Engaged them to probate an estate in March 2022. The only reason we went through a lawyer was because we were not domiciled in the UK and wanted to put the application in correctly. Sent Rotheras all the requested information within weeks but heard very little from them even months later. Emails would be ignored and phone calls made internationally to check the update would have me informed that the lawyer would be returning to office three weeks later, he was on vacation, he was at a funeral!
When I pushed for a response as to what was holding the application up, I was told a bank was being unresponsive. I spent hours with the bank to resolve the issue. Months later, I was sent the application to sign before submitting, and to my dismay and horror the form had me domiciled in the UK! It was left to me to check the application and point out Rotheras’ error as they could not be bothered to check the application before sending it out to me to sign! The very reason for going through a lawyer was to prove our non UK domicile status!!! They were blasé about this major error! I was told I must provide documents to prove I inherited the Estate in the country I was domiciled in. I was given no help with regard to this and was left to research myself what documents/letters I would be the correct ones to obtain. After I paid a local lawyer his fees to obtain the suitable documents, Rotheras woke up and decided that they needed to engage an expert in the UK to see what documents I would need. I had to pay the local lawyer again to issue a different set of documents. The probate only came through after the two year deadline as Rotheras had sat on it for months! They then contacted me to ask me to take care of certain aspects of transferring assets to my name and gave me the excuse that the amounts were too insignificant for them to take care of this asset! This was false as the assets are sizeable! Another company reached out to me saying that the assets had now been placed in a Bear account because they never heard from Rotheras from March to November 2023! I will have to do a lot of extra work and take care of this involved issue after paying Rotheras their high fees. Rotheras refused to transfer the property assets to my name as they said they were too busy to do so! I had three partners reaching out to me as soon as I complained to them and wanted a fee reduction for a sloppy, inefficient and delayed job done by them. Not a single partner had checked on the slow progress or the errors on the application!
The firm is not competent and do not care about the application. They sure do care about their fees and making sure they charge london lawyer rates never mind their lack of effort!
I will be going to the Ombudsman as there are assets that Rotheras have refused to work on!
Why engage them if you can find another lawyer and save yourselves stress and delays, problems and exorbitant costs!
