ProbaManagement company / property sale / block insurance policy / subsidence hell

[MyMumsDaughter01]

I would be grateful for any help with this situation, I think I can boil it down to a couple of straightforward questions but first here's a bit of background:

When mum died in spring last year I hired a legal services company to handle probate and the estate. Mum's estate included a property which ended up selling for £40K less than the original market valuation because we discovered subsidence.

The probate company had put the property on their block policy insurance but failed to tell the insurer about previous subsidence claims so the insurer rejected the claim. Probate company have finally admitted this today in an email, sent to me in response to a SAR:

'whilst investigating your request, it has become apparent that all relevant information was not provided to [insurer] when the block insurance policy was being arranged, and in particular [insurer] was not referred to any historic issues regarding subsidence at the property.'

This looks very much like them fessing up.

This is huge progress after all these months and I am very keen to not fuck this up now. I've had no legal advice so far, I've just been pursuing complaints procedures. I think it's time I sought proper legal advice.

So here are my questions:

1) How do I go about finding good legal advice for this kind of case?

I would first like to pay upfront for one completely independent initial advice session.

After that, if it proves impossible to settle out of court (which it shouldn't, seeing as they have fessed up), I would like to find a reputable firm that will represent me on a no-win-no-fee basis.

2) How should I respond to this email?

I'm thinking of saying something like:

'Thank you for your email, I note that you have become aware that all relevant information was not provided by you to [insurer]. As you will know, this has resulted in a loss to the value of my Mother's estate of £40K. I look forward to your proposals for a remedy in this situation.'

Mostly I need to know if there are any legal pitfalls in the way I word my response.

There's all sorts of other stuff going on, this probate company have treated me really badly for over a year, but my main aim is for my lovely Mum not to be diddled out of her money.

Probate Management Company, obviously. Don't know what happened there 😳

My view is that you don't need legal advice at this stage. Based on what you have posted, all legal advice will tell you is that they should compensate the estate for the loss caused by their negligence. You may need legal advice if they refuse to settle.

Your email is absolutely fine, although personally I would leave out "of £40k".

Thank you, that's really helpful.

I'm after a bit more advice, if anyone has time -

The SAR response came through a couple of hours after my last post here. It was big and it's taken a few days to go through.

I haven't yet responded to the email in my OP because he's out of office until 01/08/22 so I thought I would take my time and digest the new info before responding.

A couple of things have now been confirmed in addition to the probate company failing to tell the insurer about previous subsidence claims.

1. I always knew but now have evidence that I did not consent to Mum's house being moved from the original insurer to the probate company's block insurance policy in the first place.

This is important because the original insurer handled the last two subsidence claims and was willing to continue providing cover until the property was sold. A subsidence claim to the original insurer would not have failed.

2. The probate company knew in early january that the claim to their block policy insurance had been refused because they failed to tell the insurer about previous claims.

But they didn't tell me. They let me continue escalating my complaint against their insurer to the ombudsman for the next five months, totally unaware of the insurer's decision or reasons.

While the probate company knew all the time.

I am so angry.

I suppose my question now is whether there is anything to be gained from including these claims in my reply to the original email or whether I should just keep things simple and stick to their failure to tell the insurer about the previous subsidence claims.

TIA x

I just got this back from them:

We have supplied the documents you have requested and acknowledged that we did not provide all relevant information when the property was added to the block policy with [insurer].

You state that this has resulted in a substantial loss to the value of your mother’s estate, therefore if you consider any claim is justified against [probate management company] then we suggest you seek independent legal advice or that you will need to follow the Pre-Action Protocol for making claims against solicitors.

So it looks like they intend to dispute the loss in value and I do now need legal advice.

Am I correct in thinking that this falls under professional negligence?

I have legal cover with my home insurance, it says I am covered for consumer disputes but I am guessing this is a bit more specialist. Also not sure if I'd be covered as the loss is to Mum's estate, not me personally, although it was me who signed the contract with the probate company Also I'm not sure if there's a potential COI as my legal cover is underwritten by the same insurer as their block policy.

I'll call them tomorrow and find out where I stand but for now I'm assuming there will be some reason why I'm not covered, so I'm also starting to look at no win no fee solicitors.

I'd be grateful for any advice on how to find a good one, what to look for and avoid etc.

Also how much I should reasonably expect to pay for -

Initial advice / claim assessment
Success fee
Insurance
Any other costs?

Thanks.

Update - looks like my home insurance legal cover will be taking my case!

It's with a good solicitor company - one I had earmarked for no-win-no-fee - they say my case (professional negligence) is proportionate and has reasonable prospects of success. No COI identified.

Can't believe how much stress has dropped off my shoulders since I got their letter. I know I've a long way to go but after the last 18 months in Kafka land, just to have a solicitor look at everything and say yes, you have a case, is wonderful.

I'll sleep well tonight 😊