How easy is for a grown up child to contest a will?

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Hi, will try keep this short and some details tweeked. My legal jargon is not the best so bear with me.

male relative died suddenly early this year, they had no spouse or partner and lived alone, they had one grown up child (30) who lives hours away, had an okay relationship with child growing up, always paid maintenance, would have child for the whole school holidays and buy clothes and uniform and stuff to go back with. Things went a bit sour when their son got to the teenage years. My relative had got himself in a bad way with mental health and other physical illnesses (can’t be exact to what due to not wanting to give myself away!) was unable to drive so far to pick up child and have them so much, they could barely look after themselves and was at this point considered disabled. Contact was still made over the phone, more occasional visits and relative always paid for their child but slightly less as was unable to work at this point due to lifelong health issues. The child’s family are not nice people, for years they’ve given my family abuse, both physical and verbally. Threats have been made to us all including wanting to harm us - we do have some proof of this. The family are violent thugs. They caused damage to relatives property many years ago just out of spite. They are known to be a violent family and moved away as no one wanted them around the local area.

the child’s mother also always used to say she wasn’t sure if the child was my relatives as she had two men on the go at the time.

male relative hadn’t seen or heard from his grown up child for years.

A small flat was owned by deceased relative outright and mortgage free . He had a will and the flat has been left to his brother and sister who are also executors of the will. the flat is worth around 100 grand now if that’s relevant.

Grown up child was contacted to tell them that their father had passed away and this got followed with abusive messages to us and then randomly asking what happened (it was deemed sudden). Then a day or so after death grown up child and their mum was contacting solicitors local in our area asking if there’s a will and they got the deceased names wrong and everything!

didn’t hear anymore about now we’ve been contacted by a solicitor local to them.

we are worried that they might try and contest the will.

bearing in mind the two set to inherit looked after their sibling for years when in ill health and their grown up child had turned nasty and threatened to harm their parent.

anyone know much about it all?

the will is clear that their child doesn’t to inherit due to the stress over the years, the threat my cousin has made to his parent and the rest of us. We have some of the messages that were sent to us after death that weren’t nice from his child and recordings of verbal abuse.

In the absence of a will the child will get everything and can contest in court if you don’t give him the money.

Where did the deceased live ? Rules are different in Scotland vs England.

This is from citizens advice bureau

If there is no surviving partner, the children of a person who has died without leaving a will inherit the whole estate. This applies however much the estate is worth. If there are two or more children, the estate will be divided equally between them.

The will is valid in England as you're allowed to leave your property to whomever

Different in Scotland

OP says there's a will.
And that it specifically excludes the son.

@Ozanj the op says there is a will, she's quite clear that it's about contesting a will.

I think in England and Wales, the will disinheriting the adult DC is legal, but in Scotland I am pretty sure a will that totally disinherits a DC isn’t legal and can be contested. An adult DC is always due some inheritance in Scotland.

What happens in Scotland @LaurieFairyCake ?

If there is a will naming the siblings, and it was all properly drawn up and witnessed, then there should not be any reason for it to be overturned (assuming you are in England or Wales?).

Adult children generally only have a right to inheritance if they were dependent on the person who died, and that clearly was not the case here.

If the will was not drawn up properly then unfortunately the rules of intestacy do mean that the offspring inherit.

He had a will leaving his estate to his brother and sister.

The son can challenge the will but it’s an uphill battle. Recent case law supports testators right to make their own choice and as long as they were not supporting the adult child or promised them anything that they relied on the claim by the adult child is not strong. It’s decided on a case by case basis though via mediation or court.

Sorry for your loss. Which country are you in? In Scotland I understand you can't legally disinherit a child in a will, but in england and wales you can. If the child is not mentioned in the will, never lived with him and had no expectation of being financed as an adult by his dad (who has left his estate to other relatives) then the son is a chancer who won't get anywhere.
Also if there's a chance he's not your DBs child - did they ever DNA test?

There is a will. The grown-up child is not in it.

OP: there is a difference between the likely legal outcome (it sounds as if the will is clear, so, under English law, unless there is proof of coercion or unsound mind then there's a strong chance the will can enforced) and the sensible outcome (legal costs can rack up and sometimes it's cheaper to settle rather than fight, even though it's unfair).

The OP is completely clear that there is a will. Why on earth are people posting about the situation if there is no will?

@another2cats usually knows about these things.

If there is a VALID will, properly drafted, signed and witnessed, the adult child will receive nothing unless specifically named as a beneficiary. Unless the adult child could show undue influence, there would be no point in them contesting the will.

Under these circumstances, the only way to challenge would be to argue that the adult child was in someway disabled/dependent on the parent. It does not sound as if this is the case.

Some solicitors will challenge a will in order to try to scare the beneficiaries into offering a voluntary payment out of court. But if the will is valid and there are no special circumstances they will have no luck in court. But this can be stressful for executors.

If you have not already done so I would ask a solicitor to look at the will and if they are satisfied it is valid, ask them to deal directly with the adult child’s solicitor. It will cost you something but costs can be deducted from the value of the estate.

There is a valid will dated from 2019 that was done and witnessed/signed at the solicitors who are dealing with all the estate and probate.

many years ago their grown up son was in the will but after all the threats and stuff they were taken out the will and the beneficiaries were the deceased siblings (one of which is my parent).

we are in England

Sorry if some doesn’t make sense. I ramble on and was speed typing so probably typos too but very much a valid will!

I did mention this as the mum always said she wasn’t sure but presumed my relative! But a long time has passed! She may have said it out of spite more than anything and we have no proof she said this…

When I made my will my solicitor asked if I was leaving anyone out who might expect something eg a child. This was so they could ensure that if this was the case the wording was clear. Also to make sure I wasn't excluding a dependent eg my son is an adult but he is still a dependent as he lives at home and I support him through university and my daughter is an adult but she also lives at home and is partly financially dependent on us.

So hopefully this will is clear as to the intentions but unless the son can prove he was financially dependent on the deceased he won't have a case (in England).

My grandparent, deceaseds mother is still alive in 80s. She’s not in the will as naturally he wasn’t expecting to die before she did but my grandparents were/are always hot on wills and being clear on them. They would have supported their son doing so but it wouldn’t have been forced or anything. They’d have nothing to lose or gain when my uncle took his son out the will about 5 years ago!

This was in reply to the dna testing!

Anyone can challenge a will, if they have the money and energy to do so. The question is what their chances of success are. In general, very low. However, the jurisdiction you are in is a pretty critical element here.

You should be able to ask the solicitors who drew up the will whether there is any prospect of a challenge from the son being successful. However, if the deceased received advice on drawing up the most recent will, he is likely to have been advised on how to set up the will to maximise the chances it would be upheld.

It's a valid will and he's a chancer who can threaten to challenge it in an attempt to get the executors to cave in and give him some money, but it would cost him in solicitors fees.
Hold fast!

There is nothing to stop him challenging the will. There are two routes he could take. He could try to challenge the validity of the will, which would have the effect of reinstating the previous will. Alternatively he could use the Inheritance Act to argue that the will should have made provision for him. However, provided the will was correctly drawn up and executed, I would expect any challenge to fail.

The clue is in the title.