Inheritance rules in England PLEASE ?

[54isanopendoor]

Backstory: I was born in England in 1968 (I moved to Scotland 30 years ago)

My Mother Ta, was married to J. They had my brother, M.
When M was 3 my Mother met another man: Te. He was also married (his wife moved out) so TA & Te lived there together & had me. When I was 3m old Te was killed in an RTA. Te's wife made Ta leave & she returned to J & my 4 y/o brother.

I was not told ANY of this & only discovered aged 16 when I applied for my birth cert for a passport (where Ta had signed as married to Te!) I was sent to School as J's child, & told to call him Dad all my life re 'the neighbours' etc. He decorated my first flat. He 'gave me away' at my wedding. He was my Dad.
In reality although J was fine, my Mother was always awful. I paid for my own school clothes age 14, rent age 16, thrown out age 18. This all came from her ('you are lucky he tolerates you / you have no rights here') She was messed up.

Ta & J had absolutley no money at all all their lives but have a modest bungalow. Because of where it is in Kent (& on a large plot) it is worth around £400K.
The day before I married Ta said to me: 'you better hope I outlive J. because I wont leave a will & if I die 1st you'll get nothing'. I didn't respond to her poison.
After I had my 2 kids she said: 'I will leave a letter saying I want the house to be split between my 4 grandkids' (my brother has 2 kids) 'so your kids will be richer than you. so you'd better be nice to them'. Again, poison, but as my kids both have Autism so their life chances aren't great (I'm their Carer & on income support as my husband left us) I thought I'd say: 'thanks, that'd be kind of you'.

Anyway (sorry...)
My Mother recently died. She left no formal will. The house goes to J.
Before I left I visited her & she gave me a plastic bag with £700 in it.
I said I didn't want it. She got very . She was dying & in pain, so I took it.
I recently saw J. I said I wanted to give it back to him (he has no money)
He said: 'No. that is your inheritance. Your brother & I counted it out'.
Also, the last time I saw Mum she was agitated about 2 small bank accounts she had for my kids but she couldnt remember much - 'take the paperwork I have & your brother will give you a copy of my death cert & you can go to the bank & sort it after I die'. I imagine there is about £200 in each account. I then remembered that my Mother had asked me to sign permission for her to open an account in each child's name after they were born. She'd never mentioned it again, so I assumed that she'd never done anything about it.
I had an answerphone message from J over the weekend to say: 'where do you want the cheque sent for the kids money'.

Morally I think they have all behaved pretty badly to me (plus Ta had saved 4K for her Funeral & was given a cheapo unattended Cremation, no service at all)

But LEGALLY -

I assume that my kids will have no rights to the property in due course & it will all go to my brother & then his kids in due course (J won't make a will) ??

I assume that it is legally ok for them to close my kids accounts & send them / me cheque ?

It's all really grubby tbh but I'd be grateful if anyone could advise.
It's different in Scotland - you can't 'disinherit' your kids here afaik.

If he is, to all extents and purposes, your dad why not ask him to leave you half the house in a will, as otherwise you will get nothing. Would he respond to that?
I'm sorry you've had such a crappy mum!

I'm sorry, OP. That all sounds very tough. Did your parents own the house jointly? I am not a lawyer, but I believe there are two legal ways to do that in England, tenants in common or joint tenants. Joint tenants is the usual arrangement and means the survivor becomes sole owner, in this case, J. He can then make a will and leave the house as he thinks fit. But if he doesn't make a will, as far as I'm aware, your brother would be sole heir unless your Dad remarries. His name is not on the birth certificate?

Te's wife made Ta leave & she returned to J & my 4 y/o brother.

What do you mean she returned to your 4yo brother? Did she dump him with J while she ran off😳? What do you mean Te’s wife made your mother leave? Were all theee of them living together or your mother was living in Te’s house with him, but he was still married and they hadn’t had the property settlement as yet? All so confusing.

I imagine everything now belongs to J, and he can do what he likes with it? I’m just staggered he took her back, she sounds vile to both J and yourself, sorry.

Seemed clear to me. Ta left J. Brother abandoned too. Te's wife moved out but they weren't divorced. Te dies. His wife inherits house and forces Ta to leave, with baby OP. Amazingly, J takes her back and brings OP up as his own.

If your mother was married to J when you were born was his name on your birth certificate? If so you'll be able to inherit from him the same as your brother. You're legally his child unless anyone can prove otherwise.

The legal position is as your mum and J were married and She didn’t have a will the laws of intestacy apply. The size of your mums estate is relevant, if it is less than £270k it all goes to J. If larger it’s more complicated.

when J dies if there is no will, his estate will all go to your brother unless J formally adopted you. Your brother could do a deed of variation to share the estate with you but be prepared for him to say no. As a pp said the best option is to J to leave a will.

WRT the children’s savings accounts, I believe they belong to the children so there is no need to close them as they can continue to 18. You may want to check with the bank/building society.

Where your Mum and J legally married when you were born?

What name, if any, was put down as the father on your birth certificate? None? Te? J?

What is your brother's view on all this? "My Dad my money", "He's both our Dad and I would like to share" or don't you know?

Ah, @Fenella123 has asked some good questions, the key is whether or not you are legally Js child. I went with adoption as that is clear cut but there are other ways.m

OP says her birth certificate names TA and TE as her parents.
I assume J does not want her to benefit from his death and will therefore not will anything to her.

