Inheritance - I feel slighted

[LadyGaGasPokerFace]

I know the consensus on MN is that ‘you can leave and divide your assets to anyone’ but I’m feeling very slighted today after going to a will reading and feel like me and dc have been done over.
So, df passed 5 years ago. I knew the will as both df and dm showed me. It was very transparent that it was 50/50 with my sibling. If I popped my clogs it’d go to my dc. Fair enough. Sibling has no dc or spouse. Extremely lazy with regards to everything in life including never moving out of the family home. Never paid any bills, parents did, even the council tax when parent became widowed.
Other parent passed a few months ago and we went to the will reading recently. After the passing, sibling kept referring to parent as taking taxis to places, which is pretty unbelievable as parent doesn’t speak English very well and relies on us to do things for them.
Just been to the will reading and they have left me a quarter of the estate to me and changed the will. The other sibling has got 3/4 and no mention of dc in the will. I was told parent took taxi to solicitors and they sorted it themselves. Bearing in mind that they cannot use PIN machines/cash machines and needs either myself or sibling to sort.
Anyway. Over lockdown this parent became unwell and called police on sibling and claiming claiming they had ‘stolen’ their house and they had nothing to give to their grandchildren. I found the deeds online and showed the police and sibling, that this was not the case and it was left at that.
I now feel that coercion has taken place and feel that the will had been changed in favour of sibling. Urgh! I haven’t a clue what to do, but sibling was made executor 🤦🏼‍♀️ who even admitted to the solicitor that they are ‘useless’ with these things —understatement of the century—
I’m now left reeling that we have been ‘downgraded’ on the will that the 1st parent agreed to as they knew dc would inherit via me.
Oh, I don’t know what I want, but I feel like I’ve been kicked in the teeth with this.
Sorry it’s long 😳
NB apologies if I’ve missed anything and drip feed, it’s quite long and complicated.

I wouldn't call providing live-in care to elderly people a "free ride."

It is when you get that kind of jackpot payout. Two houses and cash.

I wouldn't call providing live-in care to elderly people a "free ride."

it is if you don’t actually provide care, and plan to move that relative to a care home if and when they do need care. And end up nearly £1m better off for it.

@ladygagaspokerface Do you feel comfortable with the idea of asking your sibling if they could do a will leaving both the uncles house and their share of your parents house to your children? It might not work out as if they have two houses their may be some people who would be interested in them as a romantic partners but it's worth trying! If you feel this would be a bit pushy remember that if they die with no will and no spouse it will go to you anyway. Like the unmarried uncles assets went automatically to his siblings despite what your sibling claimed about having got his house.

@Ellmau You need a solicitor to do it, but it’s called a life interest trust. On death of the first partner, the spouse inherits half the house value. The other half passes to the dc in trust, and can’t be taken for care home fees. The surviving spouse has the right to live in the house for life. They can also sell the house and buy another one to live in, and the same terms will apply when they die.

The solicitor and witnesses could have gone to her house. But if she was obviously non compos mentis then they should not have proceeded with the will. Another rather subjective area of law.

It's a tough one to resolve unless you are willing and able to fund all your substantial costs yourself and risk paying his costs if you lose in court.

@filka I’m being told she took a taxi to the solicitors office. This was 2019. Dm had a double heart bypass the year before and she became a lot more unstable on her feet and using a zimmer frame all the time. The fact sibling over egged on the fact that she took taxis everywhere is bullshit. She had to get us to call taxis (pre my df dying) to go to the doctor’s surgery as her English is terrible. She lost the ability after she retired.
So not only does she not understand what she signed she was dizzy all the time so couldn’t possibly sit there and read. A year after the will was made she was diagnosed with dementia, this was after the police were called as dm was attacking sibling and she was crying that ‘he’s taken my home from me, I have nothing to leave my beautiful gc’. This is when I acquired the deeds (just in case sibling did something untoward), but the names on the deeds were both dm and dfs (thought that was supposed to change?)
Bloody hell that was long!
Wrt to contesting it, my dh has said we could, but I’m not sure I want to tbh as that money would be better spent. There’s more holes in siblings stories than Swiss fucking cheese.

I just wonder if it may be easier to have a go at the solicitor rather than the sibling, because if DM didn't understand what she was signing due to a combination of language and/or onset of dementia then the changes to the property ownership and/or will should not have happened. It just may be easier to get an insurance settlement than a court settlement.

Maybe one of the lawyers here can advise whether this is viable and how to proceed. But I guess your approach would be to ask them what procedures they implemented to ensure that she understood what she was signing.

This is the Law Society page on how to complain:
www.lawsociety.org.uk/public/for-public-visitors/using-a-solicitor/complain-about-a-solicitor#:~:text=You%20can%20contact%20the%20Legal%20Ombudsman%20by,them%20on%200300%20555%200333

Note that DM must have been the client, not sibling. So you should be able to complain as you are next of kin, you probably don't need to be executor to do this.

@filka yes, that’s what I was going to try first. If my dm didn’t understand what she was signing, why did the solicitor allow this? Yes, dm was the client, he was well aware that both of us needed to translate and help her with such things.
I’m going to call the funeral home tomorrow about the bill and email the solicitor why this hasn’t been actioned. Leaving an electronic trail at least.

Well, well, well. I received a letter from the solicitor today and my sibling has completed fuck all paperwork. He hasn’t signed the form to instruct the solicitor. Spoke with solicitor and they can’t proceed with paying for funeral and accessing money until he’s signed.
I called him and told him he needs to sort it. Apparently he’s going to take the paperwork to the solicitor tomorrow. The solicitor wrote to him twice and he’s not responded. I have no words 😡