DH left me NOTHING in his will – devastated and fuming

Other than for life insurance, joint accounts and pensions, OP wouldn’t have been able to do anything financial in the months after he died, if she’d even tried, the companies involved would have needed sight of the will or letters of admin.

At least three posters have said that if no will husband gets it all WRONG, in the case of a larger estate. Also telling her she needs a solicitor. Not necessarily. Information easily found on line. Wife can do letters of administration, if reasonably competent and save a good deal of money. I really worry about the amount of legal advice on here. Not a solicitor, but well informed and know how to find government websites.

@jackmd5 I work in this area of law. Unless the Will was made 'in contemplation of marriage' then any Will he made prior to the marriage was revoked. He may have made another Will (your solicitor can undertake a search for this, for example, with Certainty.

In the meantime do you know where the original (prior to the marriage) Will is? I would want to be certain, in your shoes, that the executors of that Will cannot apply for a Grant of Probate. Lodge a caveat. You can do this online without any legal advice.

https://www.gov.uk/stop-probate-application

If there is no Will, and if you are certain about this, then your DH died intestate and those rules will apply as above.

However, and this is important, you can still make a claim against his estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 if the intestacy rules do not provide you and your children (presumably these are minor children?) with 'reasonable financial provision'.

https://www.brownejacobson.com/insights/inheritance-act-1975-common-questions#:~:text=The%20Inheritance%20(Provision%20for%20Family,as%20a%20result%20of%20an

My very strong advice is for you to seek independent legal advice from a firm of solicitors who offer advice about estates generally and also has a contentious probate department so you can also seek advice on any IPFDA claim you might have.

Under no circumstances should you be giving your late husband's elder children anything until the legal position has been fully resolved.

You should also make sure that no one has made contact with any financial organisation where your husband held accounts/investments etc. Some assets do not require a Grant of Probate to close them down and some banks (etc) will simply do so on the production of a death certificate, an original Will and some ID from the executors. Banks and other financial institutions do not know whether a Will has been revoked or not.

House is in DH name, if you click ‘see all’ on the green comment you can view all of OP’s updates.

Other question is everything in his sole name?

is the house joint tenants so it goes to you regardless of will? Any joint bank accounts will automatically pass to you.

that would be more usual?

Any will made before you marry becomes null and void on the day you marry. He would have needed to make a new will after you married for it to be valid.

Agree

Everything does not go to the OP. The link from CAB explains that.

The rules on intestacy apply as the will is avoid. Find a local solicitor who is knowledgeable in this and willing to assist you by explaining the rules and paperwork for probate proceedings, you can file the actual probate and handle distribution yourself but you need to get the up to date rules first. A decent family solicitor should give you a price for an hour of time to go through it all then a quote to handle the paperwork for you

Nail on the head and exactly what most people would do to be fair to ALL children. Had the OP's husband made a new will, he'd have probably included a life interest trust for the house for the OP to continue living in it, but upon her death, for it's value to be shared between ALL children. That wasn't done, but the OP can make such a provision in her will, that when the house is finally sold after her death, then ALL the children get their fair share. If she does that and tells her OH's two children that's what she's done/plans to do, it will avoid any unpleasantness and argument.

The OP isn't in Scotland.

Well, he has young children with the OP and I am betting he loved them just as much. Being young they will need help with basic necessities such as educational costs, food, clothing, shelter, clubs.

I didn't see the OP ever say she would leave out his older children. People just made up that scenario in their minds and ran with it.

His wife and younger children need the most help and luckily, they will get it without leaving the older children out.

No, I don’t have a will stupid, I know

I'm starting to think that you don't have home insurance, either @jackmd5 . Or you'd have an answer from your free legal helpline by now.

You might be insured by one of the tiny minority of insurers that don't have one, but at the moment I'm getting the impression that I'm talking to the wall and you haven't checked.

How come you have only discovered this now? Surely when making funeral arrangements etc his wishes would have been taken into account and the bills taken from the estate?

When you write a will with a solicitor, it is made clear at the time that marriage invalidates the will. Whilst he may have been negligent in his admin, he may have also known everything comes to you after marriage therefore potentially saw no need to update it / make a new one.
Definitely would be a sloppy approach, but who knows what the guy was thinking.
Sorry for your loss OP, grief is a tricky thing to navigate x

I didn't say that did I!
People have a responsibility to provide for young dc in the event of their death regardless of "what he wanted."

Also, if she inherits more or less everything, OP can make a will, leaving provision for her own children and her husband's children upon her death, so that both sets of children receive shares of their parents' estate.

Not in Scotland it doesn't.
The original Will stands.

I think you can some comfort in the fact that he may well have known that the marriage invalidated the Will. I must admit that I thought it was common knowledge.

In believe that you should contact the Probate Office, explain the situation and ask their advice. They are really helpful. As you are married you can use a Probate Solicitor, which will save you money.

It was their family home.

She needs to do what's best for her and the younger kids.

DH is older than me but we have made wills that leave everything to each other. He has adult kids from a previous marriage who have more than us so they won't inherit until the second one dies otherwise one of us would be homeless because the money isn't there to give them.

Maybe they're just giving you space and time to handle his death. Why are you assuming the worse from them? Is it maybe because that's what you would be planning?

Sorry typo - he HAS children in their 30’s; they were in their 20’s when we met and are currently 36 & 31. I can’t edit post to correct typo

Get to a solicitor and ask him or her to do a search to see if there is a more recently made will!

Did I say that!? He wouldn't have wanted his older children to get nothing.

Why are so many people here trying to help OP take everything and cut his older children out entirely? If he's a widow that means what his ex wife owned and worked for will be given to a woman and children that are nothing to do with her.