Reginald Gedye opened a solicitor's practice in Grange-over-Sands on the southern edge of the Lake District National Park in 1903. Since then, Gedye & Sons has grown and the company now operates from two offices - in Grange-over-Sands and London. We provide a bespoke package each one tailored specifically for the discerning client, with our well qualified team being central. We were awarded the prestigious Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners (STEP) for outstanding written communication which reinforces that we inspect every detail.
Services
After thirty years of practicing in the legal world Richard Roberts, the co-owner of the firm, is a highly knowledgeable and respected solicitor. His life experiences make him extremely well placed to write about many of the legal issues facing our firm, our clients, the wider legal profession and the increasing private client industry.
Reviews (4)
Jo Loy
Jul 24, 2021
I feel fleeced by Gedye's. I clearly paid for someone's mortgage and holiday in the sun for my misery. I think what gets me most is the my Lovely Partner Chris, a man who truly cared for me died. My life collapsed when Chris did. I thought I would be safe with someone else looking out for me. I don't feel I was safeguarded by Gedyes. Instead I was robbed of over many Thousands of Pounds 80,000+ in fact for providing information as encouraged to do by them, to prolong a dire procedure that was a no win for me. It prolonged the inevitable at a very high human and financial cost. For me.
Shee Summer Shee
Nov 27, 2020
Francis Oladipo
Oct 05, 2020
I have posted this review from Nigeria, where I was contacted uninvited by a member of this law firm and rudely and arrogantly told to relinquish the executorship my late sister appointed me to in her will, by a strange man who gave me the impression he was a solicitor, but who I later discovered was not a solicitor, but merely an employee of the firm.
I am posting my experiences of this firm, which did not write my sister's will, at the urging of my nephew, who has been pressing me for a long time to write this review. He has told me of his terrible experiences of these solicitors and has already written a review, which he has posted here and which is only a fraction of what he told me of their atrocious and extremely questionable behaviour towards him.
After what he told me, all I can say is, I am glad I no longer live in England. My late sister, who had her will written, would not have wanted nor expected this for him. He, and even his written review spoke to me of behaviour he experienced that I think is bordering on criminal. My late sister made me an executor of her will, along with two of her sons.
After her burial I received an unexpected phone call from a man claiming to be from this firm and acting as though he was a solicitor. One of my nephews had given him my number without telling me, which I was not at all happy about. Although I didn't know him from Adam, he told me this nephew wanted me to step down as an executor! I was shocked and found this man extremely rude and arrogant!
I asked him why this shockingly disrespectful nephew didn't speak to me himself to ask me to step down, if that was what he wanted. Also, who is he to say I should step down, especially since the other executor did not agree? I told this man I had a copy of the will and the name of his firm was nowhere to be seen there, therefore I didn't know who he was.
My nephew, a British Transport Police officer, hadn't told me about him and I did not trust nor recognise him. He told me he was from a law firm and he asked me to step down, yet he never once told me he was not a lawyer, only a probate administrator. I believe he wanted me to think he was a lawyer and for a long time I did. Although I refused to step down for this stranger, I later heard that this same man had applied for probate blatantly lying about me and saying I had stepped down "over the phone", something I never did!
If I did this then why didn't he send me something to sign in writing to confirm, when he later sent me a "release of will" statement to sign? Where is the proof in writing? This is blatant dishonesty and even fraudulent and makes me question the ethics and morals of this man and his firm. This probate manager, the solicitor supervising him and my police officer nephew committed fraud against me and my other England based nephew by applying for and obtaining a Grant of Probate only in the police nephew's name, without informing either of us.
They also committed perjury by swearing to the court they had informed us of their intention to do this. They did not inform me of any of this, they did it behind my back. I don't recommend anyone trust them. They then proceeded to administer my late sister's estate without involving me or my honest nephew as they were legally obliged to, without obtaining our consent or signatures.
When my nephew challenged them, they told him he wasn't an executor, which is a blatant lie. At least I have now discharged the responsibility I had to warn people about this crooked firm, which I DO NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYBODY!
