What happens when there is no will?

[sandyballs]

Mum moved into a care home a year ago as she has dementia. I have power of attorney and have sorted out all her finances and sold her house to fund her care.

Whilst sorting through all her paperwork and emptying her property I came across an old unsigned will leaving her finances to myself, my brother and his two children. Half to me and the other half split between the three of them. I know for sure that this was amended a few years later when my DDs were born but I can't find it. I have rung round local solicitors and no-one has any record of it.

So if mum were to die, what would the situation be. Presumably as this old will is unsigned it won't stand. It doesn't really matter as I can always share my half with my DDs and to be honest I doubt if much will be left with the cost of the care home, but I'm keen to tie up loose ends now I've got this far with mum's property and finances and I want to do what she planned when she was of sound mind.

Presumably she will be treated as having no will at all, so what happens then? My brother, myself and the four grandchildren are her only living relatives.

You and your sibling will have equal shares to do with what you like. Sorry for your loss. Have you tried Somerset House?

If she didn't sign the old will she may never have got round to signing or indeed making a new will even though she presumably talked to you about it. This is a useful link.
Have you shown your brother the old will and explained you've looked for a new one? It sounds as though whether there's a will or not your mum intended to split the estate equally between you and that's what the law will allow now. That's all your brother could expect I'm sure BUT there is so much trouble and upset over wills and people - even lovely, sensible people - behave so badly that I would counsel you to be absolutely open with him about this so he knows what your mum intended.

Thanks that's interesting. Mum had a very volatile reslationship with my brother and every few months they'd fall out and she'd change her will to exclude him, leaving it all to me. Later they'd make up and she'd change it again, putting him back in.

She would tell me about this every time it happened and I kept saying to her that she was wasting her money paying a solicitor to do this so frequently as even if she died whilst my brother was out of the will, I would still give him half.

She didn't like this, said she'd come back and haunt me . But this is why I'm sure there must be another will somewhere.

I agree that money brings out the worst in people. I think my brother is aware of this but I'll def speak to him about it.

That's terrible behavior using a will like that. My will is silly really as I leave equal shares to my dc, which is what happens in law anyway. I wouldn't write my dc out.

Just a thought- my mum did a will with a bank, if we d looked at solicitors we d never have found it. I m not even sure it was HER bank, it may have been just A bank.