FILs Wife Inheriting House

[HerMammy]

My FIL died very suddenly and unexpectedly, with no will having been made.
His wife rightly lives in their house, my DP has no relationship with her now, huge fallout over his DFs death/funeral.
They had no children together, my DP is an only child, he believes she will leave the house to her sister/nieces, does he have any rights regards this? She has also claimed his pension in full.
His DF paid all household costs as SM only worked occasional 10/16 hr pw jobs (now retired)
In Scotland.
Any advice is helpful.

In Scotland you cannot disinherit your child. See a solicitor.

Has your Dp inherited anything? Whilst you cant disinherit a child (easily) in Scotland, you can leave your house to someone else!

The estate should have been distributed according to the intestacy rules. Assuming the house was jointly owned she now owns her half plus a share of fil's half. If your partner is the only child he has a claim.

Solicitor time!

To clarify - it is the 'movable estate' (ie NOT houses or land) that HAS to be shared between descendants.

Children are entitled to a share in Scotland. You need a lawyer to contact the probate lawyer to claim your share.

www.wallacequinn.co.uk/disinheriting-your-children-in-scotland/#:~:text=After%20the%20Prior%20Rights%20have,estate%20divided%20equally%20amongst%20them

DP has not inherited anything, he didn't even get a memento, his dads belongings were cleared within 24hrs.
There was no will.

If no will then it needs to go to probate which can take over a year. Then their are prior rights for the widow. Your best bet is to get in touch with a lawyer who will contact the lawyer then they can discuss what your husband is entitled to.

@Groovee
As far as we're aware there is the house, his pension and some savings which rightfully are hers. It is whether or not he has a claim to the house in the event of her death.
His dad wanted him to have it but neglected to make a will.

When did your DP last have communication with his dad?

This is what the UK government's website says for your circumstances.

The husband, wife or civil partner gets the house up to a value of £473,000. They’ll get a lump sum of £473,000 if the house is worth more, and may have to sell off the property.They also get:

• furniture and moveable household goods up to the value of £29,000
• up to £50,000 in cash
• a third of the rest of the estate

The children will get two-thirds of the rest of the estate.

That's the position under the intestacy rules, but then there's this, from https://www.livbrown.co.uk/private-client/wills/legal-rights-of-children-of-the-deceased-in-scotland#:~:text=Legal%20Rights%20of%20Children%20of%20the%20Deceased%20Stay%20Alive%20for,completely%20disinherited%20by%20their%20parents.

A Legal Rights claim on a parent’s estate can be made even when the child has been left out of the Will completely. Legal rights claims can be very significant in value depending on the size of the estate. They also last for a long time - a child has 20 years from the date of death of the parent to claim or discharge legal rights, whatever age they are. In the case of a child who is minor at the date of death, this time limit does not commence until they reach the age of 18 years.
The law has determined that a child’s claim for Legal Rights amounts to one third of the worldwide net moveable estate, to be shared equally between siblings, where there is surviving spouse or civil partner, otherwise one half of the worldwide net moveable estate where there is no surviving spouse or civil partner.
Moveable estate comprises all assets of the deceased such as savings, jewellery and investments, other than heritable property or land. A surviving spouse or civil partner will also have the right to make a Legal Rights claim, which in their cases amount to a third share of the net moveable estate.
The Legal Rights of a child, and those surviving spouse or civil partner along with their prior rights on intestacy, require to be either formally claimed or formally discharged, and therefore an executor should not wind up estate without first taking every reasonable and prudent step to inquire about, locate and contact all the children of the deceased and the surviving spouse or civil partner, and advise them of their right to make Legal Rights claims.

Good luck!

How was the house owned. Did they own it jointly or as (the Scottish equivalent of) tenants in common? If they owned it jointly I believe it passes to her in its entirety on his death. In which case the house is hers now and she can do whatever she wants with it.

He does not have a claim to the house.

But he should have a claim to a third of savings and investments.

Pension is a separate issue, I believe-but I could be wrong here. Was the wife listed as the beneficiary?

@TheSpottedZebra
He has no access to any information , she refuses to speak
to him. He doesn't want anything at present, it's if she dies as she has no children, can she leave the house to whomever she chooses.
@lljkk He was with him when he died.

If he isn't her child, she can indeed do what she wants with the property. Waiting until she dies is too late. If he was entitled to some of his father's estate under intestacy rules, he needs to get that sorted now. If he doesn't, his inheritance will be gone forever.

He needs to claim now. If he waits until she dies he’ll have no claim as it’s too far removed.

We can't advise you other than to speak to a Solicitor specialising in this area of law in Scotland.

I would assume, however, that the pension entitlement will rightfully go to the widow as she will have been named as beneficiary.

Just want to add: are you absolutely sure your FIL hasn't made a will? Who told you this?

@Pansypotter123
You have a point, DP has assumed this as his dad wasn't one for forward planning and is 99% sure he wouldn't have thought to and SM froze him out. I could go into more detail but would be very outing.

3 huge questions
How was the house owned?
What's the house worth?
How much did he have in savings (not in joint accounts)?

Get the answers to those three as far as possible and see a solicitor. Your husband could be entitled to a large sum and possibly in the most extreme case even to evict SM or to nothing at all if everything was held jointly and/or there's not much savings.

@HerMammy you cannot and must not assume anything.

The fact that step mum is freezing your son out speaks volumes:

FIL may have left a valid will. Equally, step mum may have been the forward planner here.

Either way you need to speak to a solicitor.

I have done this. Mine was very easy - solicitor didn't even charge me anything as she saw the situation for what it was and had a lot of sympathy. Added to the fact that parent had made a will and all bank/building society/shares etc were transparent and easy to list.
You are absolutely entitled to a set % (stated in law so no argument!) of movable assets - so not property but all else (need to check if pension payout falls under this)
If you want the name of the solicitor I used then PM me.

I'd be contacting all the solicitors in the town in which FIL lived to see if they made a will for him

SM is being evasive and cleared the house out within 24hrs of his sudden and unexpected death? Sounds like something fishy is going on here. Don't assume there is no will. Get a solicitor acting for you and have them ask some questions. If your DH doesn’t ‘want’ anything now I am sure there are agreements that can be made to allow her to live in the house until her death for example.

Could they tell OP this info? Wouldn’t it be against all sorts of privacy rules?