Ms H was the executor of an estate of a family member. She instructed the service provider to administer the will. However, the service provider took longer to progress matters than Ms H thought was reasonable. She complained to the service provider in respect of the time taken to progress the administration and about several other issues, including poor communication.
The service provider acknowledged the complaint but failed to provide a final response.
Ms H escalated the complaint to the Legal Ombudsman, saying she wanted the estate completed to resolve her complaint.
Ms H’s complaints were that the service provider took over four years to administer a relatively simple estate and that the service provider’s communication was poor.
She also complained that there was an unreasonably high turnover of staff which led to increased costs of briefing new staff members working on the matter and that the service provider made errors in correspondence which led to rework and again increased costs.
Ms H did not receive a response to her complaint, so she escalated it to the Legal Ombudsman.
As the service provider did not issue a final response, this case was not suitable for consideration by the Early Resolution Team and it was therefore progressed to an in-depth investigation
When the case was allocated to an investigator, they spoke to Ms H to agree a list of her complaints. The investigator also communicated with the service provider who accepted that their service was unreasonable. They indicated a willingness to make an offer to resolve Ms H’s complaints. After discussions with the service provider and Ms H, agreement was reached on compensation of £800, in our serious award category for inconvenience and emotional impact. This higher amount was due to significant delays, additional complaint issues, and poor handling by the service provider.
As part of the discussions on remedy, the investigator explained to Ms H that the Legal Ombudsman could not require the service provider to conclude the administration of the estate.
The complaint was concluded as an agreed outcome, with the remedy of £800.
As the service provider’s complaints handling was unreasonable, and the case progressed to in-depth investigation, a case fee of £400 was payable.
