New bride from abroad and sadly Father In Law has died.

[Jooleshop]

My elderly, unwell widowed FIL met a lady on line and started a relationship. He married her about 6 months ago and she has been back to her home more than staying in the UK with her new husband.
Unfortunately my FIL passed away while his wife was away again.
Her British Citizenship has not yet been finalised and it seems they both lied on documents to say they have lived together for a year before they were married.
It seems that my FIL has taken equity out of the small bungalow to pay for many things abroad.
When my FIL needed his wife she was not there.
It now seems all she wanted was the money and not a real relationship with my FIL.

A year and a half ago my FIL discussed his will and his money would pass on to the grandchildren when he passed.
Now it seems the old will is void as he got married, so everything goes to his new wife, who is flying to the UK in a few days... Now her husband has passed.

Does anyone have a clue if we can contest the new wife? In hind sight she is not what she seemed at the time.
We don't have a lot of money and a nest egg for the boys would be wonderful!
It feels wrong that his wife left him when he was ill and he died alone...
Now she's coming to claim the house etc...

Any help greatly appreciated.

I would see if you can find any information locally about how to verify if their Thai marriage is legal eg contact the Thai Embassy and see if it can be checked if it is a valid marriage that would be accepted as such in the UK.

I presume you have the date of the marriage, and know that FIL obtained the necessary paperwork, Affirmation and translations prior to the wedding?

Does he have a copy of the marriage certificate at his house to aid your checking?

The wife needs to provide legal proof of a marriage that's valid in the UK in order to inherit the estate/start spending it. You need to insist that this is proven before any funds are dispersed - house could be sold but any remaining funds not released until proven. I would contact FILs banks/equity company in advance and explain you are not sure the marriage is proven valid in the UK, and ask that they obtain proof of this before releasing funds.

What type of set ups? Where a 65 yo and a 55 yo get married?

Of course they do, but Thailand remains a place where being a 'mail order' bride is considered an excellent career path for some women there. It's silly and disingenuous to pretend otherwise when the incentive for this is obvious and there is evidence all over the internet.

I understand OP feeling frustrated about this, but these marriages are transactional in nature and her FIL wasn't necessarily a victim in all of this. It is perfectly possible that he cynically understood the wife's motives for marrying him but didn't care as he was getting what he needed from the marriage too (i.e. someone to care for him, show him love etc). He died early in the marriage and so the arrangement almost seems like it was a bad 'deal' now as he got little of what he wanted out of the relationship whilst she cleans up financially, but that was the risk he took.

I do think these kinds of marriage are extremely dubious and exploitative in nature. There is usually one party that ends up getting the raw end of the deal and in this case it was OP's FIL.

You need to message her to say she must ensure she brings original proof of marriage. If they wed in Thailand it's 50/50 whether it's legal in uk.

Ok... This was FILs second marriage. He married the mother of my husband and the money they had collectively was always going to the grandchildren.
My FIL had been ill for probably 30 years...he had a kidney from his sister that was failing and we all knew that.
His first wife died 4 years ago and he was devastated. He lived close to his grandchildren and saw them often.
FIL Was lonely and unhappy... We could only spend so much time with him as we have children and other aging parents.
We encouraged FIL to go dating and were happy he had met someone.
The fact is she probably was looking on line for an elderly, sick , lonely man who had very few years to live...
It's organised as the girls are part of an agency who arrange marriages... And they probably look for men who are over 60 and have seriously health issues.
Now FIL is dead our MIL suddenly doesn't want to talk to us unless a solicitor is present....
Now we are not doing the airport run as suddenly the embassy and friends are doing it...
Is that not odd???
Before we did parties, birthday party and pickup from airports together...
Why not now???
Suddenly this all feels so false and fake and who are all these people who are now appearing???

Its a scam.

Your vulnerable FIL was targetted.

I am not sure what legal recourse you have but the totality of all her actions post marriage indicate dark and disingenuous intentions.

I am sorry for your loss.

Well vulnerable FIL could have made a will 🤷🏻‍♀️

Appears that he did before he got involved with this lady. Maybe like many othrs on this thread (including myself) he was not aware that it was null and void on marriage.

It seems he didnt proactively make a will on marriage to benefit this lady.

This was a chronically ill man, lonely and bereaved after a long marriage - he was incredibly vulnerable.

I am surprised people don’t know that. but frankly it’s mostly men who remarry quickly and can’t cope alone.

He didn’t think about his family and grandchildren, he wanted a new wife. presumably he was happy he found a new wife and felt less lonely.
Whatever her intentions were, he could have still made sure his will was updated or opened trusts for the GC especially as he was chronically ill. But he didn’t.

legal action will cost a lot for a fairly small estate left. Plus I doubt Op has much of a chance as FIL seemed of sound mind.

I hope the last 18 months were comforting for him.

@Jooleshop I really hope you find an updated will when you visit FIL home.

This does sound like a scam. His new wife didn’t even stay here to stop his loneliness. Poor man.

🌺🌺🌺 for you and your family