Advice on dealing with a solicitor who will not use modern means of communication

[malumbu]

A solicitor is acting as the executor for our late Aunt's will.  He only communicates by letter which is greatly lengthening the process.  The vast majority of legal people deal by modern means - the Electronic Communications Act that allows for much, if not all of these means is now 25 years old.   Any views and advice out there?

In fuller detail:

The value of the estate is not high.  There are a number of beneficiaries including one in the US. 

It has taken almost three years and there is no end in sight.  The estate (house) is now damp, mouldy and wall paper falling off the wall.

The solicitor is hostile, has threatened beneficiaries the police (which would just waste the police's time), and will not engage constructively.

He only communicates by letter.  These are poorly written, curt or even hostile, in a language from the middle of last century, he clearly is typing these himself probably on a type writer.  Of course with every letter he makes more money.

We've taken the first steps to complain either through the ombudsman and/or the SRA.  We have taken legal advice a couple of times, which of course isn't cheap, and were told that his behaviour is shocking and we'd be in our right to have him removed through the courts.

But.... we just want him to get on with executing the will, primarily selling the house.

However he refuses to use any other form of communication but letter.  So writing to the beneficiary in the 'States can take a month to get a reply. And even in this country a week or more.

Having worked with lawyers in the past I am aware that email, tele and video conferencing and even text and WhatApp are appropriate means for communication.  There could be an immediate response to his questions.  

Help!

 

 

 

 

[CPR Dave]

Are there any other executors?

Is the solicitor a soke practioner or part of a firm?

Are you and your fellow beneficiaries behaving well? 

You will want to take proper  legal advice (which this is not) but you can have an executor removed by the court if they are refusing to communicate with you.

I would just do that. Tell him you are doing it, tell him you have reported him to the Law Society (if you have) and tell him you will be challenging his fees with the legal services ombudsman. This all sounds outrageous to me and this solicitor doesn't sound fit to practice.

Three years sounds far too long for a low value estate comprising mostly of a house. He should have sold that or rented it out whilst he was waiting to administer the estate. 

 

Sounds like he has cost you all a lot of money.

 

[Rockets]

Have you complained to the solicitor directly and did they respond within the 8 weeks they have under their code of conduct - I presume they have and this is why you have escalated further to the SRA? If he doesn't respond in a timely fashion per the SRA code of conduct then I am sure they will need to take action.

[malumbu]

The solicitor is also the Executor. Big mistake, but my Aunt was very old, and this was the Covid years and shortly after so impossible to intervene and get a couple of close relatives to do this.  She had no children so this is the nephews and nieces.

He is a single practitioner, and most at his age would have long since retired - there is a question over his competence

Two letters have already gone essentially complaining - batted off and 'amusingly' one put the blame on us.

There are five on our side, all speaking to each other, and ideally would work as a single point of contact.  But he has said that this is not allowed - we've all given approval to act on each others behalf.

There are five on her late husband's side, who have not engaged with us despite the suggestion to work as a team,

There is one other, who get's the lion's share, the typicical 'friend', but we are long since challenging the will.

I would like to put another complaint together that he has not used modern collective communication (I expect that he is incapable) which had seriously delayed the execution of the will.   I know many in their 80s very adept with smart phones so that is not an ageist comment.

The house has deteriorated very badly, with cold, damp and a serious leak.  PM me if you want to see the dreadful condition that it is now in.

I would also question why if the five of us are happy to work together why all of us need to confirm in writing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The house was lived in until Feb 23, and has been allowed to get like this.

[vladi]

It sounds like a horrendous situation and I truly sympathise. And to make it worse, he is probably handling other deceased estates in a similar manner.

Given that (1) the main beneficiary is  "the typical 'friend'" and (2) the main asset has diminished in value and continues to do so (3) he will be deducting fees then there may be be nor very much left at the end of it. That being the case, I would press the case against him through the Probate Registry.  to have him passed over using a citation process. 
 

[ianr]

That's interesting.   I see there are plenty of thumbnail descriptions available on the web, mainly from solicitor's practices,  of the types of citation.  I think this has the most detailed and circumspect one in some respects that I've seen so far. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/wills-and-probate/content/103565.   Other sites can probably help fill in the picture.

I like the word "intermeddling".  Never come across it before, not even in a crossword.

Edited Tuesday at 09:54 by ianr

[malumbu]

Thanks all, our hope was (despite the diminishing estate) he would get on with it.  Progress is glacial, it's been two years since probate was granted, that's two cold and damp winters with no heating, and not surprisingly a pipe burst.

He's blames the issues on the estate agent, who separately had a dispute with him, he had a wobbly when one of the beneficiaries spoke to the estate agent.  Separately he said it was the family's fault for letting the property get into a poor condition.  It was dated, but certainly not in poor condition.

