Grant of probate- can I avoid the evil solicitors?

[iamaLeafontheWind]

My grandmother's will specifies a firm of extremely expensive solicitors to be her Executors. Her estate is a small house to be passed to her daughters and £9.48 in a bank account.

Can her daughters apply for the Grant of Probate or do we HAVE to go through the hand-rubbing solicitors? (Ok, they didn't actually hand rub but they looked the type). I could probably manage the Land Registry stuff myself once the Probate is granted in return for babysitting.

Any advice gratefully received.

trainee says: I doubt it. The legal title of the property will have to be transferred into the new owners name once a sale has taken place - I assume the house is to be sold as opposed to being transferred into the daughters' names. Ultimately, if your late grandmother's wish was to have this law firm act as Executor then that must surely be her prerogative - if you are worried about being ripped off (and I very much doubt that you will - most probate lawyers are pretty honourable people) then you can always ask them to reconsider their fees, given the value of the Estate. If they won't reconsider, a threatened complaint to the Solicitors Regulatory Authority ought to keep them on their toes. Were you planning to babysit the solicitor concerned!!

I'm not positive and someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure you can ask the solicitors to renounce their executorship. Also, although the will specifies they are to be the executors, it doesn't mean they have to administer the estate (although they're bound to be grumpy if you asked to use another solicitor if they are executors) but they have to do what's best for the estate

Hi, cheers for the replies. I think the renouncement is the way to go. After some more googling I called them & they aren't interested in being the Executors as long as we can prove the beneficiaries are all in agreement, which they are. (I think once they realised how same the estate is they lost interest .

Well done. Hope it all goes well then

Their decision to renounce will have nothing to do with the size of the estate leaf. Could I just say though, since you are are posting in the legal section, your reference to solicitors as evil and hand rubbing is really very offensive and wholly inaccurate. If you are asking legal folk for advice in the legal section, my advice would be not to be so rude about their profession.

You can have that advice for free.

Apologies LittlePushka, my OP needed to specify that these PARTICULAR solicitors were evil & hand rubbing, and was not an attempt to smear your whole profession.

Would you accept humourless & abrupt instead?

Apologies accepted leaf, of course.