Oh fuck what is going to happen?

[notahappybunny7]

My mum has passed away. She has left everything in her will to me(house paid(220k and about 50k in savings)
no other siblings off my mother but my dad has 4 more(no relationship with them)
they're married have been for 40+ years but he’s a twat who’s never worked properly, my mum has grafted her arse off to pay mortgage and ct, he has paid utilities and food, well the basics my mum alway bought her lunches and any luxuries. No joint accounts ever.
I’m not money grabbing it my mum wanted this for me and my daughter, to better our lives, he is saying he’s not moving and will contest the will. What will happen?

Please just go and get legal advice OP.

Unfortunately the law will not care that your Dad is a vile man who abused his wife for decades, particularly if there is no evidence.

Your Dad will probably have a case to claim some of the inheritance as they were married.

Spending a few hundred quid now to a solicitor will be much more helpful than a chat forum

It would be considered like a divorce. Both parties would be old. Not one given less share as they are old but ignore for the other. It's different consideration than say having a dependent sibling you are supporting when age/ time until death would be taken into account.

(And he could be given his 50% and then leave it how he wants, not revert to the op)

I imagine even if the op agrees for him to just live there (but her house) his other kids would challenge this /get dad to challenge it, so they eventually get their dads share (legally) when he dies.

I think your best bet is to get some legal advice from a probate solicitor and work out a reasonable offer to put to him.

Unfortunately (as it goes against what your mum wanted) I think he's likely to be awarded something if he challenges the will. Either part of the value of the house (he has contributed a share even though its less than your mum paid) or a life interest in the house I.e. can live there until death even though you own it (as they were legally married) or perhaps both those things.

He may have been an abusive workshy cunt during their marriage but the court will also consider that he was semi-dependent on your mum and now at his age and in poor health he has no means to support himself.

I appreciate your aim is to free up money from the house sale for you and your daughter so possibly your offer could be to sell the house and then use £× from the proceeds to buy a small flat suitable for him, in your name but for him to have a life interest in until he dies or has to go into residential care. That might just about pass the test of reasonableness and if he still wants to fight it will help to shorten proceedings and save costs.

The up side of him having a life interest only is that if he needs residential care the house/flat won't need to be sold to fund it, because it isn't his. The down side is that you'll be "landlord" and responsible for upkeep repairs and insurance (although he can pay utilities like a "normal" tenant). You will need to keep some of the money you inherit from your mum aside for this.

I really think this is the best position you can hope for so get some advice ASAP and put an offer on the table.

(I'm a solicitor but not a probate one so please don't consider this formal advice. It's just how I think the law is likely to see it. )

You need to make a very urgent appointment with a solicitor to get things started. They will be able to tell you exactly where you stand and how to proceed. Don’t promise your dad anything.

Honestly I would ask him what he wants.
If he wants to stay in the house - offer him a lifetime ability to remain but you are the owner.
If he wants a flat, sell the house and buy him a flat with him having a lifetime ability to remain but the flat being in your name.

If this goes to solicitors your inheritance will go to the solicitors as the legal bills of a fight will take the entire estate and I think he has a very strong case.

If you can keep the property in your name you will get it eventually.

Sorry for your loss, but please transfer your post to legal. Unless they are a fully qualified solicitor, nobody on here can advise you with any certainty of the law.

I am not a lawyer, but I have taken some time to follow all the links here. I think there is another option.

Option 3.
The cash is a matrimonial asset so has to be split. The house is not a matrimonial asset (in DM's name only, named contributions to bills by father are just that, not regarded as contributions to mortgage). Therefore OP has no responsibility for housing F, but chooses to buy him a flat - actually owned by OP of course - where he can live for as long as he needs to, from the proceeds of the house.

This option may be too optimistic, but I think you should present it to a solicitor to think about. I do hope that your solicitor will be able to send F a strongly worded letter that demonstrates to him that he has no right of inheritance whatsoever on the house. Are you able to talk to F sufficiently (after seeing solicitor of course) to explain to him his options? ie fight the will and end up penniless and homeless, or accept an offer like this? I accept that he may be a spiteful prick, but surely he doesn't want to cut of his nose to spite his own face?

Book an urgent appointment with a solicitor!

Op, I’m sorry for your loss and I’m sorry uoire getting such bad advice on here. I think you have touched a nerve with some posters who may be in the same financial situation as your father.

yes he can try to contest the will if he feels reasonable provision has not been left for him and he will be in poverty.

did you mother not consider a lawyer, it would have been better for s trust to be set up or for him to be able to live there as long as he is alive.

any legal battle will cost though. Does he have the funds for this?

machinescanthink

Not helpful!!!

As far as I see it, he has a claim for reasonable provision, which might well look like half of the house.

You could fight this now and try to release the cash, or you could wait for him to die. Sounds like he might not go after title now, if he can just continue living there and nothing is disrupted? The house will be in your name, so can’t be sold for care fees. And, once he’s dead, any of his other children who might “inherit” would have a hard time claiming against an asset that wasn’t even his to give…

If you fight this now, it might still take years to agree a settlement and get the house sold. Depending on his health, I would consider playing the long game…

JFC, talk about insensitive. The OP has just lost her mother.

Human relationships are complex, and just because she's expressed frustration at her mother's inability to leave her father, doesn't negate anything she's said here.

It is beyond the pale to dredge up comments someone has made about their own family member when they've just lost them. Totally unnecessary and cruel, actually.

As @burnoutbabe says, it would be considered like a divorce. He is old but so was OP's mother. Age would not therefore be a factor.

What a hard time for you, OP.

You need to understand that law isn't bothered about who is a shit. Ok well maybe the criminal law is, but this is civil law that is about who owns what, it's not about deciding who is nicest. You don't want houses etc being awarded on the basis of whether the judge likes you or not.

Your dad might have been a shit all your life but he still needs somewhere to live and there's a fair chance he could contest the will.

See a lawyer and don't just use the time to vent about your dad. Counsellors are cheaper by the hour than lawyers!

I think that this suggests that the claim that she wants to respect her mother’s wishes is not exactly accurate.

The op’s other post are her dm are kind of irrelevant - now she has died I’m sure the op is feeling differently about things, as is natural.

It just reads to me like the dm didn’t have the strength to leave coupled with an older generational fear of “what will the neighbours think?” Obviously that would’ve been frustrating and upsetting for the op.

It sounds to me more that she’s creating a narrative that gets her all of her father’s money and his house. As others have said, though, that’s neither here nor there, and what is going to matter is what the law says and what she can negotiate.

I hope she and her father are able to come to a sensible agreement.

machinescanthink · Today 09:15

but a pertinent detail nonetheless

Pertinent may be. Not helpful to the OP and potentially making things worse emotionally for her. She has a legal question only. Relationships are complex. Grief reactions are complex. This is a sensitive and painful situation. Please be mindful that this is a woman in the acute phase of what is a complex bereavement.

I think you sound quite entitled and harsh. He’s in ill health, I’m not sure you can just evict him. You need legal advice on the matter.

And this isn’t automatically the case.

JFC do you think the Nancy Drew Crew might consider fucking off to a thread where someone isn't grieving their mother?

Talk about an empathy bypass.