There are two five star reviews on Google, and five one star:

** WARNING**
This solicitor firm has to be one of the worst I have encountered.
The solicitor is prehistoric in his practices and will carry out work at his own snails pace, the fax machine he uses gets turned off at 2 pm and its near impossible to get him on the phone.
STAY AWAY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED, check the solicitors ombudsman, this firm has previous bad practice recorded.

 

Disgusting under no circumstances use this solicitor.For over 10 years he has not carried out the terms of a Will he has not re-invested money but has retained it.  He writes letters which are pure "Flannel" excuses for doing nothing.  You have been warned

 

shocking experience, delayed the whole process, told other side solicitors to not contact him as he feels pressured etc. never use.

 

Not fit for 21st century. No website, no email address, no electronic transfer. Very slow, very little communication.

 

Was not a pleasant experience dealing with this firm

 

 

[Sue]

How on earth can someone like this be allowed to continue as a solicitor?

Can't he just be struck off, or the equivalent?

Edited Tuesday at 14:09 by Sue
Typo

[malumbu]

He's probably in his 70s, just doing a few more bits of work for his clients, many now deceased (ie executing their wills) who will be in their 90s.

Everyone else who is younger than 90 will do their research and not use him,

Edited Tuesday at 15:25 by malumbu

[Pugwash]

Is he local to South London?

My father made his solicitor the executive. I, for many years had Lasting Power of Attorney to deal with all his finances including liaison with his bank and payment of his care home fees. I was also responsible for the sale of his home to release funds for care home fees.

When he died, I notified the solicitor, obtained the death certificate and organized the funeral, cleared his care home of his possessions . Myself and my cousin were beneficiaries but my father had left a small sum of money to a man in the Midlands whose name was unknown to all of us including my step mother. It  took around 9 months for solicitor to establish that this gentleman had been deceased for a number of years . This obviously put additional charges onto the fees.

[malumbu]

Harrow.  I wish that I had done more before Covid, including putting my name forward as an executor and seeking power of attorney.  I performed the latter for my later mother, and with no executor named in her will I did probate and executed her will, all very straightforward as financial affairs all in order particularly due to the work of my sister who managed our mother's accounts.

But from 2020 onward it was difficult to tell someone who was very frail she needed to change her will etc.

There's a further tail about the 'friend' of my aunt who gets around 90% of the estate, and some manipulation of my aunt's finances by this friend.  Police wont get out of bed for a million or so for fraud cases so didn't go to them.

[CPR Dave]

"There are five on our side, all speaking to each other, and ideally would work as a single point of contact.  ....

There are five on her late husband's side, who have not engaged with us..."

 

This puts a completely different spin on this sorry tale and might explain most of the difficulty the poor solicitor is having administering this estate. 

 

I do note that you avoided my question "Are you and your fellow beneficiaries behaving well? "

[malumbu]

@CPR Dave

He needs to communicate collectively with all of the beneficiaries.  That is the whole point of my original post.  Electronic communications are the best way of doing this, as I am doing now on this forum.  Apart from the gold digger who will get a six figure sum the rest of us are on four figures, and that is going down by the day.

I'm offended by any suggestion that we are not behaving well.  What on earth do you mean?

 

[CPR Dave]

You all have different and conflicting interests though. It isn't necessarily appropriate for him to communicate with all of you at the same time about the same issues. 

 

You're giving more away with each post as to how these difficulties probably arose. 

[Sue]

2 hours ago, CPR Dave said:

You're giving more away with each post as to how these difficulties probably arose. 

That's very rude.

Care to expand, rather than having a go at malumbu? 

You think this solicitor with five one star reviews (and most people with complaints won't bother writing reviews) is perfectly proficient, and all the delays, non use of email communications  etc are his clients' fault?

[Angelina]

Legal matters are notoriously slow. 
There is no rule that communication has to be via email, fax or letter.

If the issue is that you want to claim damages to the property because of poor practice, you would have to lodge a complaint with the ombudsman, but surely the one to suffer the most is the “gold digger” beneficiary? 
 

If that is not the wrong that needs righting, what is? 

[malumbu]

The executor is responsible for maintaining the estate and distributing this to beneficiaries.

Two years after probate he clearly has not maintained the estate nor executed the will.

One reason for this long delay, which has allowed the house to deteriorate (as well as him not overseeing care and maintenance), is because he refuses (and no doubt is incapable) of using modern means to communicate with beneficiaries.  One means being the telephone that was invented in 1876.

I doubt whether anyone on this forum would use a business that operates in his way.

 

[diable rouge]

I assume the house isn't on the market and still has to be sold as an asset to then be distributed to the beneficiaries?

If so, I would've thought that after 3 years of inertia that was a much better angle to attack/report his incompetence  rather than his lack of IT use... 

[malumbu]

Complaint letters already sent that he bats off. IT incompetence just exacerbates the problem

House under offer but he doesn't tell us this, we have to call the agents.  He had a wobbly when the gold digger contacted a previous estate agent - we have little to do with the GD.

[Angelina]

So what is the issue? You want compensation for the loss of value, or you want to expedite the matter?