Revenue and Estate distribution

Unreguser

Hi,

I am executor/sole beneficiary of a substantial estate, probate was granted last October 2023 after 1 year, and solicitor has been holding funds in their own account since then, give or take a week or two.

At the meeting in Oct last I was given the impression that maybe two months or so it should be dealt with etc, it was more curiosity on my part at this time. I had not heard anything by Christmas, so in Jan I contacted the solicitor and was told its a slow process, departments not replying etc but they would chase it up. The main reason I was given for this was Revenue needed to confirm that taxes has been paid on the deceased private pension and the company (state company) were not responding to engage or confirm. In Feb I requested an update and was told they were putting pressure on the company and had a name now to get this sorted, and was given the impression that once this was done that was enough to transfer the estate. I made a few calls to Revenue myself to check status and towards the end of March (after exactly one month) they confirmed taxes where in order, and notified solicitor of same.

In mid April I contacted solicitor and they confirmed that Revenue did inform them, but they had not given permission to distribute/transfer the estate and now they would have to write back to Revenue to also confirm this, I expressed my unhappiness and opinion that this all seems unprofessional and surely both of this things should have been done and issued together etc.

I checked with Revenue again and I was told to submit a 'My Enquiries' request for clearance, I did so on 17th April and have had no reply since, 10th April was last update from solicitor stating they would chase this up……yet again, I will ring Revenue again in the next few days.

Sorry for the long-winded post and hope it makes sense, point of the post being, could anyone shed any light on if this is normal practice both with the time frame of it and also with Revenue giving permission to distribute, or does it look like the solicitor is dragging their heels and fobbing it off for some reason or other?

Thanks

whippet

I'm not sure what exactly you are waiting on from revenue .. however I was in with my solicitor yesterday as I'm executor of my parents estate and we are coming towards the end of the process … just closing on the sale of the house.

I was told that before she can distribute the funds she will need clearance from revenue which she applied for 3 weeks ago. She did mention that if she didn't get a response within 35 working days she would be able to distribute .. so m not sure where this time frame came from but she did say revenue could be slow but after the 7 weeks she would distribute regardless

Unreguser

Hi thanks for the reply.

Yeah tbh Im not 100% sure what waiting on now, I thought in Feb it was just waiting on them to confirm taxes and liabilities were in order.

I was executor of another estate previously, same solicitor, and it was done within 6 weeks of probate, it was a smaller estate though.

Outa curiosity if you dont mind me asking how long after probate was granted did it take for you to be near the end of it?

If I was told 6 months or so at the start I wouldnt question it, but 7 months now at this stage and still going back and forth.

whippet

I'm now 5 months after probate .. and fingers crossed sale of house (main asset) is closed to day. Still waiting on AiB for one account and revenue clearance. I'm hoping to have funds distributed in next two weeks

Unreguser

Thanks, I'll give revenue a ring today for an update and go from there, hopefully another few weeks for me too or month or so.

Thanks for the replies and goodluck today.