The ombud can require a bank to refund the estate due to the unwarranted delays.
A delay in the conclusion of an estate leads to additional costs, apart from families’ inability to access the funds or finalise their financial situation.
If a bank is responsible for the winding up of the estate or has delayed providing the documents to the executor, one can lodge a complaint with the Ombudsman for Banking Services.
The ombud can require a bank to refund the estate due to the unwarranted delays.
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According to the ombud, Reana Steyn, the issues relating to the complaints pertaining to the administration of the late estate accounts vary.
They are largely affected by the complexity of the estate (such as the number of debtors and creditors, and the size of the estate, among other things) and the efficiency of the executors.
Steyn says:
In these matters, the ombud has the mandate to adjudicate in instances where the appointed executors are the banks and their efficiency with timeously winding up the estate is questioned due to delays that result in added fees and costs being debited to the late estate account.
She adds that the ombud has the power to recommend a remedy if the investigation into the bank’s conduct concludes that the bank acted negligently, resulting in the undue delays that negatively affected the estate and the heirs.
This could include the reversal and/or writing off by the bank of the charges, interest and, in some cases, the executor’s fees.
“In all the matters investigated by the ombud, where the banks unreasonably delayed the process, it was recommended that they write off a portion of the executor fees as well as other charges that were unfairly added to the deceased’s account,” says Steyn.
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The delays are avoidable if the “bank concerned acted with the necessary and required urgency but failed and the banks agreed to our recommendations”.
Steyn encourages anyone aggrieved as a result of such delays in finalising deceased estates – because of the banks suspected negligence – to lodge a complaint with her office.
You can follow the complaints procedures at www.obssa.co.za.
Examples of the rulings by the Ombudsman for Banking Services include:
- – Staff estate (the deceased was an employee of the bank that was appointed as the executor).
- The delays were caused by the bank. Being a staff member, there were no executor fees but the bank had to settle a cash shortfall of R10 000.
- Delay in actioning the executor’s instructions (the bank was not the executor but it delayed actioning the appointed executor’s instruction). The bank was liable for the interest that could have been earned on the estate account.
- Delay by the bank in dealing with the estate. The mortgage bond account increased from zero to more than R200 000. The bank had to write off the balance and issue a title deed to the deceased’s children.
For complaints of the executors that are not banks, one can lodge a complaint with the Fiduciary Institute of Southern African (Fisa), which represents individual fiduciary practitioners.
If a member of the public is dealing with a Fisa member, they can lodge a complaint on the website https://www.fisa.net.za/complaints/.
Fisa also has a complaints procedure a member can escalate through the Master’s office.
If the problem is not the executor but the Master’s office, the executor or an individual can lodge the complaint with the Chief Master’s office for complaints against the Master of the High Court.
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