Dispute over will, does anyone know how to read a will? (Pictures included)

[icantwaitforsummer]

We don't know if we are being unreasonable even asking this, but hoping someone here knows a bit more about wills?

My sister and I remember our mum saying something about leaving her half of her house to me and my sister many years ago. She died 10 years ago, but my stepdad said the will says she has left it all to him.

From reading the will we aren't sure what it means. There is a part of the will I have highlighted in yellow that says:

IF my husband survives me for the period of twenty eight days then subject to the payment thereout of my just debts and funeral and testamentary expenses I GIVE all my estate to him absolutely-

What does that part mean? It doesn't change much currently we were just not sure.

Hopefully I have redacted all the parts with names and addresses, please let me know if I haven't.

It means that as long as her husband lives 28 days longer than she does all her stuff is left to him.

That her husband gets priority over her estate if he should survive for a month after her death. So everything about you as children is a moot point if her husband was still alive at the time.

She’s left it all to him, sorry.

Sorry, ot but that's an awful will! Total word salad!

Agree with the others, as long as he is alive for 28 days after she dies then it all goes to him.

Agreed

The "28 days" thing is standard, to make sure the recipient's around long enough to inherit, but yes it means she's changed whatever she may have said before and left it all to him

I read that as as long as he lives 28 days longer after her death he inherits everything.

Did you see the will at the time she died or are you only just seeing it now?

Really badly drafted with all the stuff about remarrying. Looks like the trainee drafted it.

Yes, it all went to her husband if he lived for at least 28 days longer than her. The house may not have even passed by her will. If she and her husband owned the house as “joint tenants” it would have passed to him automatically never mind the terms of the will, but in this case it would have gone to him either way.

Only just seeing it now, but strangely my sister and I then were put on the land registry for the house.

But I suppose that could have changed recently too and he put it in his name?

I haven't signed anything ever, but I have seen the will and me and my sisters name on the land registry document. Does that mean anything?

Were you DM and SF tenants in common or joint tenants? If the former then your DM may have left her share of the house in trust to you and your sister. My DF did similar. His half went into a trust when he died. DM still has her share and still lives in the house. But the house cannot be sold unless all the trustees agree, which in reality they would. Then half of any new house would go back into the trust.

It looks contradictory to me, in that the first part of the will leaves it to her daughters, but subsequently it leaves it to her husband, what appears to be absolutely, but then it refers to what happens on his death, so the implication is that that it is not an absolute gift.
OP you need specialist legal advice here. It's hard to work it out when the whole document is so muddled and you've only shown excerpts.

Actually i think you need to see a decent lawyer. What i think you mum has meant to do is put the house in trust - that clause happens forst and then leave everything to husband. Its badly drafted though and there is no carve out of clause 7.

You need to see if it is arguable that the house passed to thee trustees not on death but on the signing of the will. Law of property act will govern that and i have no idea if its arguable.

What does the land registry say?

Also, what Pushkinini said is relevant too.
But you need urgent proper legal advice.

You need expert advice on this because there is a reference to Trustees on other pages which reads like a life interest trust may have been created giving him a life interest in the house.
https://www.watkinssolicitors.co.uk/site/blog/wills-and-probate/property-life-interest-trust

In a sense you may both be right. He gets everything now but only for his lifetime then it passes to you and your sister.

As I said get some proper legal advice as an expert needs to sit down with the will and read it end to end not pick out sections.

A similar clause about 28 days is in my DF's will. However the house is still in trust.

That's standard wording in a Will

There seems to be several Land registry documents and I understand them even less unfortunately.

But there is one that has his names and our names. But I have never signed anything so I find that weird. How can someone potentially own part of a house and then potentially not without signing anything?

The residue of her estate goes to you and your sister, so everything but the house.

Depending on how the house was owned it either goes to your step dad entirely (if owned jointly) or if owned as tenants in common your mums share to you and your sister on either your step dads death or on one of the other situations stipulated within the will e.g him remarrying/ cohabitating at which point your mums share becomes yours and your sisters. It’s called a life interest trust.

It’s a very ‘wordy’ will. From what I can see the executors are the firm (I assume) who wrote it, email them and ask for clarification.

Did they have mirror wills? It's normal to leave everything for your spouse and then on the death of the second spouse it goes down

You're only showing us a snippet of the will so it's impossible to advise

OP has posted the pictures in the wrong order. The first part is actually clauses 9-11, which only apply if the stepfather doesn’t survive by 28 days.

The reason this is coming up now is he is very ill and probably won't live beyond March. He isn't a very nice man at all.

I remember lots of rows when she made this will, with him shouting ''her doing this will, means she doesn't trust him". (She didn't and those reasons were very valid, affairs etc).

He will have his own will which probably leaves nothing to us, fair enough.

But just wondering if there is anything of mums left?

I don't know if they were tenants in common if the other one unfortunately.

This is also pretty much all of the will, from the first page, the last page just has signatures and nothing very informative.

No it doesn’t. These clauses only apply if the stepdad doesn’t survive by 28 days.

In simple terms you can put a provision in a will that someone gets to use the property whilst they are alive but when they die it goes to the people named in the will.
Trusts are a complex area of law but very basically a trust separates legal ownership of an asset from the right to benefit from it. So if I held a company shares in trust for you, my name would appear on the shareholder register (as I am the Trustee) but I would have to pass on any dividend payment as the income is for your benefit (you are the beneficiary).