Advice on inheritance disputes

[Ilovechinese]

Hi I'm just wondering if anyone on here has been to court to contest a will and if so how long did it take to get to court and what the process is. I'm going through this at the minute (well not got to court yet) but have a caveat in place to stop probate.

Yes, I have. My mother tried to have my father's will overturned when 'D'F left his entire estate, including his half of the marital home (they were married and had been for 35 years), as well as his pension (DM had been a SAHM all her life) to his mistress. We negotiated through solicitors for 2 years and eventually settled. The legal bill was around £30-40k as I recall and realistically, we had no chance of winning in court so settled before it got that far. DM was financially reliant on him, being still married and having never worked, 'D'F was very unwell when he changed his will, he was bipolar, recently diagnosed with leukaemia and had been taken off his prozac by the GP who insisted he went cold turkey.

It was the most stressful, difficult period of my life and I am now estranged from both DM and my sister as a direct result of disagreements as we went through the process. I would never try and contest a will again, the only winners are the lawyers.

I will add, that the mistress had only been on the scene for 6 months when 'D'F died and definitely exerted influence over him to disinherit DM, DSis and I. She walked away with over £500k for 6 months 'work', it was/is an absolute disgrace, but that's what the will said, so that's what happened.

@edwinbear thank you for that I have a few questions, if they were married then wouldn't your DM be entitled to his house after he died? Also if she was a SAHM all her life how did she afford legal fees? And did she get nothing at all? Thst is so unfair I'm so sorry

Others have said it already but:

"I dont really care if legal costs devour the whole estate"

Lose [as is more than likely] & the you'll be paying using your existing savings or whatever.

@edwinbear - that sounds horrendous.

@edwinbear I'm.so sorry that is awful disgusting behaviour from the mistress. I hope it brought her bad luck. Some people are so evil!

@Ilovechinese - it doesn't matter who phoned to make the appt, the solicitor should have still spoken to the now-deceased on their own to understand their wishes. Do you believe this wasn't done? Why do you think the solicitor didn't check they were content the person had capacity? (Keep in mind the default is that a person does have capacity.) Also, re the financial provisions route, are you under 18? Or were they providing for you financially before you died? Do you have a need for ongoing care into adulthood that would require unusual support? Otherwise that is v v difficult to claim under. The default position is that while we may like it, and it may not seem 'fair' a person can leave their estate to whoever they want (Inc the local donkey sanctuary even if they have DC/DGC). It is honestly a horrible situation though. I have some knowledge of this area.

I'm so sorry you are going through this but please don't do it. It will be stressful and expensive.

FWIW, I do know of someone who tried to change their will but the solicitors decided they didn't have capacity. They wrote to the person setting out their concerns, and the risk of proceeding with the will regardless.

I think you can assume therefore that the solicitor decided they did have capacity, otherwise there would be correspondence relating to it.

I suppose you could instruct a solicitor of your own to request all correspondence relating to the Will, if that's possible. From that you would know if there was a chance of overturning it. But I stress, I'm not a lawyer, I'm just giving an uninformed opinion.

@dinosaur no I am not under 18 but my solicitor said I could do this. There is a famous case where a grown married woman with 5 children claimed under this as her mother disinherited her and she was awarded a third of the estate I think it was. What knowledge do you have? I have a meeting soon with my solocitor and she said they will advise me before it goes to court if I have a good chance or not

@Ilovechinese - what's your solicitor's hourly rate?

I know the case you mean. It happened, but it's very much the exception to the rule. If your solicitor says you don't have much hope then definitely listen to them, however also remember that solicitors make a lot of money from these sorts of cases (and normally lose) and don't commit more than you're prepared to lose. PPs have correctly told you that it's not about the estate spending all their money on solicitor fees - it's also about you personally doing so. I understand if this is something you feel you have to do, but statistically the chances of success are very very low. Personally I think we should all be involved in more open discussions during life about inheritance/finances/family plans etc so no-one is ever surprised and no-one ends up in this position. Some things can be fixed post-death (e.g. deeds of variation if all beneficiaries agree) but some things just cannot.

amdsolicitors.com/ilott-v-mitson-the-final-verdict/

I’ve been involved with a few of these cases (as a contra to edwinbear, one was a long term girlfriend of an elderly man who the children didn’t know about- they’d shared a hobby on a long term regular basis but the children lived in a different town and never met her. They were so incensed at the idea their father might look after the woman who kept their dad company in his dotage that they tried for 4 years to prevent her getting a gift out of the enormous estate...). It took years and hundreds of thousands & they failed on the capacity point.
Try the law society / firm complaints procedures first to get the information on how the solicitor investigated / satisfied themselves as to capacity.

