FNB Estate Late Account

At the beginning of May I went to Ottery FNB branch to enquire about closing my mom's FNB account due to her passing 31 March 2021. I was told by the consultant that I would need to go to the Cape Town High court to get a letter authorizing me to do so. I was a bit confused as I was the one who opened the account for my mom (its linked to my account) Also it indicates on there system that I am the owner of the account.

I was advised I could get the required letter from the Wynberg magistrates court, on the 25th May I proceeded to go through and I explained the situation to the estates clerk (Godfrey), gave him all the required documents in order to get the letter. He then gave me the letter and advised me that FNB needs to read the highlighted text and should they require or not understand they should contact him. He explained that the court will not give a letter of authorization if the account has no activity or funds in it. I then proceeded to go to FNB Ottery with letter and documents in hand, and was told by the consultant that they cannot accept this letter in order to close the account. I explained to her what I was told by the Estates clerk at the Wynberg Magistrates court and asked her to please contact Godfrey, she then went to her Admin manager, who came out and explained that they cannot accept the letter and she would try to call Godfrey. She couldn't get hold of him and then sent an email to Godfrey. I then spoke to him on the 25th May as he called and spoke to the branch manager (I think Michelle)

The estates clerk called me and said I should take the documents to FNB as he had spoken to them. When I got there, Again, I was told that they cannot accept the letter as authorization. At this point I was beyond frustrated! The Branch manager then advised that I should deposit money into the account (so that it would have a positive balance) and that She would get the consultant to put onto the system that the account is an estate late account. In doing so there will be no charges put through onto the account as well as no transactions would be possible on the account, which I then did. She then gave me a print out (which was billed to the account R40) indicating the account was estate late & the balance. She advised me to go back to the court with the documents and they should then give the letter Authorizing me to close the account.

I then went to the Wynberg Magistrates estates clerk again, with all the documents. The Estates clerk advised me that due to FNB's refusal to accept the initial letter from them, he would now need to treat the case as an estate that has funds in it etc. He advised me that ALL THE OTHER BANKS accept this letter that they provide and that FNB is the only bank that refuses to accept it. He had about 5 other FNB clients/cases with the same issue (in the past week). He has advised me of the process going forward and that this could take anything from a few weeks to a few years, meanwhile FNB will still be charging the monthly fee (as at 9 June 2021, my mom's account is now in debit as the monthly fee was charged to the account)

I have sent this complaint to the relevent FNB Estate Late department 9 June 2021 and to date have receive no response. I have again sent it today the 5 July 2021....