So in summer 2014 I hear from the family grape vine that I will be contacted by a solicitor as an unknown relative has died and I have an inheritance heading my way.
Contact made by solicitor in Feb 2015 advising that I am identified as one of over 100 beneficiaries. It seems that solicitors are court appointed and another company has been tracking down the relatives. At this point I pass on my sisters contact info as they had not received similar letters.
The deceased appears to have been related to my Mothers father (my Grandad) and both my Grandad & Mother died about 8 years ago.
My Mother had 5 siblings, one of which was adopted and a further 4 are half sisters. I have 2 sisters, so my inheritance should be one third of my Mothers share.
October 2015 solicitor wants me to confirm I am not on a list of bankrupts who share my surname.
January 2016 the estate is finally distributed and its party time I receive £27. I didn't expect much as we had googled the deceased and it seems he was just an average working class man. We had a chinese takaway and toasted the unknown gentleman.
However, my older sister who had expected the same received £9. She wrote to the solicitor requesting an explanation.
At the same time I heard that my mother siblings were also raising similar queries as one had received £9, another £27 and yet another £81
My sister received a letter back from the solicitor in February stating that there had been an error and enclosed a further £55, taking her total to £64
So now we are confused and although the sums involved are irrelevant I write to solicitor and ask for an explanation - it would be nice to see a family tree of that branch of the family to see where we fit in.
Today I have received a letter from the solicitor and instead of receiving an explanation, they state that there was an error and further checks have been carried out. They state that I should have only received £9 and they request that I send £18 back to them
What would you do?
My feeling is that the solicitor and the tracking company will both have had fat fees out of the estate before the balance was shared out. If they can't do basic maths and also are not prepared to share information on how the estate was distributed then their errors should come out of their fees or their professional indemnity insurance. Just to be clear, it's not about the £18, more about them not sharing the info on the estate distribution which would show the size of the cokk up they have made. We would also like to know how we are/were related to the deceased gentleman.
Contact made by solicitor in Feb 2015 advising that I am identified as one of over 100 beneficiaries. It seems that solicitors are court appointed and another company has been tracking down the relatives. At this point I pass on my sisters contact info as they had not received similar letters.
The deceased appears to have been related to my Mothers father (my Grandad) and both my Grandad & Mother died about 8 years ago.
My Mother had 5 siblings, one of which was adopted and a further 4 are half sisters. I have 2 sisters, so my inheritance should be one third of my Mothers share.
October 2015 solicitor wants me to confirm I am not on a list of bankrupts who share my surname.
January 2016 the estate is finally distributed and its party time I receive £27. I didn't expect much as we had googled the deceased and it seems he was just an average working class man. We had a chinese takaway and toasted the unknown gentleman.
However, my older sister who had expected the same received £9. She wrote to the solicitor requesting an explanation.
At the same time I heard that my mother siblings were also raising similar queries as one had received £9, another £27 and yet another £81
My sister received a letter back from the solicitor in February stating that there had been an error and enclosed a further £55, taking her total to £64
So now we are confused and although the sums involved are irrelevant I write to solicitor and ask for an explanation - it would be nice to see a family tree of that branch of the family to see where we fit in.
Today I have received a letter from the solicitor and instead of receiving an explanation, they state that there was an error and further checks have been carried out. They state that I should have only received £9 and they request that I send £18 back to them
What would you do?
My feeling is that the solicitor and the tracking company will both have had fat fees out of the estate before the balance was shared out. If they can't do basic maths and also are not prepared to share information on how the estate was distributed then their errors should come out of their fees or their professional indemnity insurance. Just to be clear, it's not about the £18, more about them not sharing the info on the estate distribution which would show the size of the cokk up they have made. We would also like to know how we are/were related to the deceased gentleman.