Hi, I'm posting this for a friend of mine and just asking for advice please. The parents of my friend and his sister divorced about 40 years ago. After that both parents re married, and my friend and his sister grew up to have families of their own. They have a great relationship with their mother and her husband, but on their father's side, it's been a different story. The stepmother was never nice to them and even as adults, always resented them and the times they were with their Dad. She didn't look after their Dad properly in his last days, refusing to get proper care for him and blaming everyone but herself for the issues, and so the list would go on (the bad blood went back decades). Recently, the Dad died, with both children (adults now) at his bedside in hospital, with the stepmum nowhere to be seen.
The problem now arises concerns the Will - they don't know if their Dad had made a Will or not. To all intents and purposes the Dad had said he didn't have a Will, despite being fairly wealthy with a business and company. If there is no Will then under the rules of Intestacy, the kids should be entitled to something, but there doesn't seem to be any way of checking. The stepmum won't communicate with them, won't tell them who the solicitor is, and certainly won't tell them if there is a Will or not.
When the Dads estate goes through Probate, will the fact come up that he has/hasn't a Will? How can they be informed either way? How does the process work? And if the Step Mum doesn't fill in the forms properly (by not declaring that the Dad has two kids), will that break the law? And how does the State ensure that she doesn't spend /move all the money (if there is no Will) that the kids might be entitled to?
Sorry for the long post and I know these are fairly harsh questions, but they have been through so much these last few years with their Dad's illness and the lack of care and compassion that has been shown by his wife - and on his deathbed he was trying to speak to give his kids power of attorney, company shares etc, but no one could really understand him at that point and it won't stand up legally.
So basically I'm asking anyone who knows how Probate will work with an Intestacy and how they find out about the estate if there is no solicitor involved - who would contact them? Who would deal with the estate etc? If there is no Will, who ensures that it is fair? Thanks.