Has anyone else had experience of trying to obtain probate on a will?

My mother died last March leaving a will with myself as the Executor and sole beneficiary, my lawyer applied for probate before the end of March and to date probate has still not been granted.

It is not a large estate, just a house and personal effects and I just cannot see what the hold up is, except that the probate registry seems to be on a go slow and very unco-operative about providing any information. I have called or visited them at least twice a month and as I live on a Family Island, that is getting expensive.

Death of a loved one is a difficult thing to deal with and sudden death as was the case here is even harder and leaves plenty of bills that have to be paid, yet a year later I am still not able to put closure on this. because of what seems to be a lot of bureaucratic red tape.

Too many employees of the government do not do their jobs. They do not consider the impact of not doing their jobs on the public. Part of improving services to the public involves reorganizing the public service. Who has the guts to reorganize the public service?

This is just another example of a government office that do not funtion. It took two years for my fathers will to be probated and I pray to God I dont have to do that again.

My father died SIX YEARS ago, and I'm still waiting for Probate to the little bit of land he had.

Is this a record?

I have heard of the nightmares of probate and I don't doubt the stories. However, when my Mother died, I expected a long wait for probate - it took three months! Still a long time, but a "snap-of-the-fingers" when compared to others. I guess it depends on the connections ones lawyers have! :hammer:

Vince Ferguson writes a column for the Bahama Journal and a lot of what he has to say about what our failures are as a country qualifies him, in addition to his background, to be in charge of curriculum development for the Ministry of Education.One our problems Mr. Ferguson stresses, is influence peddling as he talked on Immediate Response a few weeks ago. The words hadn't been out of his mouth for more than a minute when the host of that show peddled influence!A member of the public was trying to get something done at ZNS through normal channels when The host said to call him off air! Mr. Feguson almost sucked his teeth and I could see him shaking his head even though I was listening by radio.

This episode demonstrates that even people that we would consider well informed by any measure do not get it, and unfortunately too many of these types are in power or in positions of influence and people like Mr. Ferguson are on the outside looking in. I have thought about this yesterday and have come to a conclusion: Maybe the constitutional review commission should consider putting a mechanism in place in our constitution for secession.The inabiltity of our institutions to effect simple reforms to enable members of the public to get registered deeds in days and not years, or for probates to not take forever has influenced me on this.
Last night I learned that someone bought American land online and received their deed in 10 days. They paid by credit card.We can't even pay customs duties here with a credit card. Are we idiots or fools? I want out. Who is going to join me?

Vince Ferguson writes a column for the Bahama Journal and a lot of what he has to say about what our failures are as a country qualifies him, in addition to his background, to be in charge of curriculum development for the Ministry of Education.One our problems Mr. Ferguson stresses, is influence peddling as he talked on Immediate Response a few weeks ago. The words hadn't been out of his mouth for more than a minute when the host of that show peddled influence!A member of the public was trying to get something done at ZNS through normal channels when The host said to call him off air! Mr. Feguson almost sucked his teeth and I could see him shaking his head even though I was listening by radio.

This episode demonstrates that even people that we would consider well informed by any measure do not get it, and unfortunately too many of these types are in power or in positions of influence and people like Mr. Ferguson are on the outside looking in. I have thought about this yesterday and have come to a conclusion: Maybe the constitutional review commission should consider putting a mechanism in place in our constitution for secession.The inabiltity of our institutions to effect simple reforms to enable members of the public to get registered deeds in days and not years, or for probates to not take forever has influenced me on this.
Last night I learned that someone bought American land online and received their deed in 10 days. They paid by credit card.We can't even pay customs duties here with a credit card. Are we idiots or fools? I want out. Who is going to join me?


Well I'm staying, we cannot run from our problems. If you want change, you have to create change.

I have depended on the probate offices but had no problem, I waited only two or three months for results, but that was ten years ago, I do not know how they are today. But most people in government will tell you off the top, "I am not looking for work today." That’s a fact because they will be paid regardless to whether they work or not.

When Paul Bremer the former US administrator to Iraq disbanded the government, he did a smart thing by clearing housing and starting fresh and new (even thought it is taking while to get it fixed). If we are going to change anything, it must be from the top and that starts by moving all the old “vets” and their advisors from government and public services. Bringing another old bunch of old heads to replace the existing party and party members is not the trick. We need new heads; we need smart (not just academic smart but logic and practical) young, youth inspiring, dearing and innovative individuals, those who are not influenced by outside interference.

How to do this is another trick!

RETIREMENT, FIREment!
2 words that comes to mind...

Those individuals who are in the system and have put in the years retire them.

Those slackers that are messing aground fire them.

Both groups are discouraging the dedicated hard working others, who see the slackers doing nothing and when the do do something they do mess, but recieved a salary at the end of each month and in most cases have the biggers mouths, it discourages the others and so they get fadup.

Than those who needs to retire is clogging up the chain so there is no room for promotion to motivate people to stay focus and work towards.

So until we hire leaders who would stop campaigning, probably all elected person should only serve for one term than it would matter about the next election ...(suck teeth!) :p

Accountability is one aspect of our public/government sector that needs urgent attention and reform. The persons put in charge of these various government offices need to be made accountable and explain the reasons for the slackness and complaints chanelling from there respective departments. If that was mandated at all levels of management, everyone would do their job to cover their a$$e$. We have a serious problem with accountability in this country, and that is the reason persons must go through these long, tiresome processes, that can be dealt with properly and efficiently in a tenth of the time taken.

Has anyone been following the land administration farse that the government is pursuing? What we need is Land Registration. Land Registration will solve the administration problems. Ladies and gentlemen if you still are not convinced that the lawyers in perliament have as their number one priority thier interest and the interests of their friends this is another example. The lawyers are wrong however in believing that land registration will adversely affect their income. We will need to run a parallel system for a hundred years perhaps. Only new transactions will need to come under the new system. That is the only way it can work without being prohibitvely expensive.