u/Seamen_Rag

Hello all. Greetings from America, specifically Cleveland, Ohio. I apologize for not writing this in German, but my language skills are probably about the level of a Kindergartner.

My aunt in Hamburg passed away in December of 2023. My elderly mother and I traveled there shortly thereafter to deal with her accounts. She had a will clearly leaving everything she had to my mom, mainly a savings account with about 20,000 Euros. In 2024 I contacted our German consulate, which is in Chicago. They recommended that we travel to Chicago to get things notarized, in order to send the documents to the area nachlassgericht where my aunt lived.

We sent everything to the nachlassgericht in early 2025. We got a letter about six weeks later requesting that we pay a processing fee. I did that personally via their website. That was the last we heard of them until receiving a letter last month saying that they did not get the payment.

I am curious if anyone has any advice on the subject. It's been over two years now -- would it be in our interest to contact a lawyer in Hamburg? The government office we need to contact is only open from 3 a.m. to 6 a.m. our hours and it doesn't look like they have an email we can write to, only regular postal mail.

Any help or guidance is much appreciated. Thanks!

I'm setting the line at over/under eight months. I'm personally taking the over with a release of March 2027.