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

This gave me a laugh. Thanks.

Ok so when he goes to court he has to set out what he is suing for.

He literally cannot sue for the house because that does not form part of the estate.

He could attempt to sue for damages, but he would have to specifiy exactly what those damages are.

Usually it would be loss of earnings, breach of contract, or some other provable financial loss. He hasn't suffered any financial loss.

Surely your solicitors have already advised you. What you need to ask them is, on what grounds could he potentially be successful i.e. what is his legal claim?

Do you not know this OP? It seems like you have spent a lot of money and yet you don't understand the advice you have paid for.

I don't get what he thinks he is doing TBH beyond stressing me out.

No he is sueing for support from the estate claiming to be a dependant. My solicitor is clear that the house is not part of it but he and his solicitor keep talking about it.

I admit I am out of my depths in the legal it is not my area at all.

In my profession I am actually a competent professional. It is just all of this keeps coming at me when I am struggling already and I get a bit muddled by some of the terms.

I have done this already. Thanks for checking.

No he is sueing for support from the estate claiming to be a dependant.

What does your solicitor say is the legal definition of a dependant?

I can chuck him out at the end of May. I think this legal stuff is just trying to drag it on so that he can argue that I can't chuck him out with an ongoing case. Then he can stay longer. I am not biting on that though. He goes the day I have the court appointed right to get rid of him.

Someone supported by the deceased. The argument is does asking me to let him stay count as giving financial support because it was housing without really paying.

The petty part of me says get the utilities switched back into your name and then get them capped off (although that would be at a cost to you).
The sensible part of me says have you checked Shelter's website? It's there to advise landlords as well as tenants. Although I would say he's a squatter.

And exactly how did the deceased support him?

The deceased did not house him because the house he lived in did not belong to the deceased.

So what other way did she support him? It sounds like your solicitors are making a meal of this. Are they charging you for every interaction with him?

I don't know what the exact legal definition of a dependent is, but normally it's your child, or spouse of elderly parent - someone who is dependent on you for care, food, housing, bills etc. I don't think "FWB" will cut it tbh.
He's presumably arguing that he was dependent on her for housing? But he paid council tax, etc? That would be a scary legal precedent if that succeeded! Let your FWB stay in your spare room, and bang - congratulations, they're your legal dependent, and they can get some inheritance?!
Did your Aunt support him financially at all, or just offer for him to stay in this house?

Surely he is harassing you? If he is daily calling and writing!
I would tell my solicitors not to respond to him at all.
Only respond to his solicitor and only if his solicitor brings something new to light. Seems they are trying to just build up your costs!
He's basically causing you increased costs, but your solicitors don't need to engage any more, they only need to respond if they recieve something offical. They don't need to engage with a back and forth! Tell him to stop harassing you and that you will see him in court. Seems like his solicitor is also like him! Just trying it on. Get him evicted then ignore him.

I mean she paid half if they went out and she occasionally paid something for him. I think she paid for him to go with her to things. I remember her getting him a new suit once for an event.

He is probably harassing me but my solicitors have refused contact from him so he has to go through his solicitor and therefore doesn't much. It costs him. He isn't able to run up my costs with them.

As for the harassing me. It isn't daily or anything so I'm not sure what the threshold is. He probably contacts me a few times a week.

You say that he has deferred his lawyer's costs. Is his solicitor a 'no win, no fee' solicitor or will he have to pay his solicitor's fees, even if he loses?

If his solicitor is 'no win, no fee', your aunt's FWB has nothing to lose by taking you to court, even if he has no likelihood of winning. He is probably enjoying causing you stress and you having to pay legal costs.

I don't truly know. It was a line in the financial disclosure. It said deffered legal costs will potentially mean that there are no savings left.

I would ask for some legal advice about what might happen. It may be worth your while to offer a settlement even though even fibre of my being says don't do that. Remember Bleak House, Dicken's novel where they argue the case of Jarndyce versus Jarndyce, an inheritance case but when it is eventually resolved there is no money left, it has all gone to the lawyers?

Presumably that's his aim - to stress you out so much you hand over the house. Just walk through it, OP, and put him out of your mind as much as you can. Believe everybody who tells you he hasn't a leg to stand on. All of his words are nothing more than the sound of a ticking of a clock leading up to the time this all ends.

Blimey, all this because your aunt who was the kindest person and helped everyone bought house in your name to try and dodge inheritance tax. She’s really put you in it here, hasn’t she? Imagine if she’d just bought it in her own name and left you out of it?

TBH it might have been even more complicated.

These things are a nightmare. The only people who win are the lawyers.

This is a bit of a side track but any chance you can sue him for unpaid rent given that he was meant to pay and didn't?

A few times a week is too much. I'd get a cease and desist letter sent. He's no need to contact you directly for anything surely.

So the judge cannot legally award the house to him as it is owned by you predating aunts death, and almost certainly wont award him anything out of the estate. I am as baffled as @Sleepneededprettyplease as to what he hopes to achieve!

At best he was an acquaintance that you allowed to live rent free for a period as he was a casual boyfriend of your aunts. If you had died he might have a claim I suppose, but your business relationship with him was entirely separate from his personal relationship with your aunt!

ETA I agree that a "few times a week" is definitely harassment, the police would take that seriously.

People don’t evict squatters. The owner has to hire bailiffs to do that. The police will come if trouble kicks off and they are called…