@lassof Dad is now 88 & quite confused. My Brother is in control of him (not formally / legally but practically). He will do what my Brother wants no doubt.

@Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g both J & Ta names on the deeds afaik. Dad is 88.
No, his name is not on my Birth Cert. It is Te & my Mum (she signed as Te's wife when she was already J's wife so the Certificate was falsified in that respect). Te did sign it so I suppose it 'stands' as a legal Certificate? I have wondered, before, as she told SO many lies who really knows? Aged 16 I double barrelled my name (as I had all my GCSE's in the name of a girl who didn't even exist) Ta angry then.

@HoppingPavlova Yes my Mother left my brother behind. Yes, Te's wife moved out and she moved in. When he died Te's wife chucked my Mum & me out/gave the house to his sister & moved away.
I was born as a result of Ta wanting to 'hold onto' Te (I was told that his wife couldn't have children, though who really knows?). Anyway, once he died I was superflouous. She was awful to me. Treated me as an absolute outsider. J was nice enough to me but basically because he loved Her. My Brother never liked me once told me it was my fault she left. I was the family scapegoat all around.

J will not leave any sort of will. The house will go to my Brother. He was already given a house aged 24 when his Grandmother (J's mother) died. But he'll take the money for his kids. He won't give my kids any. He's never even met them.

I didn't want any money for me but yes I'd accept it for my kids.
I have no way of knowing even what my Mother had put into an account for them. I'll just be sent 'a cheque'. I don't suppose my Brother will hold any back but my Mum had a paid up funeral plan of 4K & my Brother spent £900 on the cheapest unattended cremation possible so who knows? They are an odd lot.

the whole thing is pretty distasteful really.
J might well need the money from the bungalow for his long term care.
(there is literally nothing else - that's why I'd offered the £700 back - he might need it! - ironically he was the kindest of any of them to me as a kid)

but I did rather wonder whether there was anything odd about them closing accounts in my childrens names when my Mother had told me to deal with it.

Ugh. This is probably one of those cases where "living your best life" means not devoting much (if any) effort to untangling all of this. Sorry you're in this situation!

@Fenella123
Yes I agree. I had a horrible childhood & family have continued to behave badly.

BUT .. my Mother told me many times she wanted all 4 grandchildren to inherit.
(which would be lifechanging for my children in particular due to disability)
I have no expectation either J or brother will 'do the decent thing' which in my mind would be to make 1/4 of any estate left after J passes available to my kids.
Thier need is great therefore I feel I need to double check my situation this way.

I guess you could go see a solicitor - would cost a few hundred pounds.
You might postpone that until J dies, though. Firstly, as you say, there may not be anything left for anyone if e.g. care costs eat it all up.

Secondly, if J does leave a will, contesting it (should it not be to your liking) would be a risky and expensive gamble.

If he dies intestate and the estate is worth a lot, the question would be, does the presumption of paternity because your Mum and J were married override both what she put on the birth certificate and what you believe, i.e. that you're not his daughter?

A very interesting question!!

You would want a good, experienced solicitor who is a member of STEP to advise you - and even then, they might say the prospects were much the same as for you contesting a will.

About 10 years ago someone I know had to take legal action regarding an estate and it cost each side about £40,000. Took 6 years to resolve.

So while it might be worth spending a few hundred pounds seeing a solicitor if J is dead or dying and it looks like there's a good sized estate, otherwise...? Probably not worth it.
And even say the solicitor says, "absolutely, find their marriage certificate etc..." how likely is your brother (who may well never speak to you again) to NOT take legal action also?

If you do ever get a legal opinion though, I would love to know what it is.

@Fenella123

I think I'll write to Dad to say, yes, fine re the £200 each for kids in bank accounts (I imagine she did the same for my Brother's kids / or simply gave them that in pocket money).I just wondered if my accepting it meant that I was accepting that as their 'inheritance'. It is all so speculative that maybe I shouldnt' worry!

Thank you for your interesting points, I shall think hard when the time comes (if Dad leaves anything anyway as I say it might all get eaten up in care home fees)

What do you reckon the chances of J needing to go into a care home are ?

Does J care for him? I hope you don't end up needing to help if he won't write a will leaving you anything.

@Thehouseofmarvels well I live 350 miles from them so hands on care would be difficult (as I am a Carer to two kids with Autism & disabled myself).

But I do wonder about 'care' from my Brother yes. Although he lived 6m from my Mother it was ME who wrote to him to tell him how ill I realised she was (from phone & email contact). He replied to say 'he'd not seen for a bit ('covid') & was shocked'. She became ill last summer but really only declined sharply at Xmas (sudden 3st weight loss, falling over etc) He was very slow to arrange care.

It was me calling Marie Curie etc to find out what could be put in place. At the end, she was brought back from hospital & put in a bed without sides in the middle of a rather grubby room with no wallpaper (I cleaned when I visited - it needed it!) Unsurprisingly, she fell out within hours. Brother called 111 & it took 3 hours for anyone to get her back into bed. She died the next day. Pitiful.
She was cremated cheaply as possible. My Brother & his wife are all about the £.
I suspect J will pass fairly soon. He was devoted to her, although she was never anything but unkind to him. It has completely shaken my Faith that a person can behave so selfishly & 'get away with it'. I really wish I'd spoken to her about what she put me through (a childhood of abuse by her & others) when I had the chance but she was rather pitiful by then & my son was around so I chose not to.

I need to 'move on'. But yes when J dies if there is anything left I will speak to a lawyer re her Grandchildren.