Wills and Probate 

More on Wills  Home Page

   Its the 99% of lawyers that give the rest a bad name. 

John Kyne of Boothby & Boothby Solicitors wrote to Lynette and Trevor Croll indicating he would not do the probate on Harry Croll's will. This letter stated that a Certificate from a doctor stating Harry was of sound mind when he made his will was required. Harry had chosen to die at his family home and no such certificate was available and John Kyne knew this. Cheryl told us that Faye had stated that John Kyne was going to probate Harry's earlier will which made Lynette sole executor and then Faye was going to get control using the Guardianship List. 

Trevor and Lynette made a decision that they would do it themselves. From that decision it took one (1) month to obtain probate and have the will implemented.  

After one month all the properties were in Lynette Croll's name and all it cost was filing fees and property transfer fees about $600.00. By doing it themselves they saved between $40,000.00 and $80,000.00 in legal fees and a lot of delay and heart ache.

Faye Johnson had indicated she was going to contest the will. Harry Croll had left everything to his wife of 55years. There was nothing wrong in this, yet Faye was going to contest this will as she had stated she should be executor and deserved it all as she said "I was Dad's favorite daughter" as her justification. While Faye Johnson was enjoying herself big game fishing out from Darwin the advertisement on the 25th July 2003  went into the paper and she missed seeing the add.

Sixteen days after the add was in the Newspaper and when all the probate forms were prepared and on the way to the Probate Office to file for Probate Lynette and Trevor Croll called into Boothby and Boothby - John Kyne and collected the wills they had in their custody. John Kyne expressed his concern about us taking the wills. Lynette asked for the property titles to which Lynette Croll either jointly owned or owned as tenants in common and John Kyne refused to give them to her. He told Lynette and Trevor that he would give them to them when they had probate. Trevor & Lynette did not tell him they were on their way to the Probate Office. They told him they were doing probate themselves and he indicated to them that it was complicated and they would have difficulty doing it.

At the probate office Lynette and Trevor's documentation was examined and they had a meeting with an officer of the court and was told everything was in order. Because their mail was going missing Lynette and Trevor made arrangements to pickup the Probate documents up in seven days time.

After collecting the Grant of Probate from the Probate Office they called in to Boothby & Boothby with the Grant of Probate to collect the property titles. John Kyne spent a good half hour reading the Grant of Probate Document and was suffering disbelief. Eventually he gave them the Property Titles.

Lynette and Trevor managed to get the Title Transfer forms and filled them out. They then went to the Titles Office (Dept of Natural Resources) in Melbourne and paid a fee and had the properties in Lynette Croll's name. Next day they went to the Vic Roads Office in Warragul and had all Harry's vehicles registered in Lynette's name and Probate was finished with, the job was done inside 1 month.

The William Nigel Balcombe Quick Estate which Harry Croll was executor of was in dispute in the Supreme Court in Melbourne and the Solicitor Harry was using was not performing. Trevor had tried to sack this solicitor but he had refused and then wrote letters to the beneficiaries seeking to be appointed administrator. This solicitor was very surprised at the speed of the grant in probate and when the file was finally obtained there had been three letters to Actuaries requesting they inspect the file and stating their belief that Probate on Harry Croll's will could not have been granted.