anyone know about wills and if it might be invalid?

[DollyTwat]

If a will has been witnessed by two people, but it turns out that one person wasn't there the same time as the other, does that make the will invalid?

If it does, how do you go about stopping probate being granted?

There is a lot more to this but just wanted to find out this first. Thanks if you can help

Dolly you may need to start a new thread and link this one to it IYSWIM?

Yes good idea

Actually i think a trust deed needs just the one witness, but it's provenance must be decidedly dodgy.

He can't afford to see a solicitor, I'm trying to help him all I can, whilst he searches the internet. But, you are right, from what I can gather about Deed Trusts it could say anything - presumably that she had the right to live there till she died, that sort of thing.

He's asked for a copy, in case the deed only covers the purchase price of the house, leaving the profit to become part of the estate. Not sure what right he has to see the document or whether her solicitor will provide it.

He's going to apply to be an administrator, he's not sure if the house forms part of the estate until probate is granted, or what happens to the contents of the house which the sister removed.

I never realised probate could be so complicated!

Thanks to everyone for their help, if I find out more I'll post it just in case anyone can point us in the right direction. I'm afraid he'll miss out some point of law which he doesn't know about.

TBH I think he can't afford NOT to see a solicitor.

I do wish I could persuade him to go.

The feeling now is that he's succeeded in proving the will is invalid, which is no small thing. It would be interesting to see if the deed was drawn up before or after the will. I guess there's no reason to believe it's been done properly seeing as the will was done so sloppily.

If he can get a copy of the deed I'll see if I can post some details, see if we can make any sense of it. But I just can't get him to invest in a solicitor.

Probate is stopped anyway, as the probate office told him that as soon as two applications are received the whole process stops. He still has his caveat in place. We just don't know if he can stop the sale of the house if it's deemed to not be part of the estate, is it probate that proves the ownership of the house?

He could have a go at registering a caution against dealings (nb I'm not a conveyancer and I always get our conveyancing section to help me with that stuff). He can look on the Land Registry website, there are a million and one forms and it's vitally important to use the right one, but there is a procedure whereby you can put a notice onthe register that there's a dispute.

As I say, this is more of a conveyancing question, you may want to start a fresh thread for a conveyancing bod to give you some proper advice.

The reference to 2 witnesses is I think confusing the position re a will.

When I get another update I'll post again, but until he sees what's in this deed no-one can advise can they?
Just wanted to say thanks to everyone for their help so far