82 yr old, cut out of wife's will, looking at homelessness

[Isabelle24]

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/11693816/Retired-civil-servant-82-faces-ruin-after-being-cut-out-of-wifes-will.html

The London County Court judge has conceded that this is a 'very distressing case' and that this man will have to see his home: "A very significant part of his share will be swallowed up in costs and he will be left homeless."

Was there nothing that the court could have done?

boy, what did he do to piss her off that much?

Heartbreaking case. But, it's something that may happen more and more in the future, when a parent decides to put their children above their second spouses - a number of children of first marriages lose out on inheritance purely because their parent remarried, and then died first, leaving most of their estate to their partner which then is inherited by their children.

The husband clearly felt the woman had been influenced unduly by her son. But on the other hand maybe as lljkkk suggests he really had pissed her off so much that she wanted to leave her asset elsewhere. That's her right after all - and that's why the court shouldn't do anything unless you can prove either drafting error or malign influence.

he would have better off coming to an agreement with the son that he lived in the house for his lifetime and after his death it would be sold. I don't know if that was something he explored or whether he just jumped straight in with the legal case for the whole share absolutely.

E rm... she left her HALF of the house to her son. The value of the husband's half has been eaten up by the costs of the legal case he brought (though it sounds thankfully as if he will have some left). If he'd swallowed it and sold the house, it sounds as if he'd have had enough at least to buy somewhere else.

In the only case of this type I've ever known, the judge specifically stopped the case at one point to warn that if the parties went on to the next stage of the argument, they risked the whole estate they were arguing about going in costs.

Is it really so awful that a woman decided to leave money to her son?

heartbreaking case - wish the husband had just sucked up what he must have seen as a betrayal by his wife.

She didn't leave her "half of the house" to her child. She made a variation of a legal arrangement known as joint tenancy that she had entered into willingly years before. After 25 years of marriage and very close to her death, his wife decided that her "half" (in a joint tenancy there is no half- you both own all of it) would go to her son instead, ensuring her elderly husband would have to move out of his home after a bereavement. Horrible imo.

My husband and I are not yet married 25 years. We own our home (as most couples who own jointly do) as a joint tenancy so we automatically become full owner if the other one dies. That was clear to us when we bought.

If my husband was dying and shortly before he died served a deed of separation of joint tenancy and left his "half" of our home to someone else - even one of our children, I think I would follow him into the afterlife to tell him what I thought of him.

hard hard case. I feel for this man.

Couldn't she have put her half into a trust, with her husband as first beneficiary & her son as 2nd?

It is really complex, trying to get this right.

MIL didn't ever think this through and so SFILs family got everything... and crowed about it, laughed about it in the pub.

I think that anyone on their 2nd marriage needs to sit down with all concerned and spell out what to expect. And then get a will written and safely lodged. That way anyone trying undue influence will find it harder to apply such guilt.

It's a heartbreaking case. It's for reasons like this that my 86 year old mother always refused to live with or marry her partner of 11 years. He has previously been widowed twice, and already has middle-aged children from his two marriages squabbling with each other over who should inherit his bungalow. If he and Mum married, and he died first (he's 91), she would either have faced bad blood from his children if he'd left the house to her, or risked being put out if he'd left it to one or other of his children. She wanted no part of it.

I hope he leaves every penny to the cats' home.

My dad recently told me how my inheritance will work. I was a bit taken aback and secretly I don't think it's fair (step sisters get more than us); but sod it. I just said thanks for letting me know. His money to give to Old Surfers' Home if he sees fit.

It's difficult in such a situation. When my dad died he split his estate equally between me, my brother and my step mum. My step mum had her own house. But if she hadn't I couldn't have put her on the streets at 82.

Wow, how horrible. If that was me I would just have let him stay there until he died and sold it then. They could probably even have charged him rent.

I don't care how horrible he was to him, I have had relatives who have been positively evil to me, I still wouldn't see them homeless at his age.