Stephen Gold: The probate service call handler was stern. It sounded as though she was typing as we spoke. The application would be ‘looked at soon’
Stephen Gold is a retired judge and author, who recently wound up his beloved late aunt’s estate.
In a series exposing the ordeal of being an executor, he explained last time how to force vital information out of banks and finance firms, and win hundreds of pounds in compensation for your loved one’s estate if you encounter unacceptable errors and delay.
Today, he tells how he took on Lloyds, and tussled with the HM Courts and Tribunals Service, which lawyers have claimed is causing grieving people distress due to serious delays in processing probate applications.
You may find your late relative’s estate is losing out on interest pending a grant of probate, the important legal step that allows an executor to take direct financial control.
This is an important grouse of mine. My aunt had maintained a Lloyds current account which had a sizeable credit balance. It attracted no interest whatever.
Faced with a potentially long wait for probate, I asked Lloyds to transfer the balance to an interest paying account. They refused.
They sought to justify the refusal on the grounds that there could be no access or amendments to the account before probate was granted. This action was ‘in line with our internal security and bereavement procedures’.
But I was not after taking the money at that stage. I was after the estate rather than Lloyds gaining some benefit from the account balance.
You can’t complain – yet: Ombudsman dithers over probate rules
So, what has the Ombudsman had to say about my grumbles against Lloyds? They could not accept a complaint from me, claimed an investigator there, until probate in my favour had been granted.
I maintained that I had authority to wind up the estate which derived from my aunt’s will. Probate was not needed before the complaint was entertained.
If the service was right, the system could be unworkable for executor cases as a reference to the service must be made within six months of the financial institution’s final response to the complaint.
An agreement to an extension of that period was by no means guaranteed. In the event, probate for my aunt has now been granted within the six months.
The matter was referred to an Ombudsman within the service who I had hoped would make a definitive decision on the issue. After a wait of five months, I have been informed that the Ombudsman assigned to the case has referred it back to the investigator for an assessment. We’ll see what she assesses.
Meanwhile, I found another way to prise cash out of Lloyds to offset the loss of interest from my aunt’s bank account.
Many banks and building societies allow investments to be used in advance of probate for some limited expenditure, such as funeral and headstone costs and inheritance tax, and openly say so. And what do you know? Lloyds is one of them.
When inheritance tax came to be payable for my aunt’s estate – and that was before probate could be applied for – I asked Lloyds for the lion’s share of that non-interest paying current account to be used towards the inheritance tax bill.
They could hardly refuse. Got ’em!
Complaints backlog at the DWP: Six-month wait for a response
Tell Us Once is a handy free service. It will notify the death for you to Department for Work and Pensions, HMRC, DVLA, the council, the passport office and public sector or armed forces pension schemes.
I used it. It worked except for with the DWP. After eight weeks, I telephoned them and a 35-minute wait to speak to a human was rewarded with the concession that something had gone wrong at their end – and they had overpaid on my aunt’s state pension and would like the money back (which I have since repaid).
I have complained to the DWP senior manager in accordance with their procedures and chased once. Oddly, they are behind with complaint handling. I have so far waited over six months for a response.
It could get worse: Now, turning to probate…
You’ve made it. Distress and inconvenience endured. Complaint procedures concluded. Figures in. Inheritance tax paid, where due.
You can apply for probate. By post or – and the alternative is represented as faster – online. I chose online.
When the application was acknowledged on 30 January 2023, I was informed it usually takes 16 weeks and I was given a number to phone if I had not heard about it ‘after’ 16 weeks.
I took the precaution of checking with HMRC that it had done its duty of informing the probate service that the inheritance tax had been paid in full. No pay, no probate.
They wouldn’t be in dereliction of that duty, surely? Well, yes. They had failed to notify and would get on with that immediately.
By March 2023, the probate service was saying that online applications were taking an average of 3.1 weeks where there was no stoppage of time on account of deficient paperwork. But although that average had been exceeded, I could not chase them by phone.
They say ‘goodbye’ on a recorded phone message to DIYers who have not waited for 16 weeks. So, I waited.
After 16 weeks, I got through. The call handler was stern. It sounded as though she was typing as we spoke. The application would be ‘looked at soon’.
I spoke of the published turn around figure. No comment. When could it be ‘looked at’? She could not say. Would it be within the next fortnight? She could not say. Thank you.
I received email notification that the application had been granted…the next day! Copies of the probate followed swiftly. Two communications asking for an explanation for the delay did not meet with any response.
And another complaint: Holding the probate service to account
Retired judge and writer Stephen Gold
Stephen Gold is author of ‘The Return of Breaking Law’, a guide to your legal rights and winning in court or losing well.
It is published by Bath Publishing and, among a myriad of topics, includes a template for the longest will in the world and tips for removing executors and claiming against an estate when you have been left nothing.
The next step? A formal complaint? To whom? Probate is technically issued out of the High Court.
Not by a robed judge looking through half-moon specs but a probate service staff member with a mouse in one hand and a partially consumed cheese sandwich in the other.
His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) is responsible for the probate service. It is more common for them to deal with complaints over gross delays in county courts and tribunals but they seem reticent about publicising the role they can play in dealing with probate service complaints.
The online summary of the complaints procedure and the complaint form which is available for completion are geared towards the more common court and tribunal complaints.
The only point at which you may discover that the probate service is within their remit is when you are invited to put in the ‘court or tribunal you are complaining about’ and use the dropdown box which mentions ‘CTSC – probate’.
The other not insignificant point is that there is no mention of the fact that they can pay compensation when service falls below reasonably expected standards. If you are ultimately dissatisfied with how they deal with a complaint, you can take it, through your MP, to the Parliamentary and Health Service ombudsman.
I complained to HMCTS about the gross delay in my probate application. I was told that they normally expected to respond to complaints within 10 working days but due to an increase in demand for their complaints service it was currently taking a little longer.
It took them 10 days. Things were looking up – until I read the response. It was apparent from this that the application had been examined just over five weeks from when the probate service had everything it needed from me but was rejected for a reason that it was evident the complaints investigator could not fathom out.
Anyway, ‘apologies’ for any upset and inconvenience caused were tendered. What was not tendered was any offer of compensation or determination as to whether my complaint had been upheld or rejected.
I asked for a review by the complaints manager who came back to me within a reasonable time frame. By implication, the complaint was upheld. A delay of 10.5 weeks in issuing probate was acknowledged.
It is unclear to me from what I have been told, why the probate application was rejected when originally looked at although my guess is that it was because HMRC had not yet confirmed that it had received payment of all inheritance tax due.
In the event, what is clear is that the probate service failed to follow up the application after that rejection and that I could still be waiting for probate if I had not made that telephone call to the call handler who was economical with information.
The review produced a ‘without prejudice’ goodwill payment of £50 which translated into just over a fiver for each week of delay. I regard this to be on the low side but I have accepted.
Am I getting soft? I was told it could take up to 20 working days for the money to reach me but it took just a couple of days.
IN PART THREE, TOMORROW…Stephen Gold distributes what is owed to his aunt’s beneficiaries, and racks up yet more compensation for her estate from laggardly businesses.
