I was wondering if anyone could advise. My grandmother died in 1987, leaving her house to be jointly shared between my dad and his stepdad. The stepdad was allowed to live in the house for the rest of his life.
My dad recently and unexpectedly passed away and we found a letter, dated 1989, referring to my gran’s wishes. We drove up to the house to have a look, and saw a SOLD board outside. The stepdad’s children are selling the house.
We contacted them through the estate agent on the board, and they said - (through the estate agents) ‘oh yes, we know about you, we will split the money with you, no problem’.
I asked for something in writing and a few days later, their solicitor wrote and is basically asking what claim we think we have.
We don’t have a copy of the will. I contacted the solicitors who wrote my gran’s will, they got me to come in for an appointment, charged me £100 and told me that they don’t have a copy of my gran’s will.
Family lore was that the solicitors were supposed to inform us, should anyone try to sell the house and sort out the arrangements.
In fact, they’ve said the will would have been destroyed after six years and they’re under no legal obligation to have kept it. They have encouraged me to Caution (?) the house because it isn’t registered on the land registry which costs £250.
They are encouraging me to see their litigation team, but I’m wondering if without a will, is there a case?
Are the stepdad’s family doing something illegal if they know the house isn’t really theirs to sell?
Are the solicitors giving us the best advice - to pursue this through litigation without a will?
The only paperwork we have is a letter between the solicitor I’ve been seeing (who drew up the will) and the stepdads solicitors , in 1989 - two years after my gran’s death - where agreeing to split the asset (the property) jointly. We also have the envelope the will came in, dated 1980.
The solicitor said this envelope shows it was the original will, my gran took it home with her and there was no other record of it and they are in no way responsible for having any record of it.
So the stepdad - who by all accounts was a pretty nasty guy could have just destroyed it, so his own family could inherit the house (which my grandparents had already paid for by the time he cane on the scene!)
Argh. I have a young family, I work full time in a stressful job and I’m trying to cope with the aftermath of losing my dad. On the other hand...we don’t have a lot of money and if we did get this inheritance, it would change our lives. What do you think?