Tough, tough couple of weeks for me

[WobblyHand]

Another day of fun. Sent off the chronology to the attorney that requested it yesterday. Then sent off a modified version to a second attorney. The second saw it, and finally he set up a meeting for tomorrow. So I get to tell my tale again. I do have a personal connection to an attorney in his firm, and he was quite sympathetic to my story. It may or may not help that this fine acquaintance and gentleman was a State Attorney General at one time. However, he's not licensed for what I need in the jurisdiction. The second attorney, I actually don't know. But I will know him by tomorrow afternoon.

The third firm, which was actually furthest along, has not given us any recent feedback, despite receiving documents. But I did have a long initial conversation with him. We didn't have a signed letter of engagement with the third attorney. So had to gently remind them today about that, and ask them point blank if they were intending to be counsel or not. Fortunately, today they responded. Hoo boy, not cheap. Good thing I was sitting down! Big city prices are a shock for a guy like me. Will have to have a family meeting tonight... I'm not used to this stuff, perhaps I've led a sheltered and quiet life. Maybe this firm will help us, don't know yet. Family meeting is in order...

In the meantime, "the other side" is continuing to make requests/demands on us, badgering us to make decisions, despite telling them to stop until we get counsel. Less than a 1/2 hour after getting off the phone with an attorney at 6pm last night, we get yet another email. Once we get actual counsel this will be a lot easier to manage, but now it's no damned good. The other side seems to have either insight or full access to things that we do not, including financial records. Makes it tough to decide what to do when you are denied vision into reality. It's clearly their plan to obscure things, but it doesn't make it easy for my family to make informed decisions at all.

 

[WobblyHand]

What a drag this all has been. The good thing is things are slowly moving along. Most things are settled, not ideally, but not gaggingly bad. The bad thing is things are slow. And the lawyers fees are climbing. So far we are around 70K to fix the unholy mess that my mother, the DPOA from h3ll, and the crooked lawyers did. I wouldn't be surprised it gets close to 100K.

Yet another weird thing is dealing with the freaking random demanding letters that I get on behalf of the estate. I filed a change of address request, which the post office did. But that's not good enough for some people or companies.

I get this demanding letter from Compuserve, doing the dirty work for MetLife, saying I need to call them "as soon as possible". The phone number is for Compuserve. Three phone numbers later, I am at the actual company, a different insurance company. (So two levels of obscuration!). So I call them and provide the information in the letter, to the best of my ability. That's not good enough apparently. They won't disclose any information to me. Umm, I simply was told to call you, not to answer a quiz game. What they really wanted is a signed, with an official seal, document that says I can act on the estate's behalf. Ok. So why didn't you ask for that in the beginning?

Well, guess what? My fancy attorney forgot to send it to me. It's still in his office. So I send this insurance company links to the Probate Court documents archive. I don't know why these companies make it so hard to help them. I'm guessing there's nothing in the account to receive anyways. Or it's going to some non-related idiot. But they won't tell me jack right now.

Yet another soul sucking waste of a couple of hours. I'll be so relieved to close out all of these responsibilities. Hoping it will all be done within another two years. Seriously, this kind of miserable unpaid work stinks.

 

[WobblyHand]

Attorney sends me the missing scan with the seal. Send it to the idiots. Go through the fool phone tree again. Still don't have account number, eventually fools access the records. What do we find? That particular account is closed.

Ok, you sent a demanding letter, telling me to call them IMMEDIATELY, act like clowns, and there's actually no active account there there, but you freely cost me attorney fees and my time? What kind of @sshat company would do that? Oh, that department can't tell me if there are any other active accounts under that name. What a piece of work that outfit is.

I find the insurance companies are the worst to deal with. They outsource everything, and the outsourcers also outsource. Makes it hard to resolve things.

On the good side, got an appointment with an estate sale outfit. Also had a good conversation with the town fire department regarding the state law on smoke alarms and CO detectors on the property. Maybe that won't be expensive at all. It seems a permit was pulled in 2021, so things should be grandfathered to that point. Bonus, she gave me the permit number. I'm going to call the Asst Fire Chief next week to confirm what I learned. MA requires a mandatory fire alarm/CO inspection for every sold property. Feel a lot better about that, as it seemed like an open ended expense.

 

[WobblyHand]

One very good thing this week, got a purchase and sales agreement on the property, that was a milestone. So this era of heartache, at least at the property, will stop on the closing date. Hopefully, I will never go there again after that date, the bad stuff along with reliving it, just makes me need to walk away forever. The good memories will stay with me, but I have to leave the bad ones (physically) behind.

Still, there's mountains of work, and until I get the estate sales people signed up, it's all just me. Been there 25 times this summer, three times with other beneficiaries, it's a little better now than it was. Maybe 85% of the haz material is gone, or at least I hope so. Stuff that was ok in the 40's through the 90's had to be dealt with, mystery solvents, weird cans of "good stuff" that has zero markings of what it is, but you darn well know it won't put hair on your chest. I don't mind a labeled can of something, at least I could use the right PPE, but the mystery stuff has to be gone from there, and also NOT stored in my house.

 

[Larry$]

What is 400 lawyers at the bottom of a lake?
A good start!

 

[woodchucker]

Attorney sends me the missing scan with the seal. Send it to the idiots. Go through the fool phone tree again. Still don't have account number, eventually fools access the records. What do we find? That particular account is closed.

Ok, you sent a demanding letter, telling me to call them IMMEDIATELY, act like clowns, and there's actually no active account there there, but you freely cost me attorney fees and my time? What kind of @sshat company would do that? Oh, that department can't tell me if there are any other active accounts under that name. What a piece of work that outfit is.

I find the insurance companies are the worst to deal with. They outsource everything, and the outsourcers also outsource. Makes it hard to resolve things.

On the good side, got an appointment with an estate sale outfit. Also had a good conversation with the town fire department regarding the state law on smoke alarms and CO detectors on the property. Maybe that won't be expensive at all. It seems a permit was pulled in 2021, so things should be grandfathered to that point. Bonus, she gave me the permit number. I'm going to call the Asst Fire Chief next week to confirm what I learned. MA requires a mandatory fire alarm/CO inspection for every sold property. Feel a lot better about that, as it seemed like an open ended expense.

so you can always report them to the state insurance board.
make it clear and concise.

 

[WobblyHand]

so you can always report them to the state insurance board.
make it clear and concise.

Which state? In Iowa, where the company is? Will they care about me in NH, dealing with a MA policy? Things get murky cross state lines... Would they give a cr@p about them wasting my time and money? My attorney is charging me $500/hour. My time is worth just as much to me.

 

[woodchucker]

Which state? In Iowa, where the company is? Will they care about me in NH, dealing with a MA policy? Things get murky cross state lines... Would they give a cr@p about them wasting my time and money? My attorney is charging me $500/hour. My time is worth just as much to me.

nope, in the state it was sold in. All insurance companies have to go through the insurance board to sell in that state.

 

[WobblyHand]

nope, in the state it was sold in. All insurance companies have to go through the insurance board to sell in that state.

Thanks for this information. What the heck, it's worth a letter/email. This particular company was sued by the feds for deceptive practices, I know, because my dad received a settlement check from the feds. That company is no angel.

 

[verbotenwhisky]

Thanks for this information. What the heck, it's worth a letter/email. This particular company was sued by the feds for deceptive practices, I know, because my dad received a settlement check from the feds. That company is no angel.

I view Insurance companies as a necessary evil, not be trusted any farther than required and watched always with great suspicion.