to think that lawyers are a bunch of greedy tossers?

[tittybangbang]

..... or at least my mum's solicitor is.

Situation: dad passed away in February. His entire estate consists of the family home (worth about £450K) and £3000 in an ISA. It's all to pass on to my mum, and the house was in joint names anyway.

Just received a quote from the solicitor to do the probate. He's going to charge £190 per hour plus 1% of the estate, which works out altogether at about....... £7000. He said he had predicted it was about 10 hours work in all to deal with my dad's affairs.

Now - does £7000 sound sensible to anyone here, for 10 hours work?

Given that my mum will have to borrow the money to pay him because she has no savings of her own, just the £3 grand my dad left in the ISA (she lives in the home they shared).

Can this possibly be right? Or is my poor old mum being taken for a ride?

It's made me feel

Not a probate solicitor (and hopefully not a greedy tosser either) so not sure what the rates should be, although it sounds a little steep. Why not get a couple more quotes and see?

These people are specialists in probate.

Alternatively, you or your mum could do it yourself if either of you were the executors of the will, no need to involve a solicitor.

At the law firm I was with the hourly rate for a partner was around £350, up to 400. A senior associate was about £275, and I think trainees etc even commanded £100 per hour (bearing in mind their work would have to be overseen anyway)

So from an hourly rate point of view, it doesn't sound TOO bad though if you feel its not competitive by all means get another "quote". Not sure about the 1% either but I can't help feeling unless they are a really expensive firm, that is pretty much what it costs.

Is it reasonable? Not really, its a lot of money, but probably cheaper than qualifying as a solicitor and doing it for her?

That's not very helpful though - I dont think YABU for feeling they are greedy, because it does sound a lot.

And here's some advice for doing it yourself

My bill is in the post.

Well that definitely answers your question - what a dispicable man. Yes, he is most definitely a greedy tosser. And SingingBear has illustrated that not all solicitors are. What a shame your mum had to come across one at such a vulnerable time.

Hope it all gets sorted soon.

When FIL died the house was in joint names and was then put in to MILs name, i think she had someone do this and it cost a couple of hundred, nowhere near £7000

sorry for your loss titty it's a difficult time.

When my mum died I was executer and trustee and appointed her solicitor, who was her friend to do the probate for me. He tried to charge 2% of the estate as well. So I got quotes from all the other solicitors in town, and then wrote to him pointing out that he was the ONLY one charging this.

He dropped the % pretty quickly.

I think they do try it on at a time when you're very vulnerable.

This guy is being a tosser and a greedy bastard. When I sorted out my FILs estate on behalf of MIL which was complicated as it involved different countries and language barriers etc we were charged around 730 pounds.

I can advise you how to deal with the bank as was bank manager before becoming SAHM.

All your mum needs to do is let the bank take a copy of the original death certificate and complete a "Small estates" (or similar) form which will include a declaration absolving the bank of liability if the money should have gone to someone else. Your mum will need to provide identification to do this.

They should be able to sign the ISA over very quickly. It will cease to receive gross interest on the date of your father's death (because you have to be a living tax payer to get the benefit) so will receive the same ISA rate but net.

All joint accounts should automatically transfer to the joint account holder upon presentation of the death certificate and completion of bank paperwork.

If you need to get money out of the bank for funeral expenses then all the bank needs is the bill from the funeral home (they will make the cheque payable to the funeral directors) and the death certificate.

If there is a will the bank may want to attach it to the small estates form.

Thanks for that all of you. You people are luvverly. Thank you Dollytwat and SingingBear for the info. Going to show this to my mum. I'm dying to get her onto mumsnet - but she's never used a computer so it might take a while!

Forgot to mention that dad hadn't signed his will, though he had appointed me, my bro and my sis as executors. Bless him, 'sign will' was on his 'to do' list of things that he never got around to doing before he died.

Don't know how much that complicates things.

I really dislike my mum's solicitor. He encouraged them into a crap equity release deal that he made money from, while my dad was still alive. My mum trusts him because he's posh and educated, whereas both her and my dad left school at 14.

titty that sounds awful

Did you dad have any will drafted up at any time?

If not the rules of intestacy will apply.

Yes, sounds as though your Dad died intestate. It shouldn't make much difference - but it does mean that you aren't an executor but may be an administrator and you need to follow the intestacy rules.

If the house was in some equity release scheme then it is probably effectively mortgaged.

So you may find the estate is worth less than £250,000 so the whole lot goes to your mum.

This flowchart is quite good for intestacy rules. Don't know if Scotland has different rules?

YABU. I'm a solicitor and I'm not a greedy tosser.

Do your own probate. I did mine when my dad died and I'm not a probate lawyer so I know no more about it than you do. Its not that difficult, there are various forms to fill in that's all, that anyone with half an ounce of intelligence can do.

There's loads of info online to help you.

I am a solicitor and used to do probate (have changed practice area now). Intestacy in my experience DOES cost more as it's more complex to administer. If the house was in an equity release scheme then this adds complication. On that basis I think YABU as it sounds like there's quite a bit to do here - certainly more than 10 hours' work, so I'm surprised if they say that's all the time it will take.

But you are not obliged to use a solicitor. You can do it yourself. There is guidance on the Court Service website on how to go about it.

Also, you are not obliged to use THIS PARTICULAR solicitor. You can get quotes from elsewhere and see if you can find one that you're happy with.

NB JustAnotherManicMummy, it is in fact technically illegal to photocopy death certificates. People still do it though - especially banks. You are not supposed to though. You can buy additional copies from the registrar, or have 'death certificate verification forms' prepared by a solicitor. Or just ignore the rule, like most people do!

Ooops. Well banks aren't well known for being great at regulation are they

I have received certified copies of death certificates from solicitors as well...

YANBU - lawyers are not only greedy, they are totally ammoral - they would let a child killer walk the streets if they could profit from it.

Yes that's right BAFE - that's why many of us give up our time to work pro bono for people who can't afford legal advice.

When my FIL died the rpobte on his will was less than £2000 and he had various shares and 13 bank accounts to sort out. Also the solicitor updated the will for MIL at the same time.
YANBU- with this person ,it sounds like a total rip off.

And that's why others work on legal aid for 1/3 of what they could charge privately

There are greedy people in every profession. It does not mean every lawyer/solicitor is greedy.

(Am not a lawyer btw).

Doesn't surprise me, JustAnotherManicMummy - it does say on the certificate somewhere that you're not supposed to photocopy them but nobody seems to be aware of it. One of those rules that nobody cares much about!

Yes, BAFE, that's how it works . I think you'll find that in this country, everyone is entitled to legal advice and a defence. That's how our justice system works. Perhaps you'd prefer 'off with their heads' and to hell with whether they're actually guilty or not? Most of the lawyers in criminal justice make crap money and work bloody hard for it, by the way. Us really amoral folks who just want wodges of cash stick to the commercial firms and more profitable areas of practice....

YANBU - there are certain aspects of a lawyer's job which don't require huge skill, they are fairly laborious processes but that's all.

I never met a lawyer I liked and I've met a fair few in my time.

They do stop child killers from going to prison. Obviously, they stop innocent people from going to prison too, but those people are innocent anyway.

It makes me sick to think of someone knowingly providing a defence for a child killer so that they can be free to kill again whilst justifying their actions to themselves by saying "in this country, we are innocent until proven guilty".

So what if some lawyers have worked for nothing. I've done plenty for nothing too. And your point is?

my DB & I sorted out our parent's estates between us, it's really not hard, just takes a bit of time & form filling.

we foundthis and this very useful starting points (well earlier versions anyway, as they have been updated since we used them).