Questions About Solicitors and Probate

A question about : Questions About Solicitors and Probate

Mods,

Apologies if this is in the wrong place but feel free to move if appropriate.

My wifes Gran sadly died in February and only 3 months later in May (as is often the way) her gramps sadly passed away as well.

Their estate was certainly not large, a 2 bed house worth between Ј160-Ј170k and approximately Ј80k worth of savings split between premium bonds and a simple Santander savings account. The beneficiaries of the will were their daughter (my mum in law) and my wife and 2 sisters (only grandchildren). A small provision was also made for my son (8 years old) of approximately Ј2k. We have paid Co-op Ј10k to essentially execute the will and be responsible for everything legal so that it is all done correctly as the grandparents also had a son who was not included in the will as he was essentially 'estranged' and as far as i know lives in London.

My question is 2 fold.

1) With probate, do solicitors essentially act like they do when moving home i.e drag their heels unless chased regularly?
2) Probate seems to be taking a long time. The beneficiaries have sigend all docs, submitted id, personal details etc. I appreciate that having a minor in the will and also the estranged son may mean extra work, however my wifes Grandparents were fully compus mentus to the end and their wills were long standing and followed correct procedures. My wifes gramps was awfully studious when it came to money and setting his affairs straight!

Any thoughts/comments would be appreciated.

Best answers:

• Chase up regularly or else you will just go to the bottom of their pile.
  And don't be afraid to do it.....you are employing them to do a job for you.
• My brother done our family probate.Any problems just call the probate office as they are really helpful.
  Where there was grandchildren left out of our family Will the grandchildren just split the cash they got with the children that wasnt included.
• Just an update.
  one of the executors finally rang the coop at the end of October only to be told by a solicitor that he had another large case and hadn't actually done anything yet! We were very unhappy and threatened to withdraw from their services. Surprise surprise, notification of the death was in the london gazette the following week, probate should be cleared and funds dispersed to the beneficiaries on or after Jan 9th.
  If we wouldn't have chased, god knows what would have happened.