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

[Sleepneededprettyplease]

Posting here because it is where I put the first thread.

A brief summery is that my Aunt died and her FWB is trying to say that he is entitled to part of her estate because she had asked me to allow him to stay in a house she had invested in for me. Anyway if you want the full story feel free to read what I put on the first thread.

Anyway the main thing is that he is now sueing in the courts. I need a bit of a hand hold please. My lawyers have suggested getting a barristers opinion so I am just waiting for that. I wouldn't even mind if it was possible to just go to mediation but he wants the house for the rest of his life and won't consider anything else.

www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/5505433-aibu-to-refuse-aunts-fwb-claim-on-her-estate?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

I think this proves that he knows he doesn’t have a leg to stand on really, if he was truly confident that he had a strong legal case he would just leave his legal team to deal with it. Instead he is threatening and begging, what an absolute entitled chancer.

Clearly your aunt would not have said that, and even if she did, it's irrelevant.

You can't gift something that doesn't belong to you - the house was not your aunt's, it is yours. She could not 'gift' living in the house to anyone, as it is your property.

Have you got evidence of her asking you if he could stay there? Does it mention it being a short-term thing?

Only the fact that we tried to put a tenancy agreement in place.

Yes. I could just do without the headache

@Sleepneededprettyplease please promise those of us invested in your triumph against this entitled and arrogant sod that you will do three things for the mumsnetverse:

1: update us on your WIN
2: update us on your PREGNANCY
3: update us on whether you had a girl or boy, with name(s), weight, eye and hair colour etc.

Completely rooting for you ❤️💐🎉💃

Thank you. It will take a while but I will.

You have to take all the emotion out of it and look at the facts.

Does he have anything in writing to support his claim that your Aunt promised he could live in someone else's house for the rest of his life?

Obviously not because she did not promise that. She can't promise that, it's not her house. So he has nothing to back up his claim. That will be dismissed.

Is he a legal dependent of your Aunt?

He would need to meet the strict criteria. For example, look at visas. A person can apply for a dependent visa in most countries but they need to show proof ie they are a spouse (living together full time) or child of that person, or they are an adult with a disability. In court, in legal terms, he is clearly not a dependent so that will also be dismissed.

The truth is, this is not going to get as far as court because no legal team would take his case without significant costs paid upfront.

What they will try to do, and what you should be wary of, is get you to agree to 'settle out of court' ie give him money which I know you have already offered but if they are asking to settle it's because they have no case so there is no point giving him money. Put it towards your own legal expenses instead.

If he offers to settle, get your solicitor to reply to say that your previous offer, which he has already declined, is withdrawn due to the costs of further legal advice and no further offer will be made.

And that will be that. No court. No settlement. Just him gone.

Well seeing as he has filed in court and my lawyers have been served sealed court papers then your faith in the probity of the legal profession is miss placed.

I do suspect that his lawyer is a friend of a friend old boys network kind of thing.

You can’t possibly know the outcomes of this. Only a judge can rule on whether he has a case and they haven’t yet. Thinking you can rationalise your way out of a court case is poor thinking.

“John, why would Auntie Janet promise you that you could live in a house that she didn’t own? That seems very odd, indeed.”

Which is exactly why no barrister will assert you will win. All you can go on are probabilities.

OP has not provided one tiny shred of evidence that this man's claim will succeed. There is absolutely nothing. Even if he's filed a complaint, it can be withdrawn. He's bluffing.

Yeah he is claiming he didn't know i owned it. I have written evidence he did.

I have been told that he has a weak case but no one will talk certainties of course which is why it is stressful.

How stressful! Best of luck @Sleepneededprettyplease ! X

I have a good friend that has been through something similar. The other party didn’t really have a case but they either weren’t listening or had a very poor solicitor.

My friends solicitor could not believe how poor the other solicitor was. They made mistakes in the law they quoted, got names and directions incorrect etc.

Usually the solicitors would phone up and discuss how a settlement could be reached along the lines of the likely outcome of going to court.

The other was just being ridiculous so it went to court. My friend won, paid a very small settlement to the other party which was far far far less then the fees they had incurred.

So if the FWB is in the south west - Dorset/Somerset/Cornwall area perhaps they are using the same dreadful Solicitor firm.

It is that area so maybe. Or there could be more than one.

They’re a very well regarded national firm @RandomMess and I’d be extremely careful about trashing them on the internet. You might want to have your post deleted.

Seems that there are multiple unethical law firms. This is a different one.

Interesting how a national firm is reliant on their individual employees to be good (or not) at persuading clients to accept offers/not proceed.

How easy is it to turn around and not represent a client anymore opposed to taking their money in a case they are highly likely to to not win.

Keep a record of exactly how many times he is phoning you (whether you answer or not). If it gets to court, a judge might consider that evidence of harassment.
Lets’s hope the court will hand him his arse on a plate!

The legal profession seems poorly regulated.
I know someone whose only parent died 5 years ago. After their death the solicitors in charge seemed to abandon the estate until all inheritance tax benefits were lost. The family had to pay for legal representation. The estate’s lawyers admitted fault, but their insurance company are described as now fighting it. It seems they’re trying to bankrupt the family with legal fees and make them accept as small a settlement as possible (some might describe it as keeping as much of the deceased’s money as possible)
The deceased was an amazing self-made person who battled adversity and touched the lives of every single person here in amazing ways (not saying who for the family’s privacy, but they are starting to consider going to the media it’s got so bad). It’s sickening these lawyers (original and the insurance company’s) can seem to be at fault but seem to make the deceased estate pay, denying the deceased’s their wishes.

When we divorced my ex wifes second solicitor was how might I put it 'comical'

I took a free 30 minute advice session with a solicitor about a very specific matter. He rambled on about other things which I didn't ask about because I already knew.

In the last 5 minutes I asked about the specific aspect of law that I intended to pursue and he hadn't even heard of it. I explained what it was and told him there was case law and to look it up.

Obviously I wasn't going to instruct him but after looking up the law, he wrote to me to say that I was indeed correct, I did have a case and he would be happy to represent me! Even though I already knew more about this particular law than he did.

Cheeky bugger then tried to claim the 30 free minutes applied to another branch, not his. Told him to jog on.

So yes, there are some very unscrupulous solicitors out there unfortunately.