After the death of my mother I dealt with all the paperwork. I knew that a few years prior she had recieved some inheritance from my grandmothers sister`s estate, as my grandmother was no longer around it whent to my mother as the next closest relative. It was around 10k, she gave me and my sister a few hundred each and they kept the rest. They had a conservatory built and bought a few new items such as washing machine, cooker etc.
I had power of attorney over my parents, my dad was in a care home, I had to set up a bank account for him as he had never had one and then transferred all money from my late mothers bank account into his. It was around this time I was sorting through more of my mothers paperwork stuff that I could shred, that I came across another letter from the solicitor/executor to my mother. It was a closure of the estate and included was another cheque, this time for a much larger sum. What stuck out straight away was that mum and dad never did anything extravagant like traveling abroad,cars etc. I could not see this amount reflected in my mums bank statements, so asked the branch manager for a complete set of statements from the day my mum opened her bank account.
The cheque for whatever reason was never cashed, nor did I come across it in amongst the paperwork. I called the solicitors in question explaining my findings and asked if they could check if it ever was cashed in. I was told in what I would class as a not a particularly professional manner "Its impossible to check back that far we keep no records" I admit it is a few years after the event, but id have thought that if it had not been cashed then it would show up as and when they done their accounts. So is that just it or is there anyone I could contact to delve a bit deeper?