If a will is deemed invalid, does a previously certified version count instead?

[WhereTheresAWillWTF]

MIL's mother's mother recently died, leaving GMIL her house in the will as sole beneficiary. For various long drawn-out reasons it turns out the will wasn't lodged with the Law Society and the solicitor who drew it up has been shut down. The family has a certified official copy of the will, but one isn't 'on the record' anywhere.

GMIL today has been told by solicitors acting on her behalf that the probate people could find this will invalid. She has a previous will (also certified and confirmed logged with the Law Society) that gives a nominal sum of several thousand pounds to a step sibling who was later written out of the will following a family fall-out. She asked her solicitors if that previous official will would be valid instead and was told that it would not be usable, and instead the estate would be split 50-50 between GMIL and her step sibling under interstacy rules.

We've been reading up on this online and this seems not to be the case, so we're suggesting GMIL goes and gets legal advice elsewhere.

Where a Will is declared invalid it can have serious legal consequences. As it cannot be followed it means that either:

The person’s previous Will (that was valid when it was made) will apply, even if that previous Will was made a long time ago,
or

Where there was no previous Will, then the law will follow the rules that apply where someone dies without a Will (even though these may not be that relevant to the person’s circumstances).

(from www.qualitysolicitors.com/wills-and-probate/contesting-a-will-or-inheritance/will-is-not-valid)

Any advice or insights would be really welcome. GMIL is in pieces (not least because she doesn't want anything to do with her step sister and is executor) and it's made the bereavement even more traumatic. Even someone explaining simply how/why this might be (or if this is wrong) would help give her the impetus to go get additional legal advice.

Can anyone help please?

Not a lawyer but I thought that wills didn’t have to be “lodged”, just signed, dated and witnessed, but you need to have the original not a copy. You need to find where the law firm’s paperwork ended up and get the original signed copy.

The previous poster is right. Wills do not have to be lodged anywhere. The potential problem you have is that it seems you don't have the original will, only a copy. You should contact the SRA. They should be able to help you trace what happened to the original firm's records.

If the original cannot be found the Probate Registry may accept your copy. Your GMIL will have to submit an affidavit setting out how the will was lost, what she has done to try and find it and details of anyone who would inherit if the will is not accepted.

You are correct that, if this will is not accepted as valid, a previous valid will takes precedence. The rules of intestacy only apply if there is no valid will.

Are they a step sibling or a half sibling? I thought step siblings didn’t automatically inherit?

I applied to the law society for the original of my mother's will, as the solicitor's who drew up the will no longer practiced. I think it was an on line form.

I have a friend who works as a barrister in this area. She shares occasional anecdotes. What I have learned is - come to an amicable agreement rather than kicking off legal proceedings. Whatever happens in the court case the entire estate under dispute will end up being spent on lawyers' fees and any victory will be hollow.

Thre is definitely no registration system people need to go through with will. You just sign them and sometimes the solicitor keeps the original and sometimes you do. So someone has seriously misled you here! Also whether or not a solicitor was struck off, ceased practice or was not even a solicitor that does not affect the validty of a will. If you follow will requirements including 2 witnesses present at signature who witness it then it is highly likely to be valid even if the man in the corner shop drew it up for you.

prh sounds right in saying the problem may well not be that the will is invalid but that the original cannot be found which is not the same thing if there is a copy of it.

On the basic issue if a will genuinely is invalid eg someone forced someone to sign it then you do indeed revert back to the previous will.

She asked her solicitors if that previous official will would be valid instead and was told that it would not be usable,

If that's what the solicitors told her she needs to change solicitors pronto.

Thanks so much for all the responses. We're not a family that's had much experience with solicitors and just having some common sense responses here has been reassuring (well actually it's a bit terrifying because our initial feeling that the solicitors' advice was wrong seems to be right, which opens up a whole new can of fafftastic worms, but we'll get to that soon I suppose!).

To clarify a couple of points, I got the sibling relationship slightly awry (this all happened decades before I was part of the family so it's been a learning curve) the daughter written out of the will was an adopted sibling, not half or step.

PRH and Xenia, you're right in that the solicitors are querying the fact that GMIL has a certified copy of the latest/last will but not the original. But they've told her expressly that if probate do not accept the certified copy of the last will they won't accept the previous one and instead will split the estate as if there was no will. Is there ever a situation where that might be the case?

She asked her solicitors if that previous official will would be valid instead and was told that it would not be usable

If that's what the solicitors told her she needs to change solicitors pronto.

That was our feeling after a brief Google last night TBH titchy. We're not legal people and after about five minutes we found online advice saying the previous will would be ok. It seems insane that a long-standing solicitors' firm would not be saying the same thing. Are there any situations where a previous will (not a copy) would be discounted in this way? The whole situation just feels a bit off somehow. She's a very savvy woman but also recently bereaved and struggling, I worry that somehow this firm is trying to take advantage of GMIL but I just don't understand the point of what they're doing.

Thanks so much for all your responses, it definitely makes me think she needs at the very least to go and talk to a different firm with all the information / versions of the will she's got.

Honestly, this whole kerfuffle has left me agog and wondering what to do about keeping our wills safe. It's caused such distress and faff!

Just to make sure she was in England and Wales right?

Scotland does have different inheritance laws and i think Northern ireland might as well.

If i am understanding you your MIL died she as a will that leaves everthing to her mother excluding her adopted child in Scotland for example you cannot disinhert your children (adopted are classed legally as your children) they are entitled to a share of the liquid assists even if the will says ofterwise.