The family of deceased Maggie Gibbs has been left owing thousands in legal fees and feel let down by the system after a probate solicitor, who was the executor, failed to distribute the estate after six years.
When Maggie Gibbs died aged 64 in June 2013, she had a valid Will that bequeathed everything she owned, including her home in Essex, and around £100,000 in savings to her four children. Maggie appointed the solicitors who arranged the Will as executors, meaning that they were responsible for distributing her account. But six years down the line, her children haven’t received any money and could face a nearly £50,000 capital gains tax bill. This is because the Essex property has risen in value by £300,000 since Maggie died.
The Will had been written by solicitors Daybells in Romford years before she died, naming the firm as the executor. But in Autumn 2013 Daybells was taken over by an East London firm called Nationwide Solicitors and a different solicitor, Rehana Saeed, took over the case. The application for probate was finally submitted a year after Maggie’s death, but a few months later Nationwide Solicitors were shut down by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. By this time, Ms Saeed had disappeared after racking up a £7,200 legal bill.
In 2016, the family tracked down Ms Saeed working for East London legal firm Carter Devile, but she had appointed the firm’s principal to act on her behalf. The family complained to the Legal Ombudsman about the delay, who awarded them £500 each as compensation. But this is yet to be paid and the family remains in deadlock.
The law firm now claims it cannot sell Maggie’s home while one of the siblings is living there. But the family say that if the property is left empty then the insurance will be invalid.
Maggie’s oldest child, Shelley Renzow Collins, has said:
“We are trapped in the system. We, as family and beneficiaries, have no rights. The whole system favours lawyers and we have no control over costs. We need closure after six years.”
Experts say this a rare case where the family may have been better off if Maggie had not left a will, as if there was no surviving partner, all the children would have inherited the estate equally. But removing an executor is a very difficult process. The siblings would need to prove in court that the executors were incapable of performing the necessary duties, which could rack up even more costs.
