Partner in Top 50 UK Legal Firm, Irwin Mitchell, Announces That the Only Problem with a Probate Administration Is That Her Firm Valued the ‘Wrong Flat’

11 min readJul 22, 2024

Exclusive: Irwin Mitchell Probate Partner oversees probate administration involving a valuation containing fake digital property profiles constructed to suggest a lower market value for the flat being valued, misappropriation of around £20,000 from the estate on the watch of the Irwin Mitchell administrator, and the presentation of a valuation of the wrong flat to a beneficiary.

An Irwin Mitchell probate partner declared on 1 March 2024 that the administration she supervised and directed is, except for the tragicomic valuation of the wrong flat, unremarkable.

Emmanuel, a beneficiary of his mother’s estate, claims otherwise:

“The first time I saw Irwin Mitchell’s valuation of 6 July 2023 I knew that it was an inaccurate valuation of my late mother’s flat. The architectural diagram within the valuation was incorrect, and the valuation did not show my late mother’s garden. It also included a diagram of a storeroom, even though my late mother’s flat does not include a storeroom. In addition, it clearly undervalued my mother’s flat by more than £100,000.”

Undervaluation Fraud

Undervaluation of property in probate can be part of what is known as undervaluation fraud. This type of valuation fraud, well-known but seldom discussed in public forums, involves lawyers, estate agents, and surveyors.

Undervaluation fraud begins at an early stage in the probate property sales chain and is often arranged by the estate agent. Typically, the sale price is fixed before the buyer, who is in collusion with the estate agent, is introduced to the seller. Following the completion of the fake sale, the property is remarketed and sold at its correct market value, resulting in profit for those involved in the deception and loss to the estate.

Emmanuel complained early on about the possibility of the undervaluation of his mother’s property:

“I first spoke to Irwin Mitchell about their undervaluing my mother’s flat on 23 April 2023. I was just fobbed off. The Irwin Mitchell valuation of 14 April 2023 looked like it contained an arbitrary price for my mother’s flat attached to a haphazardly thrown together collection of random houses and flats with nothing in common other than the fact they are houses and flats. The valuation was incoherent and made no sense. I don’t know how widespread undervaluation fraud in probate is, but I hope that my experience will alert others in a similar position to this phenomenon.”

The complaint was first made nearly 12 months before Irwin Mitchell confessed that Emmanuel was right to be suspicious of the two valuations that Irwin Mitchell had insisted, for many months, are valid and genuine. Shockingly, Emmanuel claims that Irwin Mitchell knew that the two valuations (dated 14 April 2023 and 6 July 2023) were not genuine but continued to insist they were for almost 12 months:

“The Irwin Mitchell partner and the administrator who both claim that they only found out about the valuation of the wrong flat in February 2024 are not being truthful.

“When I asked the administrator for specific information about the valuation of my mother’s flat in August 2023, Irwin Mitchell were able to provide this to me despite it not being within the valuation they sent to me.

“The information I asked for was not contained in the 6 July 2023 valuation, yet Irwin Mitchell insisted that it was in the valuation. For example, the Irwin Mitchell valuation of the 6 July 2023 did not show a garden. Yet Irwin Mitchell claimed in September 2023 that it did include my mother’s garden.

“The administrator, from September 2023 onwards, insisted that the garden was included in their 6 July valuation, even though a garden is not mentioned in the valuation sent to me.

“The Irwin Mitchell confession, on 1 March 2024, that their administrator valued the wrong flat in their valuation of 6 July 2023 proves that my mother’s garden was not part of the valuation they sent to me and the fact that the administrator claimed that it is represented in the title documents shows that Irwin Mitchell had my mother’s title document to hand while they also had the separate valuation of the wrong flat. This was in August 2023. The administrator has been misleading and gaslighting me for almost a year.”

The valuation of the wrong flat stands out in this Irwin Mitchell administration, possibly as rank incompetence and a clumsy attempt to cover up misconduct, but Emmanuel claims this was not the only problem with the administration:

“The administrator told me on several occasions from June 2023 onwards that she was having trouble getting the banks to cooperate with her. I found this astonishing, so I contacted several financial institutions only to be told that there was no problem at all with cooperation, and several financial organisations had transferred funds to the Irwin Mitchell client account as early as April 2023. Why did the administrator mislead me in this regard?”

