear right from the start that the estate would be chargeable to Inheritance Tax and that the tax would be due six months after date of death.

The first solicitor assigned to this case left after two months. Prior to her leaving everything seemed to be progressing nicely and communication was great. However, when our case was passed to her colleague things quickly went downhill. Communication pretty much ceased and there wasn't anything to suggest that the estate was actually being worked on. Emails expressing my concerns that the inheritance tax was overdue and requests for updates were ignored. When I finally got hold of the solicitor in February 2022 by telephone, she told me that her firm were working with an increased workload whilst having fewer staff. When I expressed my concern that the inheritance tax had not been paid she surprised me by saying "don't worry about that, we won't apply it to the estate and we'll take the hit". I did not request this nor was I aggressive to her which may have led her to say this in a panic. I obviously accepted her offer. I originally didn't think she'd actually follow through with this as there were numerous times I had to take what she said with a pinch of salt (she was eventually removed from the case by her manager when she provided incorrect info to me on a different matter regarding this estate). However, she made a further comment of "the interest is only a small amount anyway". This annoyed me as I had already done the maths and by the time the solicitor arranged payment of the tax over a year late, the estate incurred almost £5k of interest and penalties. Not a small amount in my view.

As the offer was verbal and would be a case of my word against hers due to there being no recording, I sent two emails. The first immediately after our conversation and then again a month later, asking her to confirm her offer in writing for my records. There was no response to either email. As expected, the interest was deducted from the estate funds. This second solicitor, as mentioned above, was removed from the case and eventually left the firm.

The third solicitor, who was the head of the department, was made aware of the offer on more than one occasion by myself. However, she would either not respond or completely fail to address this and focus her responses towards other matters that were being discussed in our emails. This solicitor also left the firm.

The fourth solicitor, who is the new head of department, has also ignored this issue when I've raised it. He is now looking to conclude matters relating to this estate next week without addressing the inheritance tax interest.

So the advice I'm looking for is whether there's any point in pursuing this via the firm's complaints procedure? I have no evidence of this offer being made verbally in February 2022. However, I have those two emails I sent requesting the second solicitor to confirm her offer in writing. I therefore gave her two opportunities to claim that she never made the offer but she didn't take them. Can that be used as evidence or am I clutching at straws?

Any advice given will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Mal161]

The first thing to do is write to the senior partner of the firm making an official complaint about the matter. This will officially start the complaints procedure, State that you intend to ask the Solicitors Regulatory Authority (SRA)) to investigate the case, as according to what you have stated, this is not the way you should have been treated, The senior Partner is the only one you should now deal with.
The solicitors now have a specific time in which to reply to you, after which you can then writ to the SRA making the complaint official.
It may help you to look up SRA complaints procedure on Google to clarify this, but I expect others will soon reply to you also. Do not allow these solicitors to avoid their responsibility.

[PallasAthena]

Not having evidence of what the solicitor said does not prevent you bringing an SRA complaint or a court claim. The conversation should be recorded in the solicitor's notes of the phone call.

But even if it isn't noted the failure to to pay IHT on time, and so incur penalties, is in itself an indicator that there might be professional negligence by the firm anyway.