Can someone claim money from a will for caring for parents ?

[Illjusthavethebreadsticks]

After a wrangle with his brother about his inheritance my partner has now been offered 50% which is what was stated in the will. His brother is now demanding £36k for the six years he spent looking after their parents unpaid. Can he do this ??

So his mums now died and both sons are to be given 50% of the estate when all the bills and tax are paid.

What "caring" did he do if their dad died 6 years ago and their mum went into a carehome, over what period of time did he do any "caring ",

There is a "promise, reliance and detriment" thing which is one of the reasons that a will can be challenged. The challenger has to have been made a promise, to have acted relying on that promise and have suffered detriment because the promise was broken. There does not have to be anything written down although of course its easier if there is. The case i remember was a son who had run his parent's farm for them instead of taking a paying job because he had been promised that the farm would be left to him. Instead the couple's wills left the farm to a charity and it went to court. The court found in favour of the son. As I recall the agreement with the son was common knowledge among the community so he could produce witnesses. It was a sad story. The charity (can't remember which one) were required by their rules to not act to the loss of the charity so they couldn't just say "okay you get the farm", it had to be legally settled and they had to pay the costs of the case as well as not getting the farm.

No, of course he can't. Your parents left their money in the split they wanted.

Your brother's view of that split is irrelevant.

Just stick to the terms of the Will.

No, he can’t. Anything like that needed to have been sorted before the parents died.

There is a bit of common law called Estoppel, which involves making good on promises made. He could bring a case if he can prove that he was promised money in exchange for his care.

He would further need to prove that he came to rely on this promise, and acted in some way to his detriment in fulfilling his end of the bargain.

So if he can prove that he was promised the money / estate. That he relied on that and that say he gave up work or an opportunity as a result, yes, he has a case.

But Estoppel cases are notoriously hard to win even with evidence.

But technically, its a possible scenario.

Yep, that's an example of an Estoppel case, the law I described in my post, and also a good example of the fact that it can be won, and you don't need written evidence.

He can demand. But there is no obligation to pay.

it seems the brother only cared if he thought he was getting a bigger chunk of the inheritance.

the will gets distributed as per the parents wishes and the brother gets over himself.

That's not quite true, wills can be changed by the executor with the beneficiaries agreement, beneficiaries can be swapped, amount and gifts altered. The legal process is called Deed of variation and legally changes the will in the desired way as if it were written before the testator died.

However, it require the agreement of the beneficiaries involved and the executor, but it most certainly can be done.

Won't the brother have to prove that he spent money which he thinks he should be reimbursed for, did he keep accounts, did he have poa, why didn't his parents pay him at the time if they thought he should get paid. Why didn't both brothers help?

Legally no. Morally possibly.

We're in the middle of selling a relative's house. My sibling has done far more than me in getting it ready to sell - painting, clearing liasing with the estate agent, sorting insurance etc. I plan to compensate her for this - not to the tune of 36k though.

Not unless he can show there was an agreement and that parents (now their estate) owe him this money, or that he's owed expenses.

If he wanted paid for it he should have said before hand, then your DH could’ve decided if he’d rather pay him or take on some of the work himself. I doubt any court would find he was £36k out of pocket for hospital appointments and a bit of admin. If they don’t get on then your DH should take his 50% and never see him again.

This is a link to good information on Estoppel law.

www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/101129

That’s attendance allowance. Carer’s allowance is paid to the carer.

Ask him for receipts and any expenses he incurred should have been included in the final Estate accounts before any beneficiary is paid

How do you know his parents didn't already pay him for caring or expenses, if it's just the last 6 years then his mum was in a carehome anyway and his dad had died

That won’t include care cost for parents. It includes things like funeral costs and settling up utility bills.

And there is the matter that the sibling benefitted from being helped out to buy properties although the detail is vague.

Their mother was in a care home so that was where her main care came from.

“ All he did” was all in the sense of ‘the only things he did were’….. hospital visits, some admin, selling their parent's’ house.

We had receipts for gardeners, utility bills, window cleaning, taxis to qnd from hospital, any house repairs, insurance, stationary, phone calls.

not unless he was financially dependent on them. So if he had given up work to care for them & they maintained him during that time he might have a case. A child under the age of 18 would have a case or a spouse who had been left without means to support themselves.

but what you describe doesn’t sound like it.