Fabricated Property Profiles

Perhaps one of the more disturbing features of this administration is the inclusion of fake digital property profiles contained in the first valuation Irwin Mitchell carried out on 14 April 2023. Notwithstanding the Irwin Mitchell partner being challenged in February 2024 about the credibility of this valuation, Emmanuel has revealed evidence showing the senior partner standing by this valuation and continuing to administer his mother’s estate. This is despite Irwin Mitchell claiming that they are looking into the conduct of the partner and administrator.

“Irwin Mitchell must investigate the behaviour of the probate partner and the administrator. I have made serious allegations. However, Irwin Mitchell appear to be continuing to administer my mother’s estate using the same administrator and partner team who are responsible for at best failing to detect fraudulent conduct in the context of my mother’s estate, losing large sums of money from my mother’s estate, making statements to me that are simply untrue, and valuing the wrong flat.

“I have asked for the current Irwin Mitchell administrator team to be replaced as I have no faith in their ability to administer my mother’s estate according to the law.”

Irwin Mitchell are yet to share the findings of their investigation and the administrator seems to be proceeding regardless of the investigation. Emmanuel is unhappy about this.

“Both the administrator and the supervising partner should stand aside from the administration. It cannot be right that fake digital property profiles are found in official probate valuations intended for use by beneficiaries and government agencies like HMRC. We also have an administrator who just does not seem to understand the content of documents in front of her and has disorganised the administration accordingly. The administrator valued the wrong flat, the administrator has also allowed around £20,000 to be illegally removed from the estate under her nose, and the administrator has been misleading me, a beneficiary, to name a few serious problems. Despite all this and much more, the individuals responsible for this disturbing situation continue to administrator my mother’s estate with impunity.”

Given this level of misconduct or professional incompetence around an administration, it would seem logical to hand over to a separate and new administrator and begin the administration again. Emmanuel claims that this has not happened.

“I have requested from Irwin Mitchell that, given the overwhelming evidence, including fake property profiles, evidence of misleading statements made to me, the repeated and baffling commissioning of a Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) surveyor, that the administrator has alleged has been incompetent and untruthful, the administrator and her supervisor should be replaced, and the administration begins afresh with a new team. As far as I can see, Irwin Mitchell are standing by the valuations that contain fake digital property profiles and other misleading pieces of disinformation, and carrying on as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened. None of what the administrator has carried out has any credibility despite the approval of the probate partner overseeing all of this.”

Robbed of the Time Needed to Heal

Amidst the allegations of valuations containing fake digital property profiles and missing money, it can easily be forgotten that, for many people suffering a bereavement and grieving for their loved one, the administration of an estate is the final part of the official bureaucracy of bereavement.

Grief is initiated by the loss of a loved one. It has been described as an all-encompassing process of psychological anguish. The griever experiences a range of challenging emotions including sorrow, despondency, distress, pain, angst, misery, and woe. These emotions are tangled and knotted together into a matted clump of feelings. For some sufferers there is a sense that the agony of loss will never end.

Despite the range of emotions, grief is a non-linear process where the individual experiencing loss moves from the life of the loved one, to their passing, and into a new life without the person who has passed away. The griever may experience the same psychological anguish repeatedly as they work towards a new life without their loved one.

C.S. Lewis expresses this understanding in his book A Grief Observed, a study of the grief he suffered following the loss of his wife: “For in grief nothing ‘stays put’. One keeps on emerging from a phase, but it always recurs. Round and round. Everything repeats.”

The conclusion of the process of grieving often means the range of emotions becomes less intense and less frequent, as the griever settles into the new life without the deceased.

Seen from the outside, grief can appear all-encompassing and consequently incapacitating. It is not so for most people. Emmanuel was no different from many who suffer the loss of a loved one.

“Although the effort was emotionally demanding, in the minutes and hours immediately following the death of my mother, like many others in the same situation, I was able to move through the numbness I felt and connect with my rational and competent self and began to take responsibility for carrying out the necessary administration that comes with the passing of a loved one. Over the following days I was informing relatives and friends, thinking about burial arrangements, and imagining a new life without my mother.”

