Inheritance claim. Defence messing around to drive up costs.

[username8888]

I've posted about this before but NC'd. Inheritance act claim, BIL effectively chucked out of his home by stepdaughters because of his late wife's secret will. Claim commenced and went to mediation. At mediation came to a reasonable settlement which was good for both sides. Outline agreement signed, with only the details to iron out.

But. The stepdaughters wont sign the final agreement and are arguing the finer very unimportant points of buying the new house etc. They have probate now, and we realise they are trying to time it out.

Our solicitor is pushing back and will ask for a standstill or court date. Not for a trial but just regarding the mediation agreement details (minor). We feel their plan is to run up as many costs as possible (their costs are being paid for by a friend) and settle a week before court, so costs cannot be awarded against them, which our solicitor will apply for due to their unreasonableness.

Have asked the solicitor if this will be as costly as a full trial but have to wait a few days for a reply so do you have any ideas anyone? Also how long before a court date?

I have no advice but remember your last thread. I hope someone with advice sees this

The solicitor will get back to us some time this week with the options. She will give us an estimate of what it costs to prepare for trial, but it won't be a full trial looking at all the evidence, as the mediation agreement was signed. Its just silly minor stuff like refusing to pay the 50% for the purchase of the new house, despite owning 50%. We compromised and said we will pay all the fees upfront, and they would be recouped when the house was finally sold, so they have nothing to pay for around 30 years! They're trying to run it out of time basically, and if they can't do that rack up as much as possible in legal fees. Around £26K so far. So ridiculous.

Do you mean what are the costs of a standstill agreement? Are you already in litigation?

Yes we have been to mediation and have agreed a skeleton agreement regarding a substitute property. The defendants are nitpicking the minor parts of this agreement in an attempt to run us out of time (6 months post probate). I don't think they will agree to a standstill agreement so we will have to set a court date. We will need to pay the solicitors to prepare the case which will be expensive. We think they will do this to cause us to spend money on this but then settle a week before the court date, so that we cannot ask the judge for these costs. They are already bound by the draft agreement, it's just minor details they keep quibbling.

Whilst the judge won't rule on costs if it settles before court, any settlement should include an agreement as to responsibility for costs. You should insist that they pay your costs, or at least a large proportion of them.

Thank you. I wasn't sure if that was even possible.

Will discuss putting this into the next correspondence. Solicitor as worded a strong response which should go this week and if their response is no to a standstill, forcing us to ask for a court date, our reply will be along the lines of 'we are happy to reach an agreement on the lines already proposed prior to the court date but it must include the defendants paying the costs our client has had to prepare for court. If not we will proceed with the court date, and trust a judge will see the unreasonableness of the defendants stance.

We were anxious about pushing on to court as that always looks bad when the defendants comply with an agreement.