Executer's responsibility

[Ma79rie]

2 years after the death of A the executor has not distributed a will.
Executor engaged a solicitor for probate and blames them for delay. Where does the responsibility lay ?
Also as part of A's will a deed of variation was made to make the 3 beneficiaries direct inheritance from an intestacy which had fallen into A's estate. Executor is also administrator for the intestacy estate. Executor transferrred the direct inheritances back to solicitor dealing with the will of A.
All very confusing I know but desperate for advice.

[woofgang]

Its the executor's responsiblity. The length of time that is considered reasonable to distribute and wind up and estate is one year. this is what our solicitor told us when we had trouble with my Mum's estate. I suggest that you get legal advice on this.

[Ma79rie]

Hi woolfgang. This has been a long haul. My legal bill is 13k and my kids 10k. We cannot go along that route. The exectterutors solicitor does not reply to our solicitors letters. So more expense in further letters and phone calls.

[woofgang]

mmm how far do you trust your solicitor...we had that problem and ours sent letters giving a deadline for response and what would happen if no response...that sorted it

[Ma79rie]

I have complained to mine about the excessive bill run up through the repeated letters.

[factor-fiction]

I'm puzzled as to why you are paying (so much to) a solicitor.

[woofgang]

I think I might be enquiring here if I were you..
http://www.adviceguid..._use_an_ombudsman.htm

[woofgang]

sorry, here first
http://www.elc.org.uk.../lawsolicitorcoms.htm

[askyourgran]

I can sympathise with you it's only 9 months since my mother died and the will is straighforward the money to split 4 ways and the house deeds changed for my brother to occupy and share the proceeds of the sale on his demise or if he wishes to sell it. My sister is the executor,but because she has handed the will to the solicitor for probate she believes that her part of the bequest is done with. The solicitor is extremely slow, I have more or less taken over my sisters role,trying to hurry them along, My next step is to complain to the partners in the business, (the solicitor handling this is not a partner). So I will vent my displeasure at the way this is being done to one of the partners. I will also question the delay with the law society (I have to find out how this is achieved.) and ask what further steps I can take. I intend to keep at them until I get a reasonable response.

[Ma79rie]

woolfgang - renumeration certificates as mentioned in your link were abolished in 2009. Thanks for tryiing though.

[buildersmate]

Sounds like the executor and his solicitor are joined at the hip.
Presumably the executor is not also a beneficiary?, otherwise he wouldn't be chucking money down the drain in this way.
Personally I don't understand how you and your kids have also run up legal bills - one doesn't need a solicitor in order to write to another solicitor - just DIY.
Regarding the time expended, estates can take a time to wind up if there is property or a privately-owned business to sell. Otherwise this is a long time. The (simple) steps are:
1) Get a handle on the values of the assets for probate purposes.
2) Apply for probate and get the Grant
3) Sell the assets and start (progressively) the distribution.
Do you know if step 2 is completed yet? - they should surely be willing to tell you that without an exchange of letters and, if they were communicative, let you have a copy of the IR400 series forms on which probate is applied for (there's no legal obligation for them to do so). You can apply to the probate office to get a copy of the grant - which will show the overall values of the 2 estates being dealt with, but not the detail.

[cassa333]

My mil died a yeasr ago and my sil and her husband are executors. They took about9 to 10 months to sort most of it out. We are just waiting for the childrens trusts to be set up.

Other than dividing the assets wrongly (the 4 children have ended up with £13k less each) she did it ok. We just have to see if she gets the trusts right.

[woofgang]

sorry, I was suggesting complaint, hope the contact details are up to date