Can anything be done re useless solicitor?

[HereWeGoAgainPart2]

A relative died 14 months ago and left everything to me and my 2 siblings. She had left her will with a particular solicitor who was to deal with the estate.

Since then this solicitor has done pretty much nothing. Either myself or one of my sibling has been emailing him at least once a week. He was due to arrange a house clearance company to go in - after 3 months of checking when he was doing this we arranged it ourselves. The house was a state so didn’t want to put it on the market full of all the rubbish that had collected but he was adamant as he was the designated solicitor it all had to be done through him. When he found out we’d done it he refused to answer our emails or phone calls for a month before he seemingly forgot all about it and sent us through the property valuations.

Property went on the market and received 3 offers the first week. We didn’t know about this until a relative told us a For Sale sign had been put up outside and I chased the solicitor again. He claimed that as far as he was aware there had been no viewings. I phoned the estate agents who told me about the offers but that they’d now been withdrawn due to no response from the solicitor. I told estate to now just contact myself or sister instead, they did that and 10 days later we’d accepted an offer which we were hoping to close on by the end of the month.

Except now it turns out that the solicitor has not even applied for probate 🤦‍♀️. He claims he’ll do it immediately, that it doesn’t normally take long so he didn’t think it was important to do as a matter of urgency. Having looked into it it looks like it’s something that does have to come from this solicitor and I can’t fill it in on his behalf.

The solicitor is 84yo and is basically retired although still officially practising. He’s doing odd jobs for his friends, of which my relative was one, but is not taking on any new work. He’s a really lovely guy but just doesn’t seem to be doing anything at all.

Does anyone know if we’re allowed to nominate another solicitor? Obviously he was specified as executioner of my relatives will so I don’t know what we can do but it’s just never going to get sorted at this rate.

Oh God, what a nightmare. It should be easier for solicitors to retire.

www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor/

All the guidance you need is here.

Not a private lawyer so can't help with replacing the executor.

If he is part of a firm, you can follow the firm's complaints procedure.

You can see if he is willing to renounce his position as executor. If he is, you or one of your siblings can take over as executor or appoint a solicitor of your choice to act.

If he is not willing to renounce, you can apply to the courts to have him removed. You will need legal advice if you go down this route.

I don’t think he’s part of a firm anymore - his firm name is officially Hisname and Smith but there’s no internet presence or office and Google just brings up his home address so I’m guessing he’s just doing his last few clients on his own. I’d like to go and actually discuss with him face to face but myself and both my siblings are at the other end of the country so not easy. He also rarely answers emails or the phone, everything is communicated by handwritten letters in incredibly antiquated language. My sister keeps joking that we should send a messenger on horseback and he might actually reply.

I’ll try asking him if he’d like to renounce his position, I have a feeling he will take it very badly indeed though.

Ask him to confirm he still has professional indemnity insurance, he may very well not. In which case he shouldn't be trading.

He may not have applied for probate because that is a reserved activity and he doesn't have the correct regulatory framework in place.

Does his firm, and he, exist as entities on the SRA date?

Site not date

Threaten to complain to the Law Society, they are the professional governing body in charge of Solicitors, l had to do this a few years ago after problems with my Late Fathers POA Certificates that were returned with Several mistakes on them, rendering them useless.

The Solicitor responsible changed their attitude completely, offered to redo the Certificates free of charge, and informed me that the person who had made the mistakes was no longer employed by the firm.

Their contact details can be found online. Alternatively, if you live near to one of the large University Law Schools, they often hold Law Clinics run under supervision of a senior Lecturer who is educated to a high level in all aspects of Law, and its manned by final year Law degree students to give them experience of dealing with real life Clients in a Solicitors office type setting. DD underwent this type of training as a Batchelor of Laws student at DMU Law-school, just before she graduated. They advise on a wide range of Laws, but not Criminal cases, which are referred to specialist Law firms/ Barristers away from the University.

You can look him up on the law society website to see if he's still on the roll.