[Closed] Probate Broker / Will service- anyone used 'Final Duties' Broker ?

Heald nickinson on knoll Road may cost a bit more but they've been brilliant in my experience. Cheaper isn't always better in the long run and wills can get messy.

Final Duties company is a UK national service for allocating probate solicitors, sorry in my original post I made it sound local to a specific area rather than national. I am nowhere near Surrey unfortunately or I would look into the Knoll Road suggestion as well. Apologies and thanks for your post Purist.

The Guardian article is an interesting read about how Banks and Solicitors rip people off.

you can apply and do the Probate services yourself, ring local probate office, make an appointment, take proof of id and a copy of the will if any, youll meet a nice lady who will listen to you ask a few questions check the forms youve filled in and you then say a few words while holding a copy of a bible, and sign some more forms and thats it, ask for a few copies of the probate certificates and send them recorded delivery or hand deliver them to the various compnies etc.

Oh and if the deceased did claim any benefits before their death expect to be hounded by the department of whatever theyre now called for over payments .

Been there and its a difficult time .

Project, thanks for the tips and support.

The Probate has turned out to have hidden problems due to a very poorly written will (solicitors errors) enhanced by an obstructive Executor who is suddenly looking to use this to personally gain financially in inappropriate ways. Without the self serving and somewhat immoral Executor all this would be done and dusted by now, done without solicitors.

You are right that the government is now chasing for return of money, bit late in the day. They only just sent some money to the estate a couple of months back and we never even knew what the payment was supposed to be for!

At screaming point to be honest.

Bump, to catch the morning viewers.

HI,

I run Will & Probate Services based in Peterborough, this is not a pitch for business, but if you want a chat and some informal advice I am happy to spare you a little time http://www.will-probate.co.uk/contact/4564961772

It sounds like you are some distance down the line, and also you mention an obstructive executor so I assume you are a beneficiary rather than an executor. This in itself brings about a number of issues as it is only the executor that is empowered to act and there is limited information that they have to give to beneficiaries before the administration is completed.

You need to get some advice as it is unlikely that you would be able to appoint a probate firm in any case unless you are an executor.

Sorry it's not positive.

Nick.

Hi Nick /NJA

Thank you for your reply, its much appreciated. I may well get in touch, though it will not be until next week.

I am actually one of the 2 Executors named in the will (no one bothered to tell me until weeks after the death, when I found out by accident!) and I have done all of the admin work for probate, the other Executor has done nothing as they did not want to be involved. They are also named as a Trustee of the estate, as am I.

I will call them Executor X as I do not want to post too much detail on the web. They are a relative of the deceased and someone I know little of, so I know minimal amount of their likely behavior.

In the will there is a property to be held in trust, plus a smallish sum of cash in bank accounts of a few thousand which was left directly to me.

Executor X is entitled to live in the property (via a trust which consists of themselves and myself according to the will). X has to pay for all bills and upkeep of the property while residing in it.

By the will X can only live in it and can do nothing else with it whatsoever, so they cannot rent it out or let someone else use it. On the death of X (or of X not residing in the property), the property reverts to other recipients in the will.

X does not want to live in the property but has openly told me that they will "fake living in it" with the intent of stopping it being passed along to other people. They intend to continue to live in their own much nicer property. They are proposing to live in the inherited property one night a week or less to 'make it legal'.

The relatively small sum of money in the bank is supposed to come to me - but all the expenses of insuring and running the property (heating etc) were and are due to be paid from that sum while the probate etc was being sorted.

We now actually have probate granted and the paperwork for this has arrived from the probate court so the distribution as per the will could now take place.

I have told X this is now the position and asked them a few weeks back to formally state their intent so I as Executor would have a record of their wishes. I have received nothing from them other than verbal statements and evasion. Therefore I feel I cannot distribute according to the will, as X will not state formally if they will reside in the property or not and the only significant part of the Estate is the house.

By taking this position it leaves X free of paying any house bills and leaving the Estate/Trust to still carry them - effectively leaving all the bills to be paid from what would eventually have been 'my' sum of money.

At the moment I have borrowed money to pay for the bills as I have not had access to the bank accounts and am personally short of cash (I had thought it would all be sorted, so had not worried, foolishly, about this to start with, oh how we learn!)

Yesterday I told X I wanted the bank accounts closed and the money moved to where I could access it to pay for the upcoming council tax, insurance, bin collection and power bills which will be due again soon. X is now trying to obstruct me having access to the money. I cannot go on borrowing money, X is offering nothing towards any bills for the property and I cannot rent out the property so it is self supporting, as X has the right to live in it.

There is nothing in the will that says when X must make up their mind about habitation within any defined time period, so there seems nothing to stop them stringing this out for months or even years.

If they decide in the end to renounce the property I have been told they must sign an official statement to that effect in front of a solicitor.

X knows there is little money in the Estate other than the property and they also know I am pretty broke so cannot run up big sums of legal fees to challenge them. I cannot challenge them via the Trust as X themself are the other Trustee.

I had thought a probate specialist might know where to go with this, and if Executor X in the end decides to let the property go, I will need to commission the document from someone, to be signed by X. I have been advised to shop around for the creation of this document, due to cost.

At the moment X is demanding about half of the lump sum in the bank accounts or they will fake residence or will leave me to go on paying the bills which I cannot afford to do. I also have fears that the demands are going to increase beyond that initial sum, there are already indications.

Much of the background to this could be about showing domination and control (an issue that runs in the family, hence my having nothing to do with most of them).

To be honest, I wish they just moved in the place properly as it would make my life much easier. They are clearly not short of money themselves as there are new cars about, one on order, lots of ongoing decorating, gardeners, cleaners etc.

Its incredibly difficult as I want to be fair and decent, but the controlling, demanding and shifting attitudes of X is getting to me and I am getting the flack from other people for the non distribution of the will (probate granted mid December 2015).

X has waited (leaving me to do all the work) until this very late stage, then abruptly made demands they had been claiming they had no interest in during the early stages. I just feel beaten down and pushed around by all of this.

Sorry, I did not mean this to be such a long post. I just needed to get it off my chest I guess.

Firstly - It can be sorted.

The type of trust you have is either a Lifetime Interest Trust or a right of residence. What you need to do now you have the grant of probate is to assent the trust. This is done by transferring the property into the names of the trustees (You and X). Once this is done X will be responsible for the bills, in line with the trust provisions. As an executor X has a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries of the Will and could be held liable for any costs due to their delay.

As you have a grant of probate you can get the bank to transfer the frozen account funds into an executors account (which you should have already opened) once in their you can reimburse any expenses incurred and use the free cash to pay any more bills.

If you call next week I am out of the office on Monday and Tuesday but in from Wednesday onward.

We can talk about principal private residences, immediate post death interest trusts and the effect on x's tax position at that point. 😀