Contesting a will without seeing it?

[BelleBoyd]

My father has died recently. My sister and I have been estranged from him for 12 years by his choice when he remarried.
His wife will not communicate with us and I’m wondering how I can tell what is in his will?
If I wait till grant of probate to see it as a public document would that be too late to contest?

On what grounds are you intending to contest it? Do you believe you will be included in the will, but that his wife won’t execute the will as it’s written?

If so that’s not contesting a will. If your father was estranged from you and married to someone, I would be more surprised if he’s left you anything than if he hasn’t. If I were his wife wouldn’t communicate with you either honestly.

You have 6 months from the date of the grant to bring a claim under the IPFDA 1975, but adult children who can / did support themselves financially generally struggle to make a successful claim.

As pp said, what sort of claim do you envisage?

I would think of contesting if as I suspect he has left nothing to me, my sister or his grandchildren. I suspect he has left his entire estate to his wife.
His estate I think would be over £1M.

If you arecin England, he is totally at liberty to leave his entire estate to his wife, and has no obligation to leave anything to estranged adult offspring.

If you were financially dependent on him then you would have a case.

Some other countries do have laws against disinheriting ones children but not England.

I mean this kindly, but I don't think you can contest a will just because you don't like the contents. If you were estranged I can't see what grounds you'd have. We can all choose to leave our money to whoever we want.

You are grown adults....he doesn't have to leave you anything? You can't really contest it? Did you make the effort in the last 12 months to contact him??

On what basis would you be contesting it?

If you’re already thinking of contesting it you might as well go and get legal advice now

I can't see how that's grounds for contesting a will. Pleading a case based on "I don't think it's fair that he didn't give some money to me, even though we've been estranged for 12 years" is hardly going to be a winning argument in a court of law is it. Come on, surely you must be able to see that...

Why waste the money when the legal grounds for the claim are non-existent... unless there's a huge drip feed about to be launched by the OP!

You aren't entitled to anything. What he may or may not have left, or what assets he had are irrelevant. He can leave his estate to who he wants. And given your attitude displayed here, I can think of reasons he might leave you all nothing.

I'm just wondering why you would feel entitled to his money given that you have been estranged for so many years.
I get that he's your dad and seemingly this was his decision.... but why would you even want any of his money when the emotional ties were cut so long ago? Why would you feel entitled to that?
I hope your doing well given the circumstances, estranged or not loosing someone is tough. But I would let this one go. If you're in the will you will be contacted.

I meant that in the free consultation you get before agreeing any legal action she would probably find out there are no grounds.

That magic free consultation doesn’t really exist. A solicitor will assess whether it’s worth taking on but I doubt they’d give advice.

Op
You can apply for a copy of his will but honestly if your only grounds for contesting it is that he was your father I think you'll struggle .
If you'd been his carer in recent years maybe you'd have a case but I'm afraid I see no scenario where you win a case in the circumstances you describe
Sorry if that's not the news you were hoping for .

You can contest the will after probate has been granted. However, you haven't set out any grounds for doing so. If your father was of sound mind, the will was executed correctly and there was no undue influence, the only way you could get anything would be via a claim under the Inheritance Act. As you are an adult and were not dependent on your father when he died, such a claim is highly unlikely to succeed. By all means consult a solicitor who specialises in contested probate, but unless there is more to this than you are telling us, I suspect a challenge would end with you losing and having to pay the estate's legal costs as well as your own.

I love the free legal advice all lawyers give....just like the free rewiring, plumbing and car repairs we all get!!

There are limited grounds for contesting a will, as PPs have pointed out.

As you weren't financially dependent upon your father, did not act to your detriment on the promise that he'd be giving you his estate (the sort of case where, for example, a child gives up their job and home to care for a parent on the understanding that they'll eventually inherit) and I presume have no reason to think that he made the will when he lacked mental capacity, or the will was invalid for a technical reason, frankly you are very unlikely to have any basis to contest his will.

On what grounds are you contesting the will?

Save your money. From what you've said you have no grounds.

In my experience it does. You have an appointment, you tell them the issue, they tell you the options and you decide whether to pursue. I’ve used solicitors 3 or 4 times in last few years for various things and found this is the case

Some solicitors offer it, some don't. Lots of family lawyers offer an initial consultation for a fixed price, not for free. People on MN talk as though it's something that everyone is entitled to.

Take legal advice. You don’t have to be dependent on him to make a claim - there was a recent case in which an estranged daughter received I think around £30k because she was an impoverished student and had a real need for the money.

Have a look at this www.stiveschambers.co.uk/content/uploads/2020/07/Priya-Tromans-Beware-of-issuing-‘hopeless’-Inheritance-claims-in-expectation-of-settlement.pdf

It is hard to bring a successful claim. Expect to have to pay a few hundred £ to get a considered opinion from a lawyer about success prospects.

@BelleBoyd there is a possibility of getting something if he had no will but if he had one it will have likely gone to his wife. If he had a lot of assets in his sole name the wife only gets the first 270k or something like that, if there is no will.