Trevor Laffan: A 9-year wrangle over a will, and a house still lying empty

I came across a story in a UK newspaper recently that struck a chord with me.

It concerned a man called Bob Maddams who agreed to be an executor for his brother’s estate, but he didn’t expect to still be dealing with it three years later.

John Patrick Maddams, who died aged 72 in October, 2022, had been meticulous in planning his legacy, leaving his main home for his daughter, Cecilia, as well as numerous gifts to charities.

His estate was initially valued at just over £1 million - but three years later it is valued at half that. There were two executors of the will.

Probate is the legal process your estate goes through after you die. A court will begin distributing your estate to the appropriate heirs during this legal proceeding.

Probate is always more straightforward if you have a will that expresses your wishes clearly. These documents are especially useful in naming beneficiaries and an executor responsible for your ultimate wishes.

An executor is legally responsible for carrying out the instructions left in the will and for distributing the money and assets of an estate. They have to apply for a grant of probate to deal with the assets and to settle any liabilities and liaise with revenue collectors over any inheritance tax owed.

For Bob, his experience as an executor was a steep learning curve.

He said: “Executors are left hanging in the wind despite the best efforts of probate solicitors. It is a massively complicated process for which executors have all the responsibility and none of the experience or training. They don’t teach you this stuff in school.”

We have this system here too, and when I read that I recognised some similarities.

In the first instance, my mother’s name was also Cecilia. Secondly, I too have had experience of dealing with a lengthy probate process.

For Bob, it was three years, for me it will be a staggering nine years in November. Yes, you read that correctly, NINE years and counting.

My mother died in December, 2017, and as it stands currently, the family home, a mid-terrace house in Cobh, remains unoccupied. The property is deteriorating all the time and is unliveable at the moment. It’s unsightly and unfair to the neighbours.

This delay would be difficult to comprehend at the best of times, but even more so at a time when people are screaming out for houses.

A family member was interested in taking on the house as a project for himself and his partner, but they have now thrown in the towel. They have abandoned that idea because they need somewhere to live and can’t wait any longer.

They have decided to move on, and it’s hard to blame them.

The probate issue is in the hands of solicitors and is not without its complications. The property should have gone to probate when our grandmother died back in the 1980s, but it didn’t. She left the house to my brother in her will.

My mother continued to live in the property until her death in 2017 and when my brother went to get the house sorted, this problem was discovered.

At that stage, both executors of the will were long since deceased and that created a further problem.

I fully understand how all that might be an issue, but I can’t get my head around how it can possibly take this long to resolve, especially as the will is not being contested.

I’m not the only person in this situation, which is incredibly stressful, upsetting, and costly.

The Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration, Jim O’Callaghan, was asked recently about probate delays in a Dáil question and he said the Probate Office is an office of the High Court.

Management of the courts, operational matters, and logistical functions are the responsibility of the judiciary and Courts Service, which are independent in the exercise of their functions under the Courts Service Act 1998 and given the separation of powers in the Constitution.

“I am advised that significant progress has been made to reduce average processing times,” said the minister.

“The average time (nationwide) for probate applications to complete is down from 22 weeks at the start of 2024 to 11 weeks at year end, with Dublin seeing a drop from 25 weeks to seven weeks over the same period.”

“Average waiting times in the Dublin Probate Office have been held at seven weeks over the course of 2025.

“However, it is important to note that the individual complexities of a case, as well as errors in applications, contribute to the time it takes for a Grant of Probate to issue.”

OK, so errors can contribute to a delay, that’s fair enough, but NINE years?!

Probate.ie, an Irish law firm offering advice around issues such as probate, has spoken of concerns and frustrations among clients and its solicitors’ team around delays encountered in the Irish Probate Office.

A spokesperson added: “The backlog in the Probate Office is outside the control of all probate solicitors and clients.”

So, who exactly is in control?

This is not a new problem, but its impact on the availability of properties seems like a particularly cruel irony during Ireland’s housing crisis.

The Government has introduced a suite of measures to help reduce the number of vacant properties, and various grants have been available to get those buildings back on the market.

That’s of little use though to those whose property remains locked into the probate system.