My dads inheritance

[Babbyjones]

My dad has recently died and I am going through probate, in the will I am the beneficiary of his property
My dad left an undated and unsigned letter of wishes his partner can live in his house till she dies, however she already owns another property that her sons lives in rent free.
She has already benefited from his money in his joint account and been left a portion of his pension (around 40,000)
I want to sell his house, what am I entitled to do??

Whether the OP likes her or not doesn’t matter.

The will is a legal document expressing the wish of someone.
The wishes of the person who died, as stated on the will, should be respected.

Firstly - definitely get proper legal advice!

It wouldn’t be normal that a random unsigned letter is legally enforceable. Therefore it is your property and you can sell if you wish. So it depends how much you like your dad’s partner, what the fall out from her and her/your family would be and what you think you dad actually wanted.

Yeah this. Get it sold.

If you let this roll which you shouldn’t she’ll be expecting you to maintain it for her…. buy her a new boiler and get the gardener in etc etc

My children have asked for one of the grandads flat caps and she is refusing to let them view his clothes in a house she doesn’t own! She had started to get rid of things he owned until I told her to stop

The will is everything. The unsigned letter (!) has even less clout if you have text messages from your dad refuting it!

Just go ahead with notice to leave etc, all through the proper channels. When she brings up the letter, you can simply say that it did not reflect his final wishes or his will.

I’d be moving in!

Exactly. The letter is unsigned and unwitnessed. It could have been written whilst she was threatening him, for all OP knows.

The stunts some people pull. She's just on the make.

If your dad wanted to ensure she could stay indefinitely he should have included a life interest in his will. Not an airy fairy letter that doesn't consider any of the practicalities. So no, it's your house you can get her out and sell it. If you want to make a gesture towards your father's not very well thought out wishes you could offer her a generous period of time in which to leave but don't be too generous because she might refuse to go and you'll have to evict her as a squatter (as she isn't a tenant) which may take some time.

I'm a solicitor and I could scream at the lack of common sense of people like your father. It doesn't seem to have occurred to him that as the legal owner only you can insure the house, only you have an interest in maintaining it but you get all the cost and no benefit until you can take possession. Meanwhile she could be trashing it or illegally subletting rooms or pissing off the neighbours. And there is now going to be bad feeling which could have been avoided.

Oh well thank goodness they weren't married. At least he got that right. I'm not being heartless, she has a property, she can go and live in it with her son.

Quite. If the deeds have been transferred i.e. It's now yours you can just go in. If she stops you then ask the police to attend as a