Anyone with any experience of contested probate?

[Pogmella]

The will was drawn up while mum was of sound mind and split everything equally between myself and my sister, with separate provision for grandchildren/great grandchildren.

My sister is unhappy with this and wants a greater share than me as she has personal debts.

She’s refusing to co-execute and threatening to contest.

I know this all sounds straightforward but it’s immensely stressful- if anyone had gone through similar I’d like to know how it ended? She’s saying she’ll appoint her own solicitor now (she originally wanted the estate to fund the contest) so I think we’re heading to court.

Oh gosh, how stressful for you. No personal experience but I hope you have a good solicitor who can fend of a claim well before it got near court.

Did you sister think your mum intended to leave her more? Or incur the debts because she was a carer?

No she’s lived abroad (long haul) for the last 15 years. I cared for mum until she went into residential care in 2018 and have obviously been her main contact point since then.

My sister has struggled with substance abuse since her teens. She’s left 6 children here who all had a great relationship with mum. She’s happy for them to get less which I can’t get my head around. She’s not in contact with all of them, but still! I thought she’d got things together a bit but the last few years I think she’s fallen off the wagon again sadly. We did used to be close but it’s been really trying due to the addiction issues.

She's highly unlikely to get anything and may well end up with her share going to pay everyone's legal costs.

Any decent solicitor would advise her against contesting, her having debts would not be a valid reason.

I’m unclear what her grounds for contesting will be, she hasn’t detailed anything like she suspects undue influence or unfit mental state.

She’s convinced mum gave me more while she was alive which I suppose I can see why- when she stopped driving she gave me her car and my DC learned to drive in it, for instance. It was a bit of a banger and obv my sister had no use for it abroad, I suppose she feels all that stuff has added up and I should have sold it and sent her half the proceeds/given them back to mum.

Fundamentally she feels it’s unfair as her need is greater and while Mum was alive she used to pay when I took her out for lunch etc- lots of little things that she feels constitute me already having received my inheritance.

She won't get any more just because she wants more.

She could try to challenge the will but, if it was drawn up correctly and your mother was of sound mind a challenge is unlikely to succeed. If a challenge was successful your mother's previous will (if there was one) would be valid. If there was no previous will her estate would be dealt with under intestacy rules, which would mean the grandchildren and great grandchildren would lose out.

She could also lodge a claim under the Inheritance Act. Her personal situation would be relevant to such a claim but, based on the information posted here, I doubt it would succeed.

Unless there is a significant fact we don't know, if she goes to see a solicitor she is likely to be told that she has no realistic chance of success and that, if she goes ahead with a challenge and loses, she will have to pay the estate's legal costs as well as her own.

As far as I know she doesn’t have a leg to stand on (I genuinely believe the will is a fair reflection of my mum’s intentions and was drawn up professionally)

I was just wondering if anyone’s had to handle a spurious claim on a will and how it ended up. She can be quite litigious and has settled some debts out of court, I wonder if she’s hoping to push me into agreeing some sort of deal, but I’m not even sure if that’s possible- we can’t just ignore the will and carve stuff up as we see fit even if we agreed, surely?!

Thanks @prh47bridge I think there was one earlier will but I’m not sure. Perhaps she’s hoping if it goes to intestacy and the kids are written out she’ll get a bigger half.

I’d love to honour mum’s wishes and give something to my nieces and nephews if that happens but it’s a bit hard with their being 6!

She has suggested she should get over 50% as she has more children and then divide it among them herself, writing out the kids she’s estranged from.

She has suggested she should get over 50% as she has more children

The court will not award her more just because she has more children, nor will they give her more because your mother gave you more when she was alive, even if that was true.

we can’t just ignore the will and carve stuff up as we see fit even if we agreed, surely

Yes you can. You can vary the will provided you do it within 2 years of your mother's death and have the agreement of any beneficiaries who are going to be worse off after the change. However, in the circumstances you describe I wouldn't go down this route. She doesn't appear to have a case so all she is likely to achieve is to leave herself worse off than if she had accepted the will.

