Need a will quickly and cheaply

[Naetha]

DH and I are about to emigrate to Australia and we need to set up wills before we go.

I know nothing about wills - do we need one each, or can we do a joint one? It will be very simple, the main thing it specifies is that my sister will become guardian of our children in the event that we both die.

We have a tight budget for emigrating, so I'd rather not eat into it too much, but we need it all finalised within 5 weeks, and I want something that involves limited paperwork on our part as we're just so busy until we go.

If we get one drawn up by a solicitor, how much should we be paying?

You need a will each, but they can be done v easily. Theres a mnetter who advertises on here who can do them easily and quickly an the paperwork is simple

Mumblechum1 did ours a couple of weeks ago and I can highly recommend her. She was really fast, efficient, explained everything really clearly and she only charged about £150 for both of them.

Ours took 5 days from start to finish

Second vote for mumblechum/marlowwills - she did mine very quickly and efficiently. And I got a warm glow from giving business to someone on MN!

Thanks Jonny and HMTheQueen!

Hope Your Maj is keeping well; love to the corgis

Third vote for mumblechum1, mine was not simple in the slightest but the will was easily completed. I live overseas too and all work was completed by email, apart from the final draft.

Thanks Gonzo!

We had mirror wills - the terms of both our wills are the same. Cost was about £250 I think. Was all done in just over a week. Only paperwork needed was ID for both of us. Solicitors will store the will securely - which I presume will be important to consider if emigrating - where are you going to keep it? (sorry, slightly bizarre thought but still...)

In case you are interested, OP, my website is www.marlowwills.co.uk. I usually recommend storage at the Court Service's facility which is v secure and costs a one off fee of £15.

Just something to consider will Australian law recognise a UK will. I don't know the answer, but have a friend who is currently trying to sort out the mess from a sibling who wrote a UK will went to live in a different country and that country did not recognise the UK will with relation to property held in that country.

The rules are pretty simple on international jurisdiction; when a testator makes a will in England and Wales and is habitually resident here, but there's a foreign element, the Will will state that it covers all assets everywhere in the world except for real (ie bricks and mortar) property abroad.

So lots of my clients have holiday homes in France, Spain etc together with bank accounts there. Their English wills cover their bank accounts but they need to make a separate will in the other country covering purely their real estate there.

So your friend's sibling, when buying a house in the other country, should have written a will covering that house which would act in tandem with his English will.

But Naetha is emigrating to Australia so will she not be habitually resident in Australia as my friends sibling was in the other country.

Yes, so if she buys a house there she'll have to make a will to cover it.

Thank you for clearing that up.

THanks for that - will be renting for the first couple of years so not buying just yet!

www.whichwills.com - worked for us, not sure if it will cover you abroad.

Ah...so does anyone know, if you have property in Scotland and England, do you have to get two wills made?