I am posting my experiences of this firm, which did not write my sister's will, at the urging of my nephew, who has been pressing me for a long time to write this review. He has told me of his terrible experiences of these solicitors and has already written a review, which he has posted here and which is only a fraction of what he told me of their atrocious and extremely questionable behaviour towards him.
After what he told me, all I can say is, I am glad I no longer live in England. My late sister, who had her will written, would not have wanted nor expected this for him. He, and even his written review spoke to me of behaviour he experienced that I think is bordering on criminal. My late sister made me an executor of her will, along with two of her sons.
After her burial I received an unexpected phone call from a man claiming to be from this firm and acting as though he was a solicitor. One of my nephews had given him my number without telling me, which I was not at all happy about. Although I didn't know him from Adam, he told me this nephew wanted me to step down as an executor! I was shocked and found this man extremely rude and arrogant!
I asked him why this shockingly disrespectful nephew didn't speak to me himself to ask me to step down, if that was what he wanted. Also, who is he to say I should step down, especially since the other executor did not agree? I told this man I had a copy of the will and the name of his firm was nowhere to be seen there, therefore I didn't know who he was.
My nephew, a British Transport Police officer, hadn't told me about him and I did not trust nor recognise him. He told me he was from a law firm and he asked me to step down, yet he never once told me he was not a lawyer, only a probate administrator. I believe he wanted me to think he was a lawyer and for a long time I did. Although I refused to step down for this stranger, I later heard that this same man had applied for probate blatantly lying about me and saying I had stepped down "over the phone", something I never did!
If I did this then why didn't he send me something to sign in writing to confirm, when he later sent me a "release of will" statement to sign? Where is the proof in writing? This is blatant dishonesty and even fraudulent and makes me question the ethics and morals of this man and his firm. This probate manager, the solicitor supervising him and my police officer nephew committed fraud against me and my other England based nephew by applying for and obtaining a Grant of Probate only in the police nephew's name, without informing either of us.
They also committed perjury by swearing to the court they had informed us of their intention to do this. They did not inform me of any of this, they did it behind my back. I don't recommend anyone trust them. They then proceeded to administer my late sister's estate without involving me or my honest nephew as they were legally obliged to, without obtaining our consent or signatures.
When my nephew challenged them, they told him he wasn't an executor, which is a blatant lie. At least I have now discharged the responsibility I had to warn people about this crooked firm, which I DO NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYBODY!
Tony Ajayi
Nov 04, 2019
Pros: They have some qualified and experienced solicitors. Cons: Manipulative, client abusing, highly dishonest, health damaging, rights stealing firm. Very expensive. The most senior solicitor of this firm met with my devious, dishonest British Transport Police officer brother along with his Withers solicitor sister in law, but without me and without telling me, and heard from him that he wanted to be the sole executor of our late mother's estate.
Yet there were three executors named in our mother's will, which were myself, my brother and our uncle. My so-called 'brother' then came to me and said the solicitor suggested I and our uncle step down for him when it was in fact him that approached the solicitor, suggested it and sought it. This solicitor took charge of my mother's estate and took instructions from my brother without consulting me or seeking my consent. He, through his probate manager and after secret consultation with my brother's lawyer sister in law sent me an email threatening to remove me as an executor against my will on my brother's behalf, when my brother had not informed me of this as he had not kept in contact with me.
They charged the threats and manipulation to my late mother's estate. My brother never paid them a penny of his own money and he knew I wasn't going to step down because I had told him plainly. The sister in law had no business with my mother's estate and should not have been involved, yet she discussed with the firm reducing my uncle and I to 'non-proving executors' with 'power reserved' behind our backs.
This fraudulent practice is used by probate lawyers to unlawfully remove named executors without going to court, which would be very hard. I have never even met this woman. The solicitor invited me to meet him at his 15 Old Bailey office as an executor, to discuss the estate. He was supposed to advise and help me, but was hostile and threatened to "cite" me as soon as he had shaken hands with me, before he had even sat down.
He lied to me in that meeting in order to induce me to step down. He told me there was not really any estate information I wouldn't be privy to as a 'non-proving executor' (which he wanted me to become), when in fact if I stepped down I wasn't even a client and had no right to estate information. I have written evidence of him saying this. He later refused to even give me a copy of the attendance notes of that meeting, suggesting it was because I was not an executor.
