Hi Vanilla, and thanks for your reply.
I was prepared to move on if I'd had a reply saying "we don't have the Deeds" but it's now 7 weeks since I left my Dads solicitor with a photocopy of my Dads journal entries in 1986 and 1992. I've now sent a letter asking for a written reply, saying that if I do not get a satisfactory reply in writing within a reasonable timeframe I will take the matter further. My father had used this firm at least since he bought his second and final family home in 1965 (and possibly his first in 1952) and the sale of his own mothers home and probate, the purchase of my older brothers home (where my brother, after threats from the Bank, had to squat in the solicitors office until he got the deeds to his house forwarded to the Bank 5 years after he had bought the house) and my mothers very modest estate and probate which didn't go too efficiently (her post office book was lost). What hurts me particularly is that the principal, who I had never met or spoken to, about a month after I first made contact with his firm re the Deeds, when his legal secretary told me that their "system showed they didn't have the Deeds" and promised to call me back and never did, and their incompetence re dating of my fathers Will (requiring an Affidavit which his secretary magnanimously informed me that he would not charge for) came on the phone to me and said " the Deeds? have you tried your fathers Bank? He didn't say "commiserations on the death of your father" (hence in my view I only have an implication that they don't have the Deeds). If you knew my father, and there will be many who will testify to his competence, the chances of him "getting it wrong" or of giving "something else entirely" are very small. Solicitors are professionals who charge very well for their services (in this case a minimum of €27k for Probate - God how much my poor father must have paid them over the years while he doffed his hat) and should keep proper records of important documents going in and out of their possession. That's the bottom line - no excuses. You receive a document, you check it like you do Vanilla and sign it in. You release a document - sign it out - SIMPLE. My father wrote in his diary "The Deeds are held by my Solicitors ............." and then added in 6 years later that the "Vesting Cert was given to said Solicitors". Of course that's not legal proof and the wonderful Law Society of Ireland will no doubt confirm that. My Dad was only one of the "little people" after all.