Page 44 Daily Mail, Wednesday, August 28, 2019By To ny L e v e n e
44 MoneyMail
MONEY
MORSELS
Their mother
thought making
a solicitor the
executor of her
will was a smart
move. But SIX
YEARS after
she died they’re
still waiting
for her legacy
Trapped in
purgatory
had disappeared after racking up
a £7,200 legal bill.
And when the family contacted
another law firm for help, they
were told that until they found her
they could not serve her with the
necessary High Court writ to
remove her as executor.
In 2016, the family finally tracked
down Ms Saeed working for an
East London legal firm, Carter
Devile, as an associate solicitor.
But by then she had appointed
firm principal, John Devile, to act
on her behalf.
And while Ms Saeed has told
Money Mail the final legal bill is
not yet known, the family under-
stand that Mr Devile charges
around £245 an hour.
When there was still no resolu-
tion in October 2018, the family
complained to the Legal Ombuds-
man about the delay.
In June 2019, the Ombudsman
ruled that Essex-based CarterDevile had not acted in the best
interests of the family and awarded
£500 to each sibling.
This is not the first time the firm
has been told to pay clients com-
pensation. On the website review-
solicitors.co.uk, it warns potential
customers that Carter Devile was
ordered to pay up to £14,999 in
compensation in September 2017
for ‘failure to release files or papers
and giving deficient cost informa-
tion’ in a probate matter.
However, the compensation has
yet to be paid and the family
remain in deadlock.
Carter Devile now claims that it
cannot sell Maggie’s home while
one of the siblings is living there
temporarily. The family say this is
to protect the house against van-dalism and squatting, adding that
if the property is left empty the
insurance will be invalid.
They say the sibling living there
will leave as soon as the
property is sold.
Maggie’s oldest child,
Shelley Renzow-Col-
lins, 47, says: ‘We are
trapped in the sys-
tem. We, as family
and beneficiaries,
have no rights.
‘The whole sys-
tem favours law-
yers and we have no
control over costs.
We need closure after
six years.’
Stephen Lawson, of FDR
Law, is a council member for the
Society of Trust and Estate Prac-
titioners, specialising in dealing
with executors in dispute withbeneficiaries. He says: ‘A basic rule
of thumb is the “executor’s year”
which means that finalising an
estate should not take longer than
12 months or so without a
good reason. When
something runs over
six years, the burden
is on the executor
to justify why. The
family should ask
the probate regis-
trar to order that
interim accounts
are delivered.’
Experts say this is
a rare case where the
family may have been
better off had Maggie
not left a will — as under
the rules of intestacy, if there is
no surviving partner, any children
inherit the estate equally. There is
no inheritance tax to pay as theestate is under the tax-free thresh-
old for a couple. Maggie had inher-
ited her late husband, Don’s,
allowance when he died in 2006.
Before becoming prime minister,
Boris Johnson, MP for one sibling,
told the family he would be ‘more
than happy’ to help progress the
matter. But removing an executor
is a difficult and costly process.
The siblings would need to prove
in court that the executors were
incapable of performing the nec-
essary duties, unsuitable for the
position, or have been disqualified
since they were appointed.
Ms Saeed says: ‘Details of the
solicitors’ fees will be made avail-
able to the beneficiaries at the
conclusion of the matter and if
any one or more of them wishes to
challenge the bill then there are
mechanisms for them to do so.’
[email protected]MAny people think choosing a
solicitor to manage their affairs
after they die will help take the
burden off their loved ones — but
it can be the exact opposite.
When Maggie Gibbs died, aged 64, in
June 2013, her family thought her estate
would be simple to wrap up. She had a
valid will that bequeathed everything
she owned, including her home in Rom-
ford, Essex, and around £100,000 in sav-
ings, to her four children equally.
But six years on, the four siblings have
still not received a penny and now owe
thousands of pounds in legal fees.
On top of this they could face a near
£50,000 capital gains tax bill because the
Romford property has risen in value by
£150,000 to £450,000 in the six years since
Maggie died.
The problems stem from Maggie’s deci-
sion to appoint the solicitors who
arranged the will as executors — mean-
ing they are responsible for distributing
her estate. Generally, appointing profes-
sional executors such as lawyers and
banks is only advisable if there are no
suitable family or friends to do it.
Friends and relatives are preferable as
they can do the work free of charge,
whereas professionals often charge
costly fees. In fact, experts warn that
acting as an executor can be so lucrative
that some lawyers offer free or very
cheap wills in the hope they will make
money later down the line.
Maggie’s will had been written by solic-
itors Daybells in Romford many years
before she died, naming the firm as
executor.
After her death, Daybells started gath-
ering the necessary paperwork to apply
for grant of probate — the official docu-
ment you need before you can begin dis-
tributing assets. But in autumn 2013,
Daybells was taken over by an East Lon-
don firm called nationwide Solicitors
and a different lawyer, Rehana Saeed,
was put on the case instead.
The application for probate was finally
submitted in the summer of 2014, more
than a year after Maggie’s death,
However, just a few months later in the
autumn of 2014, nationwide Solicitors
was shut down by legal watchdog, the
Solicitors Regulation Authority.
In an official statement, the regulator
said this was done to protect the firm’s
clients as it had ‘reason to suspect dis-
honesty on the part of a manager or
employee’. By the time the family dis-
covered what had happened, Ms Saeed
Bank bonus
NEW customers can earn £150 when
they switch to some Royal Bank of Scot-
land accounts such as its fee-free Select
account and its Reward, Reward Silver,
Platinum and Black accounts, which
charge between £2 and £31 a month. You
must pay in at least £1,500 and log in to
online or mobile banking by January
2020 to receive the windfall.Teen fares
A nEW railcard is offering 16 and 17 year
olds half-price train travel. The 16-17
Saver railcard, which costs £30 for a year,
is expected to save passengers an average
of £186 annually. Most other railcards,such as the 16-25 cards or senior railcard,
offer saving of around a third, but the new
one works as an extension of child half
fares until the holder reaches 18.Valuation perk
SANTANDER is offering first-time buy-
ers a free valuation report worth £500
on select fixed-rate mortgage deals.
The HomeFact report gives detailsabout the condition of the house, any
problems or security risks and tips on
how best to maintain it. Basic free
valuation reports are only seen by the
lender, keeping buyers in the dark over
property defects.Early payday
MOnZO customers can now get their
salaries paid a day in advance. The app-
based bank says account holders can opt
to have Bacs direct credit payments,
including pensions, student loans and tax
credits, transferred into their accounts at
4pm the day before the money is due.Fee waiver
FIRST DIRECT is axeing its £10-a-monthfee for all 1st Account customers next
month. Currently you only have to pay
the fee if you fail to deposit at least
£1,000 into your account each month or
do not hold an average monthly
balance of £1,000. Even then, the fee was
waived for customers with other First
Direct accounts.Scam sites
FRAUDSTERS are mimicking regulated
debt advice services and charities. The
Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) says
one ‘clone firm’ attempted to mimick
national Debtline by setting up a website
called ‘national Debt Helpline’. The finan-
cial watchdog recently warned of similar
attempts to impersonate debt charity
StepChange.Did you
know?
A 100-year Cadbury’s
chocolate bar, taken on
Captain Scott’s first
Antarctic exhibition in
1901, was bought for
£470 at auctionPicture: JOHN McLELLANFinancial quagmire: Shelley Renzow-Collins with husband Fabian,
and brother Warren Gibbs (left) outside her late mother’s home