Solicitor have requested I return £12,000 + of my inheritance 12 months later :(

[Guest]

I inherited an amount of money (£44,000) from my grandfather in March 2018 (he died in August 2017). Last week I was extremely shocked to receive a letter from the solicitor who had been dealing with my grandfather's estate (and his finances for approx. 4 years prior to his death) to say that an outstanding bill had been ‘overlooked' and I needed to forward a cheque for over £12,367 to them in order to pay in. Plus another one for over a hundred pounds. The same amount would have to come from my brother (the other beneficiary and will executor).

In the solicitor's letter it states that the debt should have been paid as soon as my grandfather's house was sold to pay for his care home fees to the council. When he died it should have been declared to the HMRC and repaid once Grant of Probate had been issued but this didn't happen, so is an estate liability and needs repaying. I am cross that the solicitor has been grossly incompetence and wonder if there is anything that can be done about this?


The law firm took over £4000 in fees (and charged monthly before his death for looking after his finances) for doing such an incompetent job. Can this fee be claimed back? I have requested that the partner of this law firm who deals with complaints looks into how this debt was overlooked but she informs me that because I am not the client, she will not investigate unless my estranged brother (who seems to be away) puts in a complaint. Please advise about what I can do about this very worrying and upsetting situation.


Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me

[Amethyst]

When you received your inheritance did you sign an indemnity ? Was the Solicitor a joint executor or were they instructed by your estranged brother ( who was executor?) ?
Do you know if they posted a notice in the Gazette?
Also did they hold power of attorney prior to your grandfather death ? Or were they instructed by the person ( presumably your brother) who did hold POA ?
Have you used your inheritance already, say to pay off a portion of a mortgage etc?

Is the debt for carehome fees or owed to HMRC ? ( it might help actually if you can type out the bit of the letter that details what the debt is )

[des8]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is little you can do.
If the money was due to be paid and wasn't the council could pursue you for it as you have received unjust enrichment, albeit unwittingly.
Your only defence is one of "change of position" ie you have actually spent the money on something you would not otherwise have bought and the money is no longer available.

If a beneficiary wishes to make complaint about the solicitor's handling of the estate on behalf of the executor, (s)he will* be politely referred to the executor with an explanation that it is the executor who is the client and that it would, therefore, not be correct for the solicitor to correspond with the beneficiary

[Wilsonman]

You should definitely consider the questions from Amethyst in the first instance.* The first issue is whether it's a lawful debt, and whether it's enforceable (e.g. if your grandfather were still alive, could the claimant reasonably expect a court to order him to pay up).* The question of the Gazette relates to whether appropriate notice was given to creditors to submit their claims against the estate.* It's hard to know from your original post, whether the debt was known to exist before the estate was distributed following appropriate notification in the Gazette. * If the answer is Yes, then you may have to just pay up.* However, if you are determined to pursue the impact on yourself, you have to consider whether there is a case that the solicitor was negligent in their duty, the line of attack would depend on whether the solicitor was an executor or engaged by your brother (as executor). * You say you're estranged, but I would suggest that if your brother has received the same request, that may well help in engaging minds to put the estrangement to one side for the time being! * You should be aware that even if you and your brother, after very careful consideration, do feel that you have a claim against the solicitor, that doesn't mean they are liable for the inheritance you feel you've lost, any recompense would only stretch to the direct impact on your lives (if that). * Also you might find it a challenge to get legal help in taking action against another solicitor, that's not always as easy as it should be. Good Luck!

[Farmer Duck]

When you received your inheritance did you sign an indemnity ? Was the Solicitor a joint executor or were they instructed by your estranged brother ( who was executor?) ?
Do you know if they posted a notice in the Gazette?
Also did they hold power of attorney prior to your grandfather death ? Or were they instructed by the person ( presumably your brother) who did hold POA ?
Have you used your inheritance already, say to pay off a portion of a mortgage etc?

Is the debt for carehome fees or owed to HMRC ? ( it might help actually if you can type out the bit of the letter that details what the debt is )

Thank you for replying and I am probably going to come across as rather clueless here. The solicitor acted on behalf of my grandfather prior to his death, with my brother overseeing the money - so Im presuming he held power of attorney. I used a chuck of the money to pay off debts and was set to buy a house this year.* I could scrap together the money but not without making sacrifices.*
Here is part of the letter I received. It clearly states that the money to the council is a legitimate estate liability and was only picked up because the council wrote to my brother (as executor) about it
The accommodation charges in relation to your grandfather's care remains outstanding, as I have just reviewed my file.* I am sorry that this had been overlooked as the time the estate administration was finalised and the distribution made of the estate.* The charges should have been repaid to the council as soon as your grandfather's house was sold in May 2018. The council had not secured the debt against the property which is why it was not automatically repaid when the house was sold. However, it should have been repaid from the net sale proceeds before the balance was transferred to your grandfather's bank account. This did not happen. When your grandfather died the debt remained outstanding and should have then have been declared to HMRC as part of the estate and repaid once Grant of Probate had been issued. Again this did not happen. I can only apologise for this Omission. It goes on to say £178 is owned to HMRC too.

