Update to AIBU to refuse Aunt's fwb claim on her estate.

OP, you seem confused about the legal advice you’ve received from your solicitor. Are they not confirming their advice to you in writing?

If you have a possession order you’ll be able enforce that if he fails to vacate the property by the date ordered. You simply instruct High Court enforcement officers to physically evict him.

As far as the claim on the estate goes, he is entitled to bring a claim under the Inheritance Act if he is either (1) an unmarried partner who lived with your aunt for at least 2 years prior to her death or (2) he was being financially maintained by your aunt (partially or fully) prior to her death. If she had provided rent free accommodation to him, then it is arguable that she was financially maintaining him.

It sounds like he’s issued a claim form. Has he served Particulars of Claim yet? You’ll need to file a Defence to the claim setting out why you say he is not entitled to any part of the estate. If he has no resources of his own to house himself, and your aunt was effectively supporting him, why do you say he is not entitled to reasonable provision from her estate?

Has your solicitor suggested making a Part 36 offer? In your shoes, unless I was absolutely certain that I’d win the case, I’d formally offer him a lump sum settlement of money. There are cost consequences for him if he fails to beat your offer at trial and so it will put him under pressure to agree a settlement. A negotiated settlement also removes the uncertainty of litigation and the ongoing legal fees.

"Possibly" - based on what you've written here, it seems unlikely.

Get a percentage likelihood off of them, but it can't be more than 30% and I think that's pushing it.

The house however is not part of the estate so he cannot challenge the will for it as the will does not include it.

Yes, this is what we have all been telling you but you said that your lawyer told you he might have a claim on it when clearly he doesn't.

The aunt died and left nothing to him. She wasn't supporting him when she was alive. He is not a dependent, he has no claim on her estate.

Your house is nothing to do with any of that and you have a court order to evict him.

What actually is the court hearing in August about and why does it involve you?

The house however is not part of the estate so he cannot challenge the will for it as the will does not include it.

Yes, this is what we have all been telling you but you said that your lawyer told you he might have a claim on it when clearly he doesn't.

The aunt died and left nothing to him. She wasn't supporting him when she was alive. He is not a dependent, he has no claim on her estate.

Your house is nothing to do with any of that and you have a court order to evict him.

What actually is the court hearing in August about and why does it involve you?

Exactly this. We had a different but similar scenario. The barrister was worth her weight in gold but at the end of the day the CF ended up with a big chunk of money. Two thirds of which went into the lawyers pockets, which though awful, was a kind of sick 'win' in my mind. If he has even a thread of a chance, you'd be best going to mediation (I think they will insist anyway, the lawyers) and offer a payoff of some kind.

No, you said originally that he wanted to stay in the house and that's what his claim was about but now you say that unofficially he wants to stay in the house.

If he's made no official claim on the house, then evict him.

Officially he is after the money from the main house.

Oh, I didn't realise that, I don't think you've mentioned that before.

In that case, I really can't understand why your solicitors are making such a meal of it.

I actually would be inclined to evict him and leave it for him to sue your aunt's estate if that is what he wants to do.

I think you've had poor legal advice, this is much simpler than you first described with him claiming that he has a right to live in your house.

This is what I suspect. He's hoping to drag it out (and therefore live rent free) until he dies. Or that the court will feel so sorry for the 'poor old man' that they find in his favour in the expectation that he will be gone in a few months. He could go on for another ten years or more!

What benefits did your aunt retain once she gave you the house? Was it just using it as a holiday home?
There seems to be an important fact that YOU allowed him to live there and she had to ask your permission, rather than your aunt offering it to him as 'her share' of whatever benefits she was retaining.

It isn't 'a house your aunt bought in your name' - she bought you or gave you a house.
It isn't 'technically' your house - it's your house.

The whys and wherefores as to how it was bought are irrelevant.

It's a truly horrible situation OP, and a shocking reminder as to just how badly people behave once someone has died.

Not just nasty freeloading grifters like him, but family men, the men who will inherit everything in a mirror will 'but can be trusted to pass everything on to the kids'. Oh no he can't. I could tell you some absolute horror stories of lovely husbands, great Dads, who let a deceased wife's assets slide into a new woman's grasp and then on to her own kids. They don't mean to be like this...but it happens, Again and again. People need to be so watertight in the way things are set up.

Good luck with all this OP, so disheartening.

It's probably been asked & answered but where was he living before this?

Did he need somewhere to live or just saw an opportunity to pay no rent for a while?

Ok. Just remember the lawyers are making money from everybody. They are not altruistic.

@Manxexile not necessarily - a friend of mine had to defend a nonsense case from a prior business partner, said business partner having charmed a solicitor into advising her and writing various letters on her behalf. More because he felt sorry for her than because he felt she had a good case and therefore expected to get paid.