Asking solicitor to renounce executorship as their fee is not in best interests of the estate.

[Sillygoosey]

Basically my mum arranged her Will decades ago when she had property and a very comfortable life. She appointed the same firm to execute the Will (I am not an executor) - they currently charge 7-10k plus VAT to administer an estate with no property or inheritance tax due.

Since then, she got into serious debt and used up all her wealth. She passed away at Christmas and now her estate is worth less than £15,000. She paid into a plan to cover her funeral costs. She owes 5k in contribution to care home fees as they invoice in arrears. I also found out she took a large loan from a friend (over 10k) and I won’t be able to honour it or much of it if I’m paying silly money to the solicitors.

I feel the decent thing would be for the solicitors to renounce, do I stand a good chance if I ask them to? Is 7-10k fee usually for estates valued over £200,000? Thanks for any advice.

That would seem an excessive fee for such a small estate. It sounds like you won’t need to get a grant of probate with those values and no property. They should renounce if you ask them to but they don’t have to. There may be a (comparatively) small fee for completing the deed of renunciation. Have you explained the situation to the solicitors and asked them?

I planned to email the lead in their wills & estate department on Monday. They have been closed this whole past week over Christmas.

In my understanding debts take precedence over the cost of services that have not been carried out yet, your mums friend would have to be paid first.

So if the remaining value of the estate is less than the cost of administration I would emphasise this!

Say you would be happy to take over administration yourself but if they really want to continue then there will not be any money to pay them for it.

I would expect debts to take precedence over solicitor fees and I will certainly explain about the loan she owed, also that there could potentially be other claims once advertised in the London Gazette etc.

If allowed to apply to administer her estate, I really hope I won’t have to administer an insolvent one but even if not, I also don’t want money spent on expensive solicitors that she can no longer afford. Fine if she hadn’t spent all her money, I would’ve been happy for someone else to deal with it and it come out of the estate. Hopefully, now she’s not their normal customer, they’ll decide it’s not in their best interests either.

"I would expect debts to take precedence over solicitor fees"

Secured debts, such as a mortgage, do take precedence but other debts don't if the solicitor fees are part of the expenses of administering the estate.

"I feel the decent thing would be for the solicitors to renounce, do I stand a good chance if I ask them to? "

I quite agree that would be the decent thing for them to do. Will they? Who knows? It all depends if they are just money grabbing bar stewards or have some decency.

You have nothing at all to lose by asking.

Is this something you need to advertise in the London Gazette?
I wouldn't invite any more issues personally.

So sorry for your loss.

@Another2Cats
So I learnt online that estate admin costs are like a debt on the estate and I found out about the different types of creditors and the order in which they should be paid. Estate admin fees are considered Testamentary expenses and, as you pointed out, take priority over all debts except secured creditors, provided there’s enough to pay for them after the secured creditors.
Like you say, I feel it’s worth asking and I just hope they do the decent thing.

@@stayathomegardener
Thank you, it has been an unwanted distraction which has put grieving on hold.
Thanks too for the point about not saying much more, even though I’m very confident from her records that there would be no other genuine claims/debts. It’ll be advertised at some point, whether by me if I’m allowed to apply to administer, hopefully it won’t take too long to find out.