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?

I'm wondering why a decent solicitor wouldn't have questioned this at the time, not suggesting it's on record and can be used against op now...

@notahappybunny7

So sorry for your loss.

Inheritance between spouses is a little like divorce.

The classic situation is where a man and woman buy a home together, a marital home. He works out of the home and puts the mortgage in his name. She works in the home, raising their mutual children, making mutual savings on childcare costs, maybe works part time and pays for kids clothes, clubs etc. They are both equally contributing to his ability to pay the mortgage, save money etc. The marital home therefore belongs to both of them equally. The courts recognise this on divorce (and in death). The marital assets are split 50:50.

This principle is applied to the same situation where the sexes are reversed. Which can be frustrating as more often than not you find that women are the primary earner are actually doing all/most of the other stuff too. And it applies in unhappy marriages with lazy, abusive men too -if the marriage remained legally intact and no convictions were ever made. In considering marriage certain assumptions are made regarding working together to mutual benefit, mutual assets, mutual agreement -unless there is clear evidence to the contrary.

You need to have a chat with a sensible solicitor going forward. Someone who isn't going to make money out of your sense of injustice, but who is going to tell you from the outset what the likely outcome is and help you mediate a quick route toward that. It sounds like you and your dad could waste a lot of money, time and energy fighting about something that really has an inevitable outcome.

You are going to have to separate your ideas of how things should be, from what is achievable legally or you'll spend a lot of time arguing with people are are advising you.

People are rightly saying that it would be difficult and expensive for the father to make a claim for provision for dependants (although he'd have a good chance of winning if he can get a NWNF lawyer).

But he doesn't really need to take active steps. In order to take possession of the house the OP will need to evict him: all he needs to do is to stay put and make that as difficult as possible, and as an elderly disabled man who has an arguable case for part ownership of the house, that could be very difficult indeed.

I'm afraid you need to negotiate OP.

But they DIDN'T buy the home together? It's in her mother's name.

As has been said many times emotion needs to be taken out of this to get a resolution that everyone is happy with. It doesn’t matter in the eyes of the law what type of husband or father he was/is

I imagine the responses would be different if the thread went something like “my husband has just died and my daughter was left the house and now wants me out. My husband and I didn’t have a great relationship and while the house was in his name, I contributed to its upkeep. My daughter and I also don’t have the best relationship and so not sure where I will go if she wants me out. Can I contest the will?”

In that case I bet most posters would be saying you have a right to stay there morally.

You're quite right about what should have been done but there's no way of knowing that mum didn't refuse a Deed of Variation, especially if she was being coerced by a DH who takes the attitude "I'm the man here"

A solicitor, or even some underskilled will writer, can only advise and it doesn't really sound as if mum was amenable to hearing what might have been best for her - at least, not to the extent of doing anything about it

@Querypost they were married and it was the marital home do it makes no difference. You can't just disinherit a spouse.

@Querypost OP has said that it was bought during the marriage and both lived in it together throughout the marriage. It's a marital home regardless of whose name it was in.

But they DIDN'T buy the home together? It's in her mother's name.

and similar to a divorce - marital assets regardless of who's name they are I - can be split, as can pensions and investments

I am sorry for your loss and I think you are in shock and are raging at the unfairness. But the law doesn’t distinguish between what we think is fair or unfair.

Your mother was married to your father for 40 years. She might have worked her fingers to the bone and the paid off mortgage and deeds might have been in her sole name and he might have never lifted a finger and been a nasty human being. However she was married. This was the marital home. It is 50% his as they were married.

It doesn’t matter how much of a lazy cunt he is or even how much or little he paid for or what he has or hasn’t done.

What ever your mother thought she owned outright she didn’t take account of the fact that being married for 40 years means that anything she put into the marital home was 50% his.
I am shocked that this wasn’t explained to her by a solicitor when she went to draw up her will.

I would say you get any savings or investments that were in her own sole name as they were directly from your grandmothers inheritance.
I am not a lawyer but I think that as your grandmothers inheritance went into savings and investments then that part of your inheritance is yours. (Make sure that he isn’t cashing the investments in or transferring her savings into his account if passwords and paperwork are in the house and the banks and investment companies haven’t been told your mother has passed away)

But unfortunately he does have a claim on the house.

At best you might have to wait until he dies in order to inherit 100% of the house
At worst you might have to wait till he dies to inherit 50% of the house

It doesn’t matter if he has somewhere else to go. Or if you think he would be better off somewhere else. He can remain in the marital home for life of he chooses.

Given he is virtually blind then it could be argued he relies on familiarity in the marital home.

We only have OPS word about her father, a near blind 77 year old man, who could be homeless because OP ‘wants the money’ shocking really!