[Farmer Duck]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is little you can do.
If the money was due to be paid and wasn't the council could pursue you for it as you have received unjust enrichment, albeit unwittingly.
Your only defence is one of "change of position" ie you have actually spent the money on something you would not otherwise have bought and the money is no longer available.

If a beneficiary wishes to make complaint about the solicitor's handling of the estate on behalf of the executor, (s)he will be politely referred to the executor with an explanation that it is the executor who is the client and that it would, therefore, not be correct for the solicitor to correspond with the beneficiary

Thank you for your reply.* I am braced for the worse to be honest and its only fair the debt be paid. Its just a feel aggrieved about the solicitor's role in this mess!

[Farmer Duck]

You should definitely consider the questions from Amethyst in the first instance. The first issue is whether it's a lawful debt, and whether it's enforceable (e.g. if your grandfather were still alive, could the claimant reasonably expect a court to order him to pay up). The question of the Gazette relates to whether appropriate notice was given to creditors to submit their claims against the estate. It's hard to know from your original post, whether the debt was known to exist before the estate was distributed following appropriate notification in the Gazette. If the answer is Yes, then you may have to just pay up. However, if you are determined to pursue the impact on yourself, you have to consider whether there is a case that the solicitor was negligent in their duty, the line of attack would depend on whether the solicitor was an executor or engaged by your brother (as executor). You say you're estranged, but I would suggest that if your brother has received the same request, that may well help in engaging minds to put the estrangement to one side for the time being! You should be aware that even if you and your brother, after very careful consideration, do feel that you have a claim against the solicitor, that doesn't mean they are liable for the inheritance you feel you've lost, any recompense would only stretch to the direct impact on your lives (if that). Also you might find it a challenge to get legal help in taking action against another solicitor, that's not always as easy as it should be. Good Luck!

Thanks for the reply and advice.* I have been advised to just sit and do nothing about this situation. Waiting to see what develops. However, would it just be best to get it over with and pay up post haste. Get the painful bit out the way sooner, than later! lol

[ostell]

The comments in post # 2 are pertinent if you have used a large chunk of the cash

[des8]

Regarding the change of position defence that you might have, generally speaking the redemption of debts would not be taken into account.
The argument goes that you could borrow the money and so put yourself back in the position you were in prior to receiving the legacy.
For change of position defence to be effective, one has to use the money for a benefit you would not otherwise receive eg a cruise.

A case which illustrates the change of position & estoppel defences:*https://www.ucc.ie/academic/law/rest...es/scotseq.htm

[ukcommando]

You might benefit from some first hand legal advice if you can afford it, it sounds as though much may depend on exact timing of what happened when, and it's hard to be sure from what you've written.* On the one hand, it might be argued that if the debt was unknown to those dealing with the estate, and the creditor (the council) didn't take appropriate action to bring it to their attention following a notice in the Gazette, then it's too late to be enforced.* Unfortunately, I suspect the more reasonable argument is that the solicitor would definitely have good reason to know that such a charge would exist and most likely so would have your Brother if he had POA, so there's probably no defence other than what you've done with the money.* Would it be reasonable to suggest that your Brother has caused this mess for both of you by just ignoring a debt he knew about and hoping it would go away?* As for the solicitor, either they're just plain lazy buggers or your brother ignored their advice.

[Farmer Duck]

Good evening helpful and knowledgeable people,
I received this email from the solicitor and was wondering what you made of it. With sincere thanks


I apologise that the payment of £24,735.30 was not made to the Council. In the circumstances, we would like to make the following offer:

1.That you each provide a cheque for £12,367.65 made payable to the Council;

2.That you each pay the sum of £89.26 in respect of the repayment to HMRC;

3.That this Firm repays to the estate the sum of £5,000 in respect of the costs paid, this sum to be divided equally between you



I look forward to hearing whether this offer is accepted and please do not hesitate to let me know if you wish to discuss anything

[Amethyst]

What proportion of the fees paid to the solicitors for managing the estate is £5000?

Was this offer made in response to anything you'd sent to them?