Reminiscing of the good old days when you used to be able to submit an application for a Grant of Letters of Administration or Grant of Probate seem to be a frequent past time of the Argo team at the moment.
We have been hit again by problems at the Probate Registry. Last year a new computer system failed miserably to work and make life easier for those of us that make applications. The fabulously experienced members of the Probate Registry seem to have been replaced with automation, no doubt to cut costs, but losing their valuable experience and skills with things that don't fit into the box the computer deals with.
Now we are faced with online probate applications! In theory an amazing step into the future for estate administration. In reality we are faced with loss of applications, destruction of original wills, missing emails that are sent by H M Revenue & Customs six or seven times, scenarios that don't fit in the "you can only use this service for the most straightforward cases" box, no-one answering emails or telephone calls, papers being lost as they are transferred between Probate Registries and medical professionals refusing to complete capacity questionnaires which the Probate Registry state must be completed by one!
You will however be pleased to hear that the Ministry of Justice has been consulting on this new online process. The Law Society has responded stating that if the online service is to be mandatory for all professionals it must be "fit for purpose" and "should not be made compulsory until all issues have been resolved".
Surely this is obvious is it not!
We have spent the last six months making phone call after phone call, chasing for progress updates, contacting HM Revenue & Customs to obtain copies of documents and banging our head on the table wondering what else we can do.
We have spent the last six months making phone call after phone call, chasing for progress updates, contacting HM Revenue & Customs to obtain copies of documents and banging our head on the table wondering what else we can do.
Please be assured we are doing all we can to progress your applications. We are spending a significant amount of time on the phone trying to obtain updates. In the meantime we are making sure that everything is prepared to progre
ss the estate administration as soon as the Grant arrives.