Probate application taking for ever

Opal

If you're dealing with deceitful liars, what other option do you have?

It is a horrible, horrible time isn’t it and it cost me two years of my life in stress, sleepless nights and being unable to grieve with all this going on BUT I am on the different side to you.

I knew 100% that I did nothing wrong and however hard the troublemaker tried there was never any evidence of wrongdoing. I should add that prior to the caveat he tried it on with The Office of the Public Guardian, Social Services, a care home and care home directors and there was never even a sniff of anything untoward.

As gsm says you may well end up paying the other sides costs so go carefully because fees soon mount up. Like I said, in my case I made him pay all the legal fees incurred.

If you're dealing with deceitful liars, what other option do you have?

I’m amazed. And if you fail you will be paying the other side’s costs. Revenge can be far from sweet.

Yes, we're aware, we've taken legal advice.

Do you have any idea of the costs of contesting a will in court?

I can only speak for myself - I would be willing to pay more to put a caveat on and to say why. In our case, unscrupulous relatives have "persuaded" an elderly vulnerable person to change his will, without informing other members of the family. They have been deceitful, and have constantly lied to us.

Yes, I am well aware of the costs - another reason why we are disgusted with the family members concerned. However, we are prepared to pay to take them to court so that the truth can come out.

I just wanted to point out that just because someone applies to put a caveat on a Will, it does not make them evil. Sometimes the "evil" is found in those who seek to cheat others out of their rightful and just inheritance.

Opal

Primrose53

biglouis

Anyone can put a caveat on a Probate application and they do not even have to say WHY they are doing it. They can renew it every 6 months and it costs them just £3 a time!! You can apply to get it removed but if the caveator is determined to be awkward then it can be prolonged and very costly

An interesting way to get revenge against someone you hate,

Absolutely and some evil people are doing just that. The law needs changing.

Mind you, Probate was finally granted after they realised what was being said was a load of rubbish. I then drew up the accounts and deducted all legal fees from his share so he lost out in the end. An absolutely pointless exercise on his behalf.

What about situations where what is said is NOT a load of rubbish. We are likely to be in this situation in the future. Our relative has been "persuaded" to amend his will in favour of others. We fully intend to put a caveat on Probate. We are not evil!

fair enough but I know of hundreds of people who have had caveats placed on their applications purely out of spite.

In this day and age it definitely should cost more than £3 to put a caveat on …. That is just a ridiculous amount.

Don’t you think it’s only fair to say WHY you are putting a caveat on. It should be the law.

The caveator in our case was so pig ignorant that he would not reply to letters from us or the solicitor asking for reasons. Then he started requesting things that he had already been provided with just to delay the process.

You do realise this could cost you a lot of money don’t you?

Primrose53

biglouis

Anyone can put a caveat on a Probate application and they do not even have to say WHY they are doing it. They can renew it every 6 months and it costs them just £3 a time!! You can apply to get it removed but if the caveator is determined to be awkward then it can be prolonged and very costly

An interesting way to get revenge against someone you hate,

Absolutely and some evil people are doing just that. The law needs changing.

Mind you, Probate was finally granted after they realised what was being said was a load of rubbish. I then drew up the accounts and deducted all legal fees from his share so he lost out in the end. An absolutely pointless exercise on his behalf.

What about situations where what is said is NOT a load of rubbish. We are likely to be in this situation in the future. Our relative has been "persuaded" to amend his will in favour of others. We fully intend to put a caveat on Probate. We are not evil!

A childless aunt left her estate to be divided between 11 nieces and nephews - dh was an executor. It was all fairly straightforward and didn’t take too long at all, but we still had letters/emails of complaints from the Canadian contingent - why was it taking so long?

One of them actually invited himself to stay and more or less banged the dining table, saying, ‘What’s going on with this money?’
He virtually implied that dh and BiL (the other executor) were up to no good! 🤬
The Canadian relatives are no longer very popular here.

biglouis

*Anyone can put a caveat on a Probate application and they do not even have to say WHY they are doing it. They can renew it every 6 months and it costs them just £3 a time!! You can apply to get it removed but if the caveator is determined to be awkward then it can be prolonged and very costly*

An interesting way to get revenge against someone you hate,

Absolutely and some evil people are doing just that. The law needs changing.

Mind you, Probate was finally granted after they realised what was being said was a load of rubbish. I then drew up the accounts and deducted all legal fees from his share so he lost out in the end. An absolutely pointless exercise on his behalf.

My husBand left a straightforward will, prepared by his solicitor. It took eight months. I was told when I phoned it coukd br fast tracked now as I’d waited over 16 weeks
It cleared within three weeks of my call

Well I regularly worked 7 days a week, but I was a commercial lawyer. You need to find out what’s going on. You will have been advised of the firm’s complaints procedure when your instructions were accepted.