@Dinosauraddict do you think my solocitor would be honest with me then if she thinks I have a good case or not? One thing making me think I do have a good case (and partly why I asked on here) is that the other party told me they were ready to take me court exactly a year ago and since then I have not heard from their solicitors at all. Surely they would have started court proceedings by now if they were so confident and thought they had done nothing wrong and were going to win?

I think time is situation and money dependent (as in, how much you’re fighting for)

More info is necessary.
Has a relative been seriously ill and someone called a solicitor to change the will?

I don’t think you can do much about it to be honest unless they were deemed to not have capacity.

I know you’ll be feeling a lot of anger, but you have to respect the changes your relative made tbh.

(I’ve been through a similar scenario)

@Ilovechinese DM and DF had changed ownership of the house from joint, to tennants in common, as part of inheritance tax planning, meaning DF was able to leave his share of the house to whoever he liked - DM kicks herself to this day for making that decision but it was made many years before the mistress was on the scene and she thought she was doing the best to help my sister and I.

Her legal fees were funded by an inheritance she had from her own father. She ended up losing dad's share of the house which had to be sold, she lost all proceeds from various life policies and dad's savings, but she did manage to keep hold of the pension, which clearly was the main issue as otherwise she would have been left with no income. The trustees of the pension company accepted that it would be very unjust for a mistress of 6 months to benefit for life, from the pension dad built up over a long career which mum enabled by being at home raising his family.

@Ilovechinese I'm not sure why you think that means you have a good chance. Why would they start court proceedings if the status quo means they are in the best position? Either there's a lot more detail to this case, or there was an understandable throwaway 'I'll see you in court' sort of comment that was made but not thought through/advised. In most of these cases all that happens is a waste of court time, well paid layers, and continually upset family members who can't move on for years and sometimes end up in debt trying to pay the fees in an attempt to 'win' or get what's 'right'/'fair'. It's hard because inheritance is such an emotive topic and it's difficult to step away sometimes.

@Dinosauraddict they will have to start court proceedings as I have put a caveat in place meaning they cant get probate to sell the house or do anything with it. My (half) sibling came to ask me to take it off last year and I said no and he then said he will take me court. He then asked me again last month and I refused unless there will be an equal split between all the children of the deceased. In all this time I have heard nothing from his solicitors.

You need to speak to your solicitor, but more importantly you need to have a serious think (along with any DP/DH/anyone else this could impact) about what you're hoping to gain and how much you're willing to commit to this. Also, if they can't get private, sell the house etc, is it what your family member (parent?) would've really wanted to see the house fall empty and in disrepair over a number of years? To see people they care about battle this out? If I was your half sibling I would've also asked you again tbh, because court often results in everybody losing. The estate gets whittled away, the people in your position lose everything they have on the hope of gaining something they don't yet have and may never have, and everyone finds it harder to heal. Only you know how far you're willing to take this, and how much time/money you're willing to risk losing. I hope you manage to grieve and heal at the same time.

@Dinosauraddict my loving parent who unfortunately doed first would never have wanted this no and they wanted to split it all equally even though said half sibling isn't their own biological child but raised them since two years old. My other parent I believe was either pressured into leaving it all unequal or if not then is incredibly selfish and had no right to do this as it was the other parents money that paid for the house so is totally disrespectful also and if they didn't want the house to stand empty ot their children fighting over it then they should have thought about the impact their actions would have long after they have gone. It has caused me much upset and grief and makes me feel like I was nothing to them and they are not even hear to answer my questions about why they did it now. If we all lose so be it better than me just losing and them getting everything after all the upset and stress they have caused. I know my loving parent would want me to fight this.

died here

Have you not heard from them simply because a caveat only lasts 6 months and so yours was lifted some time ago? Have you actually checked whether probate has been granted in the meantime?

It is really hard when inheritance is not split equally, or in a way that all remaining parties can accept. It's particularly hard when someone has been cut out (for whatever reason) and no-one can answer questions about why. Your feelings are understandable. People are just concerned that you could leave yourself in a far worse position than you are now.

You do understand that if you lose, there could be a costs order against you and you will end up paying your legal fees and their fees?

Speak to your lawyer. But in the absence of you needing provision it will be an uphill climb.