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.

@soontobe60 no it aroused my suspicions as why would I need to sign it over when she was dying and I looked into it and unfortunately it was jointly owned so it had gone to my mother upon his death but he obviously didnt know that and was worried he could only get my mothers half which shows he is the greedy one as he still would have had more than my younger sibling and I as he would have got her whole half and my younger sibling and I would of had half each of my Dads half. But I would have been okay with that as at least it would be more fairer and my Dads had gone to his actual children.

No what is a horrible attitude is fir a woman to treat her children so unequally and unfairly.

Jeezo, OP. YOU ARE NOT GETTING THIS.

Nobody thinks that it's fine to be a crap parent. Of course parents should love their children. But the fact is that it is perfectly legal to cut a child out of a will, favour one child over another and all the rest of it.

Your mother may well have been a horrible woman who prioritised one child over another. That's not illegal. Challenging the will is a lengthy process which everyone says will cost a packet and you probably won't win anything.

None of that is going to change the way you feel about how your mother treated you when alive.

When the legal action concludes - whatever the outcome - you are going to be still left with all these unresolved feelings about you mum and your siblings.

But I was never that close with my sibling anyway (no falling out just a very large age gap and he was never around as he lived abroad) and yes I probably will still have unresolved feelings about her but that will be the case either way.

OP, you can't have it both ways. Either your brother duped your mum into making a new will because she didn't have capacity to know what she was doing, which is what you're giving as the reason you're challenging the will, or she knew full well what she was doing and didn't want you to have any more money that's been written in the will. If you think this is the case, then you have absolutely no grounds to challenge the will!

That isn't what I said. What I said, was that regardless of whether she worked out of the home or not when you were growing up has no bearing. You are acting as though she had no right to make that decision, when she did. It was as much her house as your father's.

Hoping people are unable to have children is pretty unpleasant, OP. Fuck you, frankly.

Look, OP, please listen to this very carefully. We know that you are hurt and grieving and angry, and are very sympathetic.

HOWEVER, legally speaking it DOESN'T MATTER to the law whether what your mother did was what most people might think 'right' or 'wrong'. Or what your feelings are about her behaviour.

What matters to the law is whether what your mother did when she made her Will was LEGAL. And, from what the trained people say on this thread, it very probably was.

Also, very probably, the solicitor who made that Will acted properly also, and so you can't challenge it for that reason.

But only your own solicitor can give you personal advice. No-one else.

Please go and talk to your solicitor, and maybe also, as a previous poster has suggested, consider also talking to a solicitor who handles will disputes on a 'no win, no fee' basis. If they won't take the case on, it suggests you have little chance of winning.

With every single extra post made sympathy for the OP is becoming less and less. I am actually starting to feel sorry for the brother and beginning to wonder if the DM has done this to make up for the fact that it would seem that OP feels he is less worthy than her because his biological parent didn't actually earn a wage. Whereas one if hers did.

@Soontobe60 I do think she was coerced into making the will, I highly doubt she would have chose to do this. If he had got slightly more and it not been completely equal I might have believed it was her wishes and to thank him for "caring" for her. But I dont believe she would do this but obviously I cannot know 100% for sure as she is not here to ask and they will never admit to coercing her if that is what they did will they. Which Is why I am challenging it.

@beverlymarsh anyone saying it's completely okay to treat your children differently from one another quite frankly doesn't deserve to have them. Children dont ask to be born so no fuck you! I will be ignoring any of your posts from now on.

Thank you @florascotia2 I do take in board all the helpful advise and I will be speaking to my solicitor very soon

I don't think there's much more constructive to be said. I'm out.

Like many on the thread I am also al awyer. People rarely win these cases and if you lose you pay your solicitor and barrister fees and most of those of the rest of the famly too so you could end up having zero inheritance because you wiil have spent it on legal fees.

The nub of your case is the mother did not know what she was doing. Solicitors are very careful particularly with older or sick people to make people do so _( haven't read all pages of the thread but assume she used a solicitor). The test is not what a lot of people think. Eg my father with dementia could in law make a valid will - his solicitor went through with us the legal test and he met the criteria.

By all means try if a solicitor says you have a good case but it is risky and you could end up with less money tahn if you didn't try - also remember you don't recover all your legal costs even if you win so the portion you don't win might well be more than the amount of money at stake so do careful sums once you have a cost estimate for solicitors and barristers for the case - probably at least £50k may be £100k legal fees on both sides in some of these cases. Sometimes even £1m!

@sweeneytoddsrazor lol he doesn't need your sympathy and I never thought he was less worthy. Actually use to really like him as a child and look up to him and was proud to have him as a big brother. I never thought he would do something like this to us. But just shows you can never fully trust anyone not even the people who are closest to you. I hope everyone on here who has read this takes it as a warning and makes appropriate wishes for after they have gone because you clearly cant expect people to respect your wishes after you are gone.

@sweeneytoddsrazor been watching this thread with interest to see how long it would be before people started to lose sympathy. OP has shown her true colours, they always do in the end.

@xenia thank you for your advice. At the minute I dont know if she had capacity, what I di know is that she was on heavy drugs that my brothers partner lied about so am awaiting further reviews to see if she would have had capacity on those and if she had capacity (or even if she didn't) I suspect undue influence.

You said you were never really close to him he wasnt around much, and you have made countless references to your fathers (not your parents) money, and also made sure that you point out at every opportunity your father was not your brothers father. Doesn't sound as if you have ever liked him.

hope you dont have children and are unable to have any what a nasty attitude!

What an utterly abhorrent thing to say.

Very true @TARSCOUT

@tarscout lol I never wrote on here for sympathy I wrote on here to ask if anyone had been through anything similar and so could tell me about what it was like (thank you to those who did) the only people on here that have shown their true colours are those that have been spiteful and nasty to a grieving yound mum who has lost both of her parents and then having to deal with all of this stress on top. It's a sin what hes done and even If he gets everything it will bring him no luck.

When do you see your solicitor, OP?

Others on here that have never been through it or know anyone that has and are not professionals in this area have clearly only commented to give their uneducated advice and saying I wont win when they haven't got a clue. But thank you to those who have shown support and kindness.