Solicitor behaviour - is this normal

[Rainbowhermit]

My mother died just over a year ago and my sister and I appointed the solicitor who held her will to deal with Probate, etc.
Probate was granted in February. The house sale has still not gone through. We asked the solicitor to pay the charitable bequests and another to a friend of my mother’s as soon as possible. There are plenty of funds. This still has not been done - various excuses such as the money had been placed in a fund to earn interest and had to be transferred back to the client account, charities had to be written to and some hadn’t replied. Now the ‘file is in dictation’ for her secretary to ‘possibly’ deal with next week. We have also been asked - for the fifth time - to verify our bank account details for an interim payment, and then the secretary will phone to double check next week. This all seems so archaic - very tempted to just take back control now but don’t know if this is possible. Is this normal?

I was a solicitor before having kids, admittedly not in probate but that is not the service I would have provided my clients. Sounds v much like you are being fobbed off for some reason. What you have asked for is not unreasonable or difficult to achieve. I would be asking to speak to the supervising partner of the solicitor concerned or the department head / managing partner if they don't resolve it quickly.

It's not great service is it. With the bank details are they checking each time they send something (probably sensible given the number of frauds around bank details) or have the just not sent anything?
You are the client remember, you can say the service isn't what you expected. Do you know how much you're paying for this?

They are slow, compared to my recent experiences of solicitors dealing with probate. However, my sister did shake ours up a bit on a few occasions and she is pretty blunt, so that may have improved our experience.

Thanks all.
With the bank details, she is checking twice every time she sends anything - by post and then phone. Being kind, she is very thorough!

thanks for the comments, I feel more confident in tackling this now

I would be very suspicious. Is this a solo solicitor? they may be over their head and in trouble. I would ask why, with funds available after probate, the gift from your mother hasnt already been paid. I would also ask for a printed account. And I am suspicious the money has been moved out of client account to earn interest in another account. That is highly unusual IMHO unless it's very substantial funds and a complex will. Can you go visit?

No, this is a well respected local firm with several branches. My general feeling is that they are just very old fashioned and do everything by the book and to the letter, but this insistence on using post and constantly checking is somirritating

You are being taken for a mug, I suggest a strongly worded email complaining and asking for the senior partner to review the case.

We always do a call back to confirm bank details for any payments we make at work. It saves the funds being sent to a fraudulent bank account if someone has intercepted any emails etc.

They’ve sat on your file and not prioritised it over live work like wills, LPA’s etc. Time to ring and insist YOU a become a priority and ask them to explain the delays and set out a timeline of when they can resolve whatever is outstanding to draw the matter to a close.

Are you being charged for each phone call and then again for each letter?

Ask for the firm's complaints procedure. Hopefully that gets them going. If not, lodge a formal complaint to the firm. Then follow through the complaints procedure. If that does not work, complain to the Legal Ombudman and if that still does not work, complain to the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

If someone at the firm is messing around with funds in the client account, this will get them sanctioned by the SRA so soon their head will spin. It is a very serious thing, even if they repay the funds.

Checking bank account details is very sensible and good practice. Google Friday Afternoon Fraud. But that can be done fairly quicky and should not be used to hold up making payments of client funds.

You can’t complain because someone is exercising proper due diligence.

Sorry wrong thread.

Checking the bank details is a regulatory requirement. They do sound a bit slow though.

Our solicitor asked that I send bank details in writing. They don't keep them on file and won't accept them by email or verbally. The sale of my mother's house was completed within a couple of months from probate being granted. The hold up there was the buyer's solicitor. The money was sent to us within a day or so of completion. It might have been on the day of completion but I can't remember exactly.