However, according to Emmanuel, grieving for the loss of his mother has been compromised and disrupted by the actions of Irwin Mitchell.

“It has proven impossible to fully move forward from the loss of my mother when Irwin Mitchell have failed to complete fundamental duties. I feel that Irwin Mitchell deliberately neglected certain tasks which has kept beneficiaries in an emotionally vulnerable and easily manipulable state. Irwin Mitchell have conducted a manipulative, drawn-out, and badly organised administration with no end in sight. When I consulted various sources, I have been led to believe that 12 months is a reasonable timescale for an administration of this type. We are coming up to two years now with nothing in the administration that can be relied upon. On several occasions, the administrators seemed to have forgotten what they have done previously; they have a habit of repeating themselves.”

The Bureaucracy of Bereavement

The UK government describes the administration of death in emotionless terms but as a straightforward process.

· pay any debts left by the person who died

· sell assets such as properties or shares

· pay Income Tax on things like rental income from property, profits from a business or interest from investments

· pay Capital Gains Tax on profits from selling shares, investments or property

· report the estate value, income and tax liability to HM Revenue and Customs

In contentious probates (probates where disputes arise about an individual’s estate after they pass) the administration of death can take many forms. A dispute may involve anything from a challenge to the validity of a will to situations to when an executor has not declared all the assets and secretly claimed some of them for themselves. Resolving issues with the will can be complicated, as can be cases of misappropriations of assets where the individual concerned is personally liable to pay back misappropriated sums.

The administration of death does not take place apart from grief. It is a cold but necessary formal process running through and interwoven with grief. Emmanuel claims that Irwin Mitchell, in the context of his grief, have attempted to manipulate him into doubting the reality of the conduct of Irwin Mitchell’s administration.

I have seen an impressive volume of documents that confirm Irwin Mitchell do have questions that need to be urgently addressed. Yet, despite this, in the context of grieving for the loss of his mother, Emmanuel claims that Irwin Mitchell have been emotionally abusive and engaged in manipulation and psychological control.

“Irwin Mitchell have consistently denied the conclusive evidence of their misconduct in the context of this administration. Since February 2023 the administrator has routinely ignored my evidenced complaints. For example, on several occasions, the administrator evoked the authority of a RICS surveyor to dismiss concerns with the Irwin Mitchell valuation of 6 July 2023, even though the administrator must have known, for some time, that the Irwin Mitchell valuation lacked credibility and is unreliable.

“Over a protracted period, the Irwin Mitchell administrator has fed me a diet of false information to make me doubt the reality of their dysfunctional administration and to encourage me to place unquestioning trust in the Irwin Mitchell administrator. As late as March 2024, the partner responsible for supervising this administration claimed there is no wrongdoing within the context of their administration despite compelling evidence to the contrary. For more than a year Irwin Mitchell have shown a total absence of regard for my evidenced observations and complaints.

“I can handle and accept a service which is cold but professional, so long as they get the job done. But cold and dysfunctional is something entirely different to endure. I have asked for this administration to be stopped and anyone involved to be replaced.”

Emmanuel plans to detail the process of probate that he has experienced to raise awareness and encourage others to hold their administrators and executors to account. I asked Emmanuel what lessons he has drawn from his experience of the administration of his mother’s estate.

If It Walks Like a Duck…

“This is a cautionary tale for all who are faced with the loss of a loved one. What I have experienced from Irwin Mitchell could happen to anyone who suffers a bereavement. Whilst you are grieving the loss of your mother, father, sister, brother, son, daughter, you are vulnerable. You will be told all sorts of things by probate lawyers. To be frank, I believe that what you will be told by most lawyers will be genuine.

“However, there are a small but significant number of lawyers who will attempt to exploit your vulnerabilities resulting from your grief and the consequent emotional fatigue. When I first doubted the reliability of Irwin Mitchell’s administrator, I was given some advice that helped me not to succumb to manipulation: ‘Try to remain one step ahead of your own grief’.

“My experience of interacting with Irwin Mitchell’s administrator and the supervising probate partner over more than 12 months taught me that, if what you are being told seems untrue, it probably is untrue.”

Irwin Mitchell have yet to confirm the status of the administration or if a new administration has begun. To be continued.