Help with probate

[simontrent]

Posting for a family friend. Their sibling died in January and they have some questions regarding the process with probate.

The deceased had instructed a local solicitor to be executor; he has been dragging his heels and being very vague about the will etc. He claims the deceased relative has insisted that his house be sold, but the solicitor won’t release the will to confirm this. The solicitor has arranged for a local estate agent to value for sale, but from investigation on Rightmove, it appears to be significantly under-valued. We have concerns that the solicitor may be “in bed” with agent etc.

In addition, the guy’s car was apparently gifted away by the solicitor. When challenged, he claimed that it was unroadworthy and would have cost more to fix for sale. He said it was within his rights to make these decisions without consulting with the family.
He has now estimated his fees at £20k. I have little idea of what’s involved in organising probate etc, but this seems high considering a sniff-test of the number of hours I suspect to be involved (that may be an ignorant comment).

One option could be to tell the solicitor not to sell the house and for my friend to organise the sale themselves. Would I be correct in saying that a probate valuation for IHT should be the same as a market valuation (or realised sale) in the open market i.e. no additional IHT or CGT tax implications.

Lots of questions but any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks

[simontrent]

There is a will, although strangely the executor (solicitor) refuses to issue a copy. He is quoting from it, but won't let them see it. Today we applied for a copy via the probate search .gov site. Not really giving them "duty of care" in my view.