I’m sorry for your loss, which is the loss of both a mother and sister I suppose

A relative is currently in the middle of a spurious claim on a will from another relative. Like your sister, she is well known for being litigious. I can’t tell you how it will end up, but she has apparently instructed solicitors to contest under “undue influence or coercion”, seemingly with the aim of securing an out of court settlement.

I believe it’s the third or fourth will she’s contested for similarly bonkers reasons, and looks like it will be as unsuccessful as the others.

I’m happy to share further details if you wanted to PM me.

I believe you can make an application to court to remove her as co-executor but it needs to be done at an early stage.

Sounds like formal mediation might be worth a try. I'm sure this comes with a cost too though.

How sad. I see a lot of this in my work (I'm not a probate solicitor)

@prh47bridge so all of the grandchildren would need to agree? They’re all individually named as beneficiaries of a fund. I can’t see one of them in particular doing this on principle (he doesn’t need the money, he’s done very well for himself but just isn’t her biggest fan due to how she treats his siblings)

Can she contest it and remain as executor? I’m hoping at least if she steps down then she might lose the case and I can act as sole executor.

Thanks @SuperFurryDoggy that’s exactly what I was hoping for!

My Stepdad was threatening to contest my DM's will, despite it being the mirror of his and me offering an amendment from the begining long before anything got nasty. He had a very weak case, but there was still a slim possibility he could win leaving me with horrific costs. It never got to court but the to-ing and fro-ing between solicitors was very expensive. In the end I agreed to a deed of variation that gave him a bit more to save it rumbling on further and costing even more thousands in legal costs. It cost around 8k including having the deed drawn up.
With hindsight, and thinking purely of the money rather than the principal, I should have given him a bit more than he eventually got but sooner. It could have cost the same overall but saved months of stress. On a positive note it was utterly pointless for him, as what he gained over my initial (very generous!) offer would have been eaten up in his legal costs, assuming they were similar to mine. It is true that the only winners are the solicitors. My advice would be to chuck her a small extra %age now if you think she would take it, rather than seeing it as an opening offer to weedle more out of you.

It's awful OP. My DM told me a few months before she died that her will etc were all sorted and everything was in place. She was clear what she wanted. DM and Stepdad had clearly discussed and agreed what was in it, and his will made identical provision for her should he have died first. She would have been furious and appalled if she were able to know what he'd done.

@skankingpiglet do you mind sharing why he had any sort of case?

I’m hoping because we’re all independent adults living away from her home the only grounds she could have at all relate to process of the will being drawn up. At this stage I really don’t want to agree an additional % for things like foreign money transfer costs or travel over (sorry I’m not trying to drip feed she’s just sending a lot of emails covering a lot of ground)

so all of the grandchildren would need to agree?

If they would all lose out yes, they would all need to agree.

Can she contest it and remain as executor

She will have to step down from her role as an executor if she intends to contest the will. An executor is required to defend the will. She clearly can't defend it and contest it at the same time.

Thanks @prh47bridge. I think the chances of getting 10 people to agree a variance to benefit her is probably a tall ask for any family but feels impossible for us!

Despite always keeping their finances separate, him earning a fair whack more than her, the mirrored wills, and them being mortgage-free, he claimed he was financially dependent on her and she had failed to make sufficient provision for him (he was left with a life interest in their house and I gifted him over 10k). It was a few months after probate was granted he suddenly decided he should get more. We were also both her executors.
He clearly wasn't dependent, as part of the deed of variation was that he should receive ~£200 from the estate each month to cover DM's contribution to living costs for a number of years. I asked when and where he would like the money after everything had gone through to be told it wasn't necessary... this monthly amount was one of the sticking points that he'd insisted upon during negotiations 🤦🏻‍♀️