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.

Clauses 6 and 7 contradict each other. It looks like she left her house/share of the house to you and your sister with a life interest to her husband which allows him to live in the property during his life. The will is trying to pass the remainder to her husband outright but clause 7 doesn’t say that as it says her entire estate should pass to her husband. I would therefore recommend you get proper legal advice on what to do next as it will mean the difference between inheriting a portion of the house or not.

Mum died over a decade ago so probably too late to contest anything now anyway.

I have just paid and downloaded the most up to date land registry documents and there are definitely 3 names on there. Me, my sister and step Dad.

Does that change anything?

My mums will had a clause that when she dies her half was put in trust for my sister and my son
my sister and I were both executors/ trusteees so we were put on the deeds of the property

So you may have been put on the deeds as a as a trustee / executor of the will but not as the beneficial owner

I didn’t sign anything either for the land registry
the solicitor who dealt with the wiil updated the land registry when I got in touch with them

but we were only trustees of my mums half ( if that makes sense ) it meant my dad couldn’t sell without us agreeing and if he remarried his new wife couldn’t touch my mums half of the property

Yes that is similar to what I read the will as.

So your mum made you a trustee but not a beneficiary only your sister and son are?

So I was a trustee but not a beneficiary of the will
my sister was both a beneficiary and trustee and we were both put on the deeds

I think you need to take all documentation - will, land registry docs and anything else to a solicitor so that they can look at everything and tell you exactly what is what. Given that your step dad is likely to die soon, I would do this as soon as is possible next week.

The way wills are written leaves a lot to be desired! Me and my husband recently made ours. We are married with one child and it is, by all accounts, very straightforward. That said, the writing of it is atrocious! So badly worded and basic punctuation and grammar is very lacking!

It is likely you have a 25% share of the property.

I would get legal advice the fact it’s ten years ago means nothing as the land registry is most relevant - it sounds as if you have a share in the house

@PumpkinPie2016 you are clear that the punctuation and grammar is like that for a reason? ( Assuming you used a solicitor, rather than a 'will writer )

OP you definitely need legal advice. If you and your sister's names are on the Land Registry title document then it would appear that you are part owners.

Do you have any idea who your step-father has left his share in the house to? Whoever is the beneficiary under his will also becomes a part owner of the property so I think you need to establish the situation pretty quickly. Once he dies you may be left co-owning the property with someone you don't know. Does he have any children?

@DameCelia yes we used a solicitor? Not sure I understand your post?

I assume you mean there is a reason for such poor punctuation and grammar in wills? If so, I'm intrigued why that is?

It makes them very difficult to read!

If the trust is properly established it doesn’t matter when your DM died, the key date is the death of your step dad. He is allowed to live in the property until he dies or remarries but your share should come to you when that happens.

Nobody on this thread can give you a definitive answer. You need to get some legal advice from a lawyer who has sat down with all the documentation and checked what has happened.

There may be nothing wrong here. He might have rightly lived in the house as contemplated by your DM’s will but what he may not be able to do is leave your DM’s share of the house to anyone else on his death because, if the trust is valid he doesn’t own it, he just has the right to use it whilst he is alive.

It would be utterly unethical for any lawyer to give you advice based on this thread. All I am prepared to say is that it’s is possible that your DM’s share of the house is held in trust for you and you need legal advice to check that.

‘I give all my estate’ pertains to that which has not been placed in the trust at (6).

Go to see the trustee/solicitor - but it looks to me that the house was placed in a trust for you and your sister (6) of which he is a lifetime beneficiary, unless he remarries or co-habits. That your names (not his, or including his?) are on the land registry deeds makes you owners of the house - as other PPs state, depending on what the deeds say, if he is also named you need to ascertain whether you are joint tenants or tenants in common.

The latter bit states that: what is not included by provisions elsewhere (ie the trust into which the house and her ‘residual estate’ is placed) became part of the estate to which her husband became the beneficiary after 28 days of her death. You’d need to check with the trustee what those relate to.

But from my reading (I did study law, but am not a practitioner), she left the (her share of )the house to you/your sister and it is held in trust for you both. Your stepfather’s right to remain in it is subject to his compliance with specific terms (so if he is remarrying/moved a GF in, you should ascertain your rights from the trustee).

She left a life interest for her husband in the property, with it passing to you and your sister when it ends. As long as the property was held as tenants in common, your mum's half of the property is in trust.

Take the whole lot to a solicitor and get them to unpick it all.

@icantwaitforsummer
yes
i was not a beneficiary but I was a trustee and executor

my sister was a beneficiary and trustee / executor
my son beneficiary only

if you are a beneficiary and you inherit the house when your step dad dies
because your on the deeds and a beneficiary and trustee of the willyou won’t get the six month exemption on paying no council tax

if we had just been trustee and my sister not a beneficiary of the will and not named on the deeds we would have got the six month’s exemption on not pay council tax but because one of the trustees was named on the deeds and also a beneficiary of the will
we had to pay council tax

its actually how we found out we were on the deeds as we got a letter addressed to both of us when my father passed away that we had to pay the council tax as owners of the property
when we questioned it they explained why this was the case

Legal writing is meant to remove any possible ambiguities. It’s meant to be understood by other lawyers, not to be easy to read for laypeople.

As a solicitor i interpret that to mean there is a life interest trust, so that you and your sister inherit the house but he has the right to live there. Everything else passes to him, so if the house is the main asset you inherit a decent share of the estate, if the house is worth £100k and your mum has a million in the bank he is quids in.
go and see a solicitor face to face for proper advice, most offer free consultations

Basically, She did leave her half of the house to you but she left a life interest - the right to continue living in it - to her husband.

So her half belongs to you but he had the right to live in it.

He, like the first MNers to respond, is wrong.

Definitely go to a solicitor.

From my experience ( recent as in 2019’-2021 )
if your on the deeds your an owner of the property but the will will state how you own your share

the fact that you your sister and step
dad are on the deeds would say that you are trustees and beneficiaries of your mums will

It confirms that you and your sister are Co owners of the house. So your mum’s husband cannot leave it in his will to anyone else.

I haven’t read all the posts so I may have missed something. There is a life interest trust in clause 6. The H can stay in the property until he dies ( it’s conditional) or decides he wants to downsize etc. OP and sister are trustees and beneficiaries of the life interest trust so that is why you are on the land registry docs. You own half the property and when he dies or the trust comes to an end for another reason, half the property is yours.

Happy to answer any other questions.

No that’s incorrect. The 28 day survival relates the residual estate I.e. everything other than the property.

The property itself is held in trust for a life interest for step day until he either dies remarries or cohabits with another person. Then it is to be split between the daughters.