Crooked solictor

joethegrinder

when a will is drawn up in a solictors office does it be registered anywhere else

My uncle made a will in 1981 and it can’t be found in the solictors office along with the unregistered deeds

Of 70 acres of land. The secretary in the office is well known for removing paperwork and running her own

Business under the trade name of the solicitor. I’m am desperate. What can I do?

blackbox

Deeds and wills are often, but not always, stored in a solicitor's office.

Have you searched your uncle's house?

Sometimes people get their bank to store important papers - certainly worth enquiring.

Jim_Hodge

You may get an answer is this existing thread.

Deeds lost from solicitors office — boards.ie - Now Ye're Talkin'

You've had some run of bad luck with inept solicitors this year.

joethegrinder

the original solicitor was struck off and the premises was closed

Would the law society make a note of the wills and deeds that would be stored in his

Voults .

Peregrinus

When a solicitor's client makes a will, the executed will belongs to the client. He or she usually takes it and stores it himself. The solicitor may store the will in his office (usually, for a charge) but this isn't usual; it's not something solicitors are particularly interested in doing, and clients generally don't want to pay a charge.

If the solicitor was later struck off, the people sent in to wind up the practice would make an inventory of the files in the filing system and the documents (if any) in storage at that time. If the client's will was still there at that point it should have been recorded, but of course that may have been years after the will was made. The wind-up of the practice wouldn't involve any investigation into documents that might or might not have been in storage in the past, but weren't in storage at the windup date.

What the solicitor's office normally would have is its own file from the time the will was drawn up, with records of the client's instructions, notes of meetings and phone calls, drafts of the will and possibly even a photocopy of the executed will. If the original will can't be traced, the file can be very useful in reconstructing what was in it.

But solicitors don't keep old files for ever, and this will was drawn up 43 years ago. Most practices have protocols around file retention and file destruction. It wou;]ldn't be amazing (or suspicious) for a 43-year old file not to be avialale.

joethegrinder

the will was never executed even thou he died in 1992

Never opened. If it was found would it still be legal

Deeec

How do you know for certain that your uncle even made a will?

If there was a will, who were the executors? It was there job to execute the will. Who is farming his land since he died in 1992?

It doesn't sound like the solicitor is to blame. This sounds like a family issue

Peregrinus

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122692413#Comment_122692413

it was never executed, it's not a will. it's just an idea for a possible will that never actually got at far as being a will.

You ask "if found, would it still be legal?", suggesting that you think it was legal at some point in the past.

If it was never executed, it was never legal. And, if found now, it won't be legal.

It's meaningless. Forget about it.

Claw Hammer

When you say "never executed" do you mean your uncle never signed it or he signed it but it never went to probate and an executor never administered it.

If your uncle died in 1992 and nobody came looking for the will it might have been assumed that there was a later will in another solicitors office which was executed and the will that the solicitor had was revoked.

Former Former Former

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122692413#Comment_122692413

if he died 32 years ago, surely probate was granted at some point in the interim?

Like, what’s the question?

3DataModem

OP you need to answer some questions to get better answers;

"My uncle made a will in 1981" - how do you know this? If the answer is "he told me" or something, then basically that information is close to useless.

"he died in 1992" - what happened then? Did someone administer the estate, execute some other will, or otherwise put the estate through probate? If you don't know, then this is easy to find out especially as he died in 1992. Please note, the probate may have happened many many years later, or not at all.

You'll see some info here: https://services.courts.ie/taking-action/probate/search-for-issued-grants

"if found, would it still be legal?"

• If the person's estate has never been dealt with AND a will was found AND it was found to be valid then an executor could step forward (if the named executor is dead, then someone else could step forward) and get the will administered.
• If the person's estate has never been dealt with AND there is NO WILL, then a person could step forward and administer the will. The fact that nobody has done this means that you as a nephew - for example - could apply to be the administrator.
• If the person's estate HAS been dealt with but a valid will is subsequently found that was never probated or respected, then it gets complicated. Did the person who dealt with the estate do their best to try and find a will? Did the solicitor put the relevant notices out looking for a will? It's complicated. Don't have high expectations. Unwinding a probate process 40 years down the road is very complicated and arguably impossible in most cases.

Bottom line - you need to find out what happened to the estate at the time of death, i.e. was it properly handled. If not, then you have options. If so, then you really probably don't have options.