Help with a will and ExP please

[StickAForkInMeImDone]

ExP died a year ago. We have a DS together. He always paid maintenence.
We had to involve the solicitor to see the will as ExP family said there was nothing in it - I didn't think this was true because ExP had told me that in the event of him dying our DS would be looked after.
The will stated that DS would inherit 80% of the estate (which involved a property). The trustees of the estate told me that it is being held until DS is 18 and I have no right to ask/claim for maintenance from the estate. My solicitor told me that I can make a claim if I need things like a new school jumper etc. Is this right?
Sorry for way I have written the OP, I have tried to just put down the bare facts as I know them and leave out any emotion.
Can anyone please advise me on this please? DS was ExP's only child.

You need Mumblechum, MNs resident wills and probate expert. Hopefully she will be along in her lunch hour.

Thanks MOS I'm hoping she will see this but didn't want to call out for her directly incase it wasn't the done thing

Not in any way an expert but I would have thought you could claim for maintenance from the estate - after all, if there is a property involved and presumably savings etc, then there should be some sort of income - who gets that or is it reinvested?

bobs I don't know. It took 3 letters from my solicitor to find out what was in the will. There was hardly any savings but there is a property. I imagine the property has been left, by that I mean I imagine they haven't done anything with it. Can'#t see that they would rent it out nor sell it. My solicitor doesn't seem to be that helpful but don'twant to pay to see another one without knowing more of what my son is entitled to before he is 18.

Do you by any chance know whether your ExP had any life insurance either as a purchased policy or via his employment eg a death in service benefit. Often these are held in trust for beneficiaries and would not form part of the estate, so there would be different trustees, and the beneficiary would be more likely to receive cash or a pension.

TBH, given they have lied about the will already, I would be worried that the family would try to dispose of the property without your knowledge.

Ladymuck I don;t know. I assume because he had a mortgage he had life insurance that would ,at least, go towards paying off the mortgage. I'm sure he wouldn't have had any death in service benefit.
In my head it is fairly straight forward. His main asset was his property. He left 80% of this to DS. ExP paid maintenance on time every month for 11 years (we split up whilst I was pregnant), and ExP told me that DS would be looked after should anything to happen to him. It feels as though, just because ExP didn't stipulate in his will about maintenance (obviously he didn't expect to pass away) that the trustees are not doing what ExP wanted to happen.
God I hope this makes sense - am trying hard not to let my emotion intrude on my posts.

SoupDragon That is my concern
ExP had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital voluntariy and we weren't told, he had been complaining about stomach pains for months but his parents told him he was work shy (he died from a stomach ulcer) and we weren't told he had died till a week after his death.

A will is a public document once probate has been granted so anyone can see it.
Ladymuck has a good point - when my sister died her pension only came to light 6 yrs later when my Mum died and we found some paperwork. Unfortunately it has now been added to Mum's estate and taxed (IHT) accordingly at 40% . If I was you I would be phoning his place of work and trying to find who his pension was with. also did he have any endowments? They can have life assurance built in.
Is one of the trustees a solicitor? He should be able to give you all the legalities. As your son is next of kin and has inherited 80% of the estate and you are his parent I would have thought you would have some rights. Trustees have a certain duty to perform and they can't just leave it empty. If this was ExP's house presumably it would be sold and the proceeds invested until DS is 18

No one of the trustees is ExP BIL who apparently had lots of people to notify of his death before DS was told.
I don't know his place of work.

Does probate mean that once the whole estate is tied up? So if the property hasn't been sold/rented out (as I suspect) then could probate have been granted? Sorry I'm a lot bit thick about it.

Just remembered - there are normally clauses built into a will giving trustees powers to advance money for a child's maintenance/education - have a look (if you can decipher the gobbledygook!)

When someone dies the executors sort all the finance stuff out and apply for a grant of probate to the Revenue detailing all the assets including property. When the figures are agreed probate is granted and the assets can be distributed to the beneficiaries - in your DS's case 80% of the estate will then be put in trust and looked after by the trustees until he is 18.
Not very good at links, but if you got on www.direct.gov.uk and do a search on wills that might help - or do your head in, whichever comes first

Thanks bobs no there was nothing in the will about maintenance. But that doesn't surprise me knowing ExP. He would have just assumed that as he stated that DS would be left 80% then some of that would have been paid in maintenance during his school years.

Blimey - was it a DIY will??? Any half-decent solicitor would have suggested that sort of clause - esp after knowing that this is what EXP would have wanted. Sorry - not being much help - pretty well self-taught from the net after 2 deaths in the family in recent years and the experience of making my own will and protecting my DC.
As a year has passed, presumably probate has been granted. Suggestion - do a search on the property and see if it is up for sale??

No bobs not a DIY will. Knowing ExP he did it as quickly and as easily as possible. 80% here, 10% there and the last 10% to somewhere else. He wouldn't have thought any more about it. Why his solicitor didn't suggest it I have no idea.

Dependants can make claims against someone's estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. Courts can order trustees to pay maintenance and a property be provided to house children.

Can you go to court and have the court remove it from them and put into a trust - without any of them as trustees?

So that it is held for him, but they don't have any control over it?

STIDW Thankyou, does that mean that if needed I can force them to sell or rent out the property in order for maintenance to paid for DS?
It all seems so money grabbing which I hate, hence why I have avoided the issue for this long.
JustHecate I don't know, not thought about that. Wouldn't it cost though to do that?

I agree with STIDW. You need to take legal advice.

Thanks Collaborate I will. I am just worried about paying for more advice when my current solicitor has said that I should just apply for maintenance as and when when eg when new school clothes are needed. That doesn't seem right to me.

You apply for maintenance on an adhoc basis from the trust? That wouldn't seem to me to be what you need, which is a steady income stream.

You apply for maintenance on an adhoc basis from the trust?
Yes that is what my solicitor suggested. No, it isn't what we need, it seems to be a ludicrous idea, it also smacks of me having to justify my expenses to the trustees.

MOS