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

a barristers opinion (usually junior barrister) is common before court. It’s not expensive (relative to legal fees generally!)

He has no legs to stand on, wtf. Did he live with her? No. He's not even a real boyfriend. And boyfriends have zero claim on estates!

Trying it on, so let him and then ask the court to apply costs so he has to pay your court costs.

You are not his Landlord, do not sign anything that will give him tenants rights and do not allow him to rent from you.
The property was given to you by your Aunt, is it in your name? Simple solution, move in!
As a lodger who lives in a property with the owner or landlord he has absolutely no rights, regardless of rent paid, you are allowed to ask him to leave immediately. If he doesn't, it becomes a police matter and they will come round and get him to leave. Have new locks ready on you for once that's done.
Depending on the type of lock you may only need to change the barrels, which will come with new keys.

As others have said, move this to the legal thread and get some face to face housing advice, these services are not just for tenants.

Good luck.

Stand your ground.

Just want to say good luck and I hope you win …. Cheeky bastard!

If he’s pretty broke how is he going to afford to take legal action?

I hope you tell the cheeky cunt to fuck off

I read your original thread, and I thought your aunt’s “friend” sounded like a ridiculous CF. Sorry to hear he’s actually dragging you through court over it! 😡

I hope you manage to squash it asap and move on, CF-free

Sounds like his lawyer is pretty crap and agreed to defer costs against a future win....no win no fee basically.

Wont end well for either of them!

Is he paying any bills? How long until you can execute the eviction order? Can you bring it forward ?
i am so angry on your behalf OP - not at all what your Aunt intended for you. What a dreadful man.

I'm sure your lawyer will advise you well. My DSis is in a similar situation atm and what I have gleaned from that case is: if they were not in any kind of relationship or cohabitation, that makes his case weaker/non-existent; she would have had to promise him explicitly that he was going to be able to continue living in the property in perpetuity for him to be able to argue that he has a right to the property; it's best not to get into a tenant/landlord relationship with him as that would give him rights of tenancy if you wanted to turf him out and not sell the house. Of course I'm not a lawyer and I don't know all the details of this case. It sounds like he is living in cloud cuckoo land. I do wonder what kind of advice he is getting? Are his lawyers no win no fee? Good luck with this. It is so unnecessary and unpleasant.

No legal advice to offer but just wishing you good luck with getting the CF out, hope you can get it sorted and get on with the IVF as soon as possible. And all the luck in the world with that, of course. Fingers crossed for you.

Why is the will being considered? If op owned the house before her aunt died and the friend signed something to say he knew this, has put bills in his names, and was meant to pay rent it sounds as though a tenancy has arisen, and the eviction is in progress.

I was on the end of a will being contested. The person that had written the will with legal assistance was assured it was water tight…. It wasn’t and between legal fees, theirs and mine and paying them an out of court settlement cost me £160,000.

I had spoken with a barrister too, they believed my case was stronger but there was a risk that I could lose everything.

Wills are not hard to contest at all.

I wish you all the luck in the world OP, grief alone is bad enough without all the rest of the stress

I'm sure your barrister will conclude that you have a strong case and he has an extremely weak case.

However, they will never tell you with certainty that you will win and they do usually advise settling outside of court.

I think he's bluffing. I would not agree to give him anything and I would tell him to go ahead and sue. Unfortunately, it is a game of chicken.

I've been there and I didn't back down. I had evidence in writing. All the other side had was her opinion, nothing in writing, nothing substantial to back her claim so she backed down.

If you have evidence in writing, including evidence of your aunt not living with him, it will be relied upon much more heavily than someone else's uncorroborated word. So it doesn't matter if he's told people they were in a relationship because he has nothing in writing to back that up. He could have just made it up, which in this case, he has.

Judges aren't stupid, they are able to assess the most likely version of events.

I think this is your best route tbh. It's already court ordered and if the judge had thought there was any doubt regarding the will he would have deferred his own judgement until the will angle had been decided.

I would look into getting some high court baliffs in, they don't mess around and know the law backwards for their particular job. Good luck!

Just list it for sale with him in there.
He has no lease so he will need to allow viewings at any time and new owners will be under no obligation.

The only worry I have , is that a lawyer has taken him on as a client - now the lawyer might be an idiot that's far from impossible, but generally payment plans or "no win no fee" are careful to select cases that they are pretty obviously going to win.

So he has no claim on the property at all? It's in your name, has been all along, and you have not lived there with him?

Does he pay rent? If so, you can simply terminate the agreement when it is up for renewal.

Did the will pre-date their reacquaintance?

Agree. I have had to do this once with a tenant who stopped paying. It's unpleasant and stressful but it works.

I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with this shit. I hope it is resolved in your favour very soon.

He is despicable, trying to basically steal a house like this.

Its yours. Keep it. I hope you win.

Sorry to be unclear. The form was before my aunt's death. So long before all this started.

Yes this. It is because they want to check the house being owned by me doesn't change things much.

Winner gets their costs, but that is subject to:

1. assessment by court (if not agreed between the parties) and as a rule, a successful party will only recover around 60-70% of costs actually incurred;
2. paying party having sufficient assets to pay. Often the threat of being made bankrupt can be helpful but if the money/assets aren’t there, they aren’t there.