He gave me a statement to sign saying I accepted 'power reserved' and "would remain a non-proving executor", but he slipped that addition in there without telling me and without explaining the significance of this to me. This meant that although taking 'power reserved' meant I could still take up my executorship at a later date, he wanted to manipulate me into 'agreeing' not to take it up, but without telling me.
He spent the abusive meeting seeking to get me to take 'power reserved' then gave me something to sign that sought to take away the power reserved to me. At the point of signing I reminded him that when he shook hands he told me he was going to give me a few days to decide, but he stood over me and demanded, "No! Do it now!" Thus he pressured me into signing a dishonest statement drafted by him that greatly disadvantaged me.
He took advantage of me instead of helping me. He, his firm, my brother and his sister in law have caused me great emotional distress, psychological damage, stress and anxiety. I have even had to go and see a doctor for stress because of these people. I am extremely unhappy with this law firm. When I visited the City of London Police and told them what he did to me, they told me it was fraud!
This Cumbrian probate solicitor, his probate manager and my "brother" later had Manchester Probate Registry issue a Grant of Probate in my brother's sole name, without telling me, in order to remove me as an active executor behind my back! Yet more fraud. They enabled my "brother" to swear a false oath to the court, that he had informed me in writing of his application. He had not
Yet there were three executors named in our mother's will, which were myself, my brother and our uncle. My so-called 'brother' then came to me and said the solicitor suggested I and our uncle step down for him when it was in fact him that approached the solicitor, suggested it and sought it. This solicitor took charge of my mother's estate and took instructions from my brother without consulting me or seeking my consent. He, through his probate manager and after secret consultation with my brother's lawyer sister in law sent me an email threatening to remove me as an executor against my will on my brother's behalf, when my brother had not informed me of this as he had not kept in contact with me.
They charged the threats and manipulation to my late mother's estate. My brother never paid them a penny of his own money and he knew I wasn't going to step down because I had told him plainly. The sister in law had no business with my mother's estate and should not have been involved, yet she discussed with the firm reducing my uncle and I to 'non-proving executors' with 'power reserved' behind our backs.
This fraudulent practice is used by probate lawyers to unlawfully remove named executors without going to court, which would be very hard. I have never even met this woman. The solicitor invited me to meet him at his 15 Old Bailey office as an executor, to discuss the estate. He was supposed to advise and help me, but was hostile and threatened to "cite" me as soon as he had shaken hands with me, before he had even sat down.
He lied to me in that meeting in order to induce me to step down. He told me there was not really any estate information I wouldn't be privy to as a 'non-proving executor' (which he wanted me to become), when in fact if I stepped down I wasn't even a client and had no right to estate information. I have written evidence of him saying this. He later refused to even give me a copy of the attendance notes of that meeting, suggesting it was because I was not an executor.
He gave me a statement to sign saying I accepted 'power reserved' and "would remain a non-proving executor", but he slipped that addition in there without telling me and without explaining the significance of this to me. This meant that although taking 'power reserved' meant I could still take up my executorship at a later date, he wanted to manipulate me into 'agreeing' not to take it up, but without telling me.
He spent the abusive meeting seeking to get me to take 'power reserved' then gave me something to sign that sought to take away the power reserved to me. At the point of signing I reminded him that when he shook hands he told me he was going to give me a few days to decide, but he stood over me and demanded, "No! Do it now!" Thus he pressured me into signing a dishonest statement drafted by him that greatly disadvantaged me.
He took advantage of me instead of helping me. He, his firm, my brother and his sister in law have caused me great emotional distress, psychological damage, stress and anxiety. I have even had to go and see a doctor for stress because of these people. I am extremely unhappy with this law firm. When I visited the City of London Police and told them what he did to me, they told me it was fraud!
This Cumbrian probate solicitor, his probate manager and my "brother" later had Manchester Probate Registry issue a Grant of Probate in my brother's sole name, without telling me, in order to remove me as an active executor behind my back! Yet more fraud. They enabled my "brother" to swear a false oath to the court, that he had informed me in writing of his application. He had not