I would say you get any savings or investments that were in her own sole name as they were directly from your grandmothers inheritance
Not necessarily.

I am a solicitor with some basic knowledge of probate, although I didn't work in that field. Unfortunately, at a glance, this looks very much like one of the relatively rare cases where someone could successfully contest a will. If he makes a claim, and you fight it, it is highly unlikely that there will be an estate left for anyone to claim. His behaviour within the marriage will be irrelevant.

You need legal advice as soon as possible, and you need to be meticulous in recording every tiny little bit of communication around the probate process, as you are in a potentially vulnerable position as an executor and beneficiary of what is clearly going to be a contested estate. And when you go to a solicitor and they tell you that your father would win if the estate goes to litigation, you need to take emotion out of it and listen. Much of what you're saying about your parents' relationship is irrelevant, and a solicitor is going to have to tell you that - possibly tactfully, possibly not. Emotion doesn't matter when it comes to litigation. Only the law matters.

The best outcome for you is probably that your father accepts an offer of half the estate and it's settled out of court. I strongly suspect, however, that any solicitor he approaches will be advising him to go for the bulk of it. There are very few outcomes here that end up with you inheriting much, if anything, and many that end up with you engaged in stressful, costly and lengthy legal proceedings, so please take some robust advice and listen to it.

Maybe it's a reverse. It wouldn't surprise me if this was actually about trying to make a SAHM homeless. The law is the same regardless. With no record of separation or divorce, a partner who contributed financially, was legally resident in the home, is on benefits, and elderly and disabled, has rights to the home. They have rights to the matrimonial home whether their DW/DH liked them or not; whether their DS or DD likes them or not.

(unless the will had a deed of variation or a trust that acknowledged contribution)

Similar to a divorce - marital assets regardless of who's name they are I - can be split, as can pensions and investments

Exactly

Whether it seems "fair" or not, and regardless of behaviour, the point is that a spouse has to be provided for and nobody's going to sanction a 77 year old registered disabled man being chucked out of his home with nothing

Realistically, if he chooses to stay put OP might simply have to wait until he dies, but again professional advice will be needed around how any necessary care would be funded when and if the time comes

Trying to help? They were having repeated sly digs at OP and making her out to be a liar. I'd have been cross too.

@InfiniteTeas has given excellent advice. However unpalatable.

Word of warning that if this went to court and the will was tossed out (you going to the solicitors with her could be seen a controlling). Everything (including the savings and investments) could end up going to your dad as next of kin and you could end up with nothing.

If your dm was so unhappy in her marriage, why didn’t she get a divorce and who was giving her legal advice telling her that being the sole person on the deeds and mortgage for a home that both her and her husband of 30+ years lived in as the marital home meant she was free to leave it all to a 3rd party

I think you might have a case against the solicitors as if she was forewarned she could have taken out a life insurance policy to make up the fact she could only leave 50% of the house to you

Disabled people can be abusers. Shocking really that you refuse to accept this.

Why do you think that she's making up the part about him being an abusive bastard but not the part about him being disabled? She could be making the whole thing up for all we know, as could anyone on here. So there's no point cherry-picking the bits to believe or not to believe - which let's face it you're just doing to have a go at the OP.

I’m sorry for your loss OP.
You need proper legal advice - now.
I understand that you are very upset at how your DF treated your DM in life and how unfair the situation feels to you . I doubt there’s a single person here who disagrees with that however you need to know yours and your DFs rights in law . Sadly your DF awful behaviour will have no impact on his legal rights . I’m not a solicitor but I have a little knowledge and it seems very probable that your DF will have a claim. The sooner you understand what that claim is likely to be, the better - speculating and asking amateurs for advice on MN will achieve nothing
CAB might be able to give you some basic free advice but they’ll likely signpost you to a solicitor. Gather all the info you have and take a copy of the will with you to your first appointment
Good luck

I work in a related field and agree with everything Infinite has said. You need a good probate solicitor ask around for recommendations as some are far better than others.

That is true but whether he is abusive or not won't affect the legal rules of inheritance.

In fact, I'd be concerned that this could be investigated as a potential case of elder abuse if OP does try to evict him and social services get involved. It does happen so I wouldn't blame anyone who looked at it with a cautious eye.

The only thing for OP to do at this stage is get herself a good solicitor and get instructed what her options are.

This is the best advice on thread, by far. Hopefully you’ll be booking in with a reputable solicitor asap, OP.

Thanks, that's interesting - and seems fair. I was thinking 6 months sounded quite a short time, when you consider how long estates can take to be distributed and that maybe people wouldn't realise that quickly that they they could/should challenge a will.