Would you trust a solicitor?

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Piff

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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:rolleyes: 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:dk:
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:confused:
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:wallbash:
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.
 
Interesting story indeed.

To be honest I am surprised that there was anything left to share at all - somehow I was expecting the legacy to be just enough to cover the administrators' professional fees.

Incidentally, my understanding is that legally you are required to hand back money that was given to you in error, though you are quite right to demand that they prove it was indeed an error (and at any rate it is unlikely that the solicitors will actually try and collect £18...)
 
Leave it to them in your will.
 
Sounds like your solicitor works for HMRC. In a recent letter to me they admitted and documented EIGHTEEN errors made by hem in calculating my tax affairs. They then said that this still made everything my fault and I owed them money. Hmmmmmm. Now with Ombudsman.

I would be tempted to write back and say that you have made an error and are charging them for your time in investigating their error(s)
 
I trust a solicitor who was instructed be me and where I am paying his fee.

Experience has told me not to trust one instructed by someone else.
 
The solicitors don't come out of it looking particularly effective do they. It appears that your relative died intestate and to be fair I would suspect that tracking down all eligible relatives will have been something of a nightmare. Probably this was done by one of those companies who make a living out of it and not the solicitors. Could be wrong but I doubt whether the solicitors will be allowed to reveal details of the other beneficiaries. With regard to family trees this is now a fairly easy exercise with a huge amount of info online - an interesting pastime as well. With the small amount involved personally I wouldn't bother to take it any further but I get your apprehension re the solicitors.
 
Ask for a full breakdown of the entire estate - fees, legal entities involved, courts clerks, etc, etc.
Specify that, you are not asking to see individual beneficiaries names, but do want to know all the professionals who dealt with the matter ... You might hear back that, the case is closed, and the error has been rectified without your remittance.
 
A bit like trusting a politition !

Yep its the usual story with a supplier of goods and services - what you get is only as good as the person dealing. I would suspect also that this case will probably have been dealt with by a legal executive on a day to day basis and not a solicitor charging £200 min ph. They will of course have to be prepared to prove to a court that the matter has been dealt with correctly.
 
Perhaps a referral to the Law Society
 
under freedom of information act ask for % charged to you guys it should a max of 10% or that is at least the norm
 
Is there not a Govt dept where you can view all estates? I think there is but I may be mistaken.

I know these heir hunters charge a % commission but I understand you have to sign up for it, perhaps the solicitors are in on it.
 
Is there not a Govt dept where you can view all estates? I think there is but I may be mistaken.

I know these heir hunters charge a % commission but I understand you have to sign up for it, perhaps the solicitors are in on it.

There is the Bona Vecantia, excuse the spelling if incorrect, list. It lists the estates of deceased people but not the value of the estate because of a fraud a few years ago.

To be honest, I didn't think solicitors ever got involved with this, it is usually companies who deal with ancestry.
 

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