as normal you guys know everything between you so here goes...


Background info:

I was previoulsy married and my wife died suddenly, the only family she left was an elderly aunt (77 at the time). I kept in touch everyweek with the aunt, she came from xmas dinnet etc.. and I got on well with her. without sounding aweful it was something my wife did and I felt obliged to make sure she was ok etc..

now to the solicitors bit:

to save anyone any hassle she went to a solicitors who sorted all her will and all her funeral arrangements so that when she died nobody would have to sort anything out.

anyway she passed away at the start of June this year.

firstly it took the solicitors 2 weeks to sort out the funeral, they didnt inform anyone when the funeral was but just put an advert in the paper. they then changed all the locks on the house (as there was only me with another key, surely they could have asked for it since it was me that delivered the other keys to them!)

its now almost August and we still havent got her ashes back, nobody has been informed about the will, and everytime I call they say they are almost ready to get everything sorted.

Im not bothered about the will im not expecting anything, what I would like though is to put this ladys ashes to rest and get the whole thing over and done with.

the gernal consesus that I get is that the longer the solicitors can drag this out the more they get paid.

Is there anything I can do or anyone I can complain to because to be honest they are a complete disgace.

Thanks

I've been involved in a couple of these Mike and neither was resolved any quicker than the time-scales you've mentioned.

One took 3 months, the other nearer 6.

I don't know if this is typical though...

I am dealing with solicitors at the moment trying to purchase a house.... not just one set (mine), but their solicitors as well..

A semi blind, deaf mute could communicate better!

[Edited on 26/7/10 by tegwin]

Ive never really had any dealings with a solicitors (other than the one provided by a magistrates when on speeding charges).

I just cant believe how poor they are at there job.

sounds like its the norm though, thanks guys.

A small tip to anyone writing a will......

Don't make a solicitor or your bank an executor, - there will be nothing left of the estate by the time they have finished with their fees and charges

I, like the majority of people on this forum, know little about how solicitors manage; they appear to being doing nothing when they are doing something and vice versa.

What I do know is that if you are unhappy about the way a solicitor is managing a matter that you have instructed him to do, you can go to the Law Society. They are the body that makes sure the solicitors behave as they should.

I remember a case where a guy that I worked with was made redundant. The company stalled his payment for ages so he went to a solicitor. He gave the solicitor all the paperwork relating to his redundancy. His solicitor did not submit papers in time and he lost out on his payment. When he pointed this out to his solicitor, the solicitor told him that he could no longer handle his case and he should report him(the solicitor) to the Law Society. They appointed a new solicitor to the case in which they sued his previous solicitor for damages as they failed to act in an appropriate manner. He didn't loose out he got his redundancy payment plus an award for the solicitors mistake.

The Office of the Legal Services Ombudsman 22 Oxford Street Manchester M2 3WQ Tel: 0161 236 9532

try theM!


dave j

long time ago I watched a tv prog where they said best way to judge a solicitor is by how thick their file at the law society is, better firms have smaller files.

Best bet is to tell the solicitors themselves you are not happy I reckon, then take it from there if they dont do anything about it

The Law Society is definitely a valid card to play. My solicitor incorrectly informed me of the fees and terms when I was buying a property. The argument was over 35 quid for bank transfer fees.

To be fair their terms and conditions were written in a grey-enough way to get away with it but he did misinform me in his ignorance (he himself was confused by the wording!!!)

I quickly pointed out the Law Society view on charging bank fees without disclosure, and within about 15 minutes received a phonecall from him and his boss with a sincere apology. Didn't get me my money back as the terms were correct, but was still nice for them to admit they cocked up.
Given that it normally took them two days to respond to a request, I think that the threat of referral to the Law Society did its part in resulting in such a quick turnaround.

Pavs

Its sad to hear that so many people have had less than satisfactory dealings with solicitors.

As with all professions there are good and bad firms and the best way to find a good solicitor to deal with is to go by personal recommendation.

I'm a trainee at a small firm in Surrey and whilst 3 to 6 months is probably not an unreasonable length of time to conclude even a fairly standard probate (there is actually a lot of work to be done) the failure to communicate adequately with you is not good.

Give them a call and if they cannot answer your questions completely ask to speak to the supervising partner or to the partner who deals with complaints and begin a formal internal complaint. If an internal complaint doesn't help then speak to the SRA.

To play devils advocate though, they may be restricted by the instructions which they received from your aunt - remember you are not their client, your aunt was and they are under a duty to her instructions and then the beneficiaries under the Will.

(As a side note, we'd generally only recommend putting a solicitor or any other professional as trustee or executor in your Will if there is no one else who would be able to adequately deal with the estate or as a backstop provision or in a particularly complicated estate. Generally it is probably not worth incurring the solicitors fees for dealing with a small estate.)

re the fees: it doesn't sound like the solicitors are 'stringing it out' to bill higher fees, it just sounds like they haven't done the work and are dealing with what to them, are more urgent matters. That or they're waiting for a response from the probate registry (a huge new form has just been introduced and I have no idea what the turn around is on them as probate really isn't my area) Try making a complaint and I'd be surprised if they didn't make time for your Aunt's probate.

Best of luck

Every soliciter I've had the misfortune to deal with has been a complete and utter shower of sh!t.

If the estate is under Inheritence Tax levels then probate is easy to sort out. I know I've applied for it twice now and its a fairly small set of forms to complete, no huge form has just been introduced. Its still the PA01 and IHT205 forms for estates under IHT levels. Easily found on www.direct.gov.uk

I found going down the ombudsman route the most effective in getting them to talk to me but as is mentioned they could be acting upon what instructions are set out in the will.

Follow the instructions on here and things might start to get moving http://www.legalcomplaints.org.uk

[Edited on 26/7/10 by Alfa145]

[Edited on 26/7/10 by Alfa145]

Firstly try the advice from Ravingfool.

If you do not get the answers to your questions or an explanation then you need to contact the Solicitors Regulation Authority

When my parents' estate was settled last year, one of the biggest delays was due to Barclays Bank - it wasn't until our solicitor threatened (in very direct terms, for a legal letter!) to report them to the banking ombudsman that they finally coughed up the money from a savings account. This was with everything legal and above board, all necessary permissions & documentation, etc.