Solicitors Bills

[raymond54]

Last year my father died, leaving me as executer or his will. His estate was to be divided into five shares. This included money and a house. I went to a solicitor to have this procedure started, I was told at the time that a percentage of the estate would be paid as professional fees to get the probate grant, I presumed this would be on the money only as in my estimation the solicitor just wrote down the value of the house on a form .i.e two hundred and twenty thousand euro, bringing the whole estate to just over four hundred thousand euro. I complained to the solicitor about the bill which came in at over ten thousand euro, she gave me six hundred euro discount. Now the house is being sold and she wants two thousand two hundred euro. I supplied this solicitor with every detail of my fathers simple life PPs no bank accounts details, pension no, every thing she needed I handed to her, I got the auctioneer to value the house and paid him, I supplied all the details of my siblings and they cooperated fully. I complaied about the bill again but they said they had already writted the cheques and extracted the money owed.
I think at this stage I might complain to the Law Society. Can anyone give me a suggestion, I think these charges are obsene. Maybe this is normal, if so it is a terrible state of affairs.
I would be gald of some feed back.

 

[Chamar]

Alas, this is the norm. At least it has been in my experience, the experience of many other posters here as well as alot of other anecdotal evidence I have heard.

Lawyers are the lowest of the low imo.

 

[Seagull]

I can understand that you are unhappy with the amount you're being charge and it does sound over the odds, but from what you write, the lawyer told you up front what you should expect. You were told that it was a percentage of the estate. That includes all of your father's assets. If it was a simple estate and will, you would probably have been better off having him do it on a time cost basis.

I don't know what the norm is here, but in Soth Africa, the standard fee for the executor was 2,5% of assets and 5% of earnings over the period it took to settle the estate. It sounds like you've been charged 2,5%.

If you read other threads about estates/wills, you will see that there is something of a move away from the straight percentage fee.