Will question...

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My cousin's mum died 11 years ago in her late 80s. My cousin is now in her 60s and had lived with her mum for her whole life, and had brought up her own daughter in the house as a single mum. Then she looked after her mum in the same house. Nice Cousin has a brother, who has a wife and two young adult children.

My Cousins' mum went in for an operation. At the last minute, she panicked about not having made a will, so made one in hospital. It was signed by two random people. She made both of my cousins (i.e. her children) her executors.

She died after the operation (which was risky, and she was fully aware of this - hence her last-minute will. She didn't want to die intestate).

In this will, she left her assets/savings - not huge! - to her son, and her house to her daughter, who had lived there since birth and who had looked after her for many, many years.

However, the will had a problem, in that it was made in a hurry so a) wasn't dated; and b) she didn't get the witnesses to provide their full names and addresses. There are only signatures.

My female cousin has continued to live in the house that her mother wanted her to have. However, my male cousin has not been happy with this, and has said several times that she should be paying rent, but hasn't insisted on it. He is now terminally ill, and his wife is planning to insist on their rights (as the will is apparently invalid) and insist that they sell the house as soon as he dies, as nobody can prove that their mum intended to leave it to my female cousin.

Female cousin is distraught. Is there anything that can be done? Male cousin's wife has proven herself over some 30 years to be absolutely horrendous, so her actions now are no surprise. But is there anything to be done legally?

I know - obviously! - that this shows how important wills are. Mine is watertight and has been since I was 18, so I am aware of all of this. I advised my aunt to do likewise, but couldn't force her. But is there any way my lovely cousin can keep the house, as her mum wanted?

There is no time limit for a claim that a will is invalid. However, the fact they've left it 11 years won't help them. Your male cousin will have to go to court if he wants to do anything. Your cousin needs to see a solicitor who deals with contentious probate.

For clarity, I meant that your female cousin needs to see a solicitor who deals with contentious probate. They will be able to advise on the validity of the will and the likely outcome if male cousin does take action.

At the time, did the brother go along with the will by taking all of the other assets? Surely if he went along with it at the time, he showed that he was happy to agree to the will?

Does anyone know if “Estoppel” applies in this case

It is a little known device where if a promise is made it is upheld.

If the daughter had cared for mum in the expectation of inheriting the house, in this case reinforced in the “will”.

A friend had to use this recently, his father remarried, new wife got Power of Attorney and tried to sell the property
The large property was “promised” to the son which was upheld in court
new wife got very little on the death of father.

Thanks for these thoughts. I have looked up Estoppel and I found things which were mostly about farming - but the principle may still apply. I should say that my female cousin is the loveliest person in the world, and would never have looked after her mum in the hope/expectation of obtaining an inheritance. They are just an 'old fashioned' (in the best sense) family, where mum and daughter have just always lived together. When my female cousin became pregnant, bringing up her own daughter in the same house with her mum's help seemed the obvious thing to do. It was then equally obvious that she cared for her mum until her mum died.

I don't know whether the brother accepted the other assets - this is a good point and one I'll look into.

My male cousin just issues regular comments about how his sister ought to be paying rent as it's half his house, but hasn't done anything active about it. I think his wife is the real problem, and was a problem for many years before anyone died. She's the one who is likely to try to force a sale if her husband dies. She has always hated my female cousin because the two cousins were once very close, and I think she was jealous of their brother/sister relationship. I've largely avoided her for the past 20 years as she's so insufferable.