Mums probate is still not done we have had 3 different solicitors handling it, just the house and a few investments, 33months so far and still counting.
Do solicitors actually do any work in between holidays!.

Anyone can put a caveat on a Probate application and they do not even have to say WHY they are doing it. They can renew it every 6 months and it costs them just £3 a time!! You can apply to get it removed but if the caveator is determined to be awkward then it can be prolonged and very costly

An interesting way to get revenge against someone you hate,

That’s frustrating Cabbie. Perhaps say to him that you know he’s busy and if he can’t manage to organise the valuation this week you’ll do so, because you need to make the application?

It has taken me three months to gather the information needed to apply for Probate. I am just waiting for one more valuation, which my stepson is supposed to be sorting. He has done nothing about it yet. Very frustrating, since he is one of the beneficiaries. He has done nothing to help me at all. So I will be waiting forever if Probate takes a further 18 months after I have applied.

Thanks utterbliss, nice to hear from you.

Hello again GSM, You gave me some very good advice last year.

I was the executor of my brother-in-law's will. I succeeded in obtaining probate online without a solicitor, to save on costs.

It did take several months.I did have to ring the probate office. Just to check why it was taking so long.

There is only one number for the whole country, and they have very few staff.

45 mins on the telephone before they answer.

I was always polite to the person on the other end.

I did ask why they did not employ more staff as it must make it very stressful for them. ( all telephone calls are recorded, in the hope the powers to be would hear them.)

I was astounded by the woman's reply and I quote,

She said, "That wouldn't help because they don't know when people are going to die " !!

I repeated this to a solicitor I met recently and he said it is typical of the probate office.

Thanks again for your help. I know you have kind given useful advice to many Gransnetters.

Best wishes.

.

Ramblingrose22

Primrose53 - if that happened to you you were very unlucky. What a crazy system. Hopefully very few people know people holding grudges against the deceased or their beneficiaries would be doing it.
Funnily enough MIL did fall out with a lot of people not related to her in the past but not sure how they'd find out that she died.

I know quite a few people who have been in this position. I know people who have spent £15,000+ in legal fees trying to sort it too.

It is usually done out of spite and jealousy. If I had the time and strength I would start a campaign to get this stopped actually. What can you buy in this world for £3 …. Just about a bar of chocolate ….. yet you can cause all this legal mess for that and not tell the Probate Office or the applicant why you are doing so.

My Mum had a homemade will, it was a mess and the money she wanted to go to her GCs went to their father instead, needless to say the Solicitor said that she should have had a ‘proper will’ but as I didn’t know about it until she died there was little I could do.
Always get a will made with a Solicitor.

Ramblingrose22 Has anyone else been through this absurd process and had to suffer a delay of nearly 18 months since applying?

No. We always use a qualified Solicitor for all legal matters.

I've no idea - but can you involve a Solicitor, now, to sort?

Seems GSM sorted this out for you, perhaps follow her advice?

We had wills drawn up by a solicitor.

I was widowed and I started probate soon after the funeral, it was all completed within a few weeks. I had to go and swear an oath and that was that, probate was granted. I did not enjoy doing the form but it was straightforward.

Working out the value of everything he owned was the most difficult thing for me

You would have had this sorted out a long time ago if a solicitor had written the will and applied for probate. A solicitor would also have been able to confirm capacity without need to apply for medical records. These questions are not the norm. This application is clearly not being treated as a straightforward one but has been passed up the chain for closer scrutiny.

GSM - it is true that it was a homemade Will and unfortunately DH made a couple of clerical errors but we have explained to HMCTS why the errors happened and the webchat adviser has told us they are content with the will's validity.
Our experience of solicitors is that they can be extremely dilatory and we want all MIL's assets to go to the beneficiaries. Many applicants who have used solicitors have also experienced ridiculous delays.
The witness questionnaire includes questions about the testator having read and understood the contents of the will. I think this was sent because she was in her mid-90,'s when she signed the will and people assume she must have had dementia by then.
The medical records may well be requested next but they will prove she had all her marbles right to the end.
We would have been happy to chase HMRC earlier but when they had written us a letter saying they had issued the forms to HMCTS we took them at their word. We had no trouble chasing HMRC as soon as we found out that they had failed to send the forms.
It is unfortunate that each individual step taken by HMCTS takes so long because they have had a backlog of applications and they are not staffed up to clear quickly.

It sounds as though the Probate Registry has concerns about the validity of the will. Is it a badly written home made will? It is not usual for the questions you describe to be raised unless there appear to be problems with the will.
Also, it’s not for the Probate Registry to chase HMRC for inheritance tax information - that’s for the applicant to do. Had you used a solicitor he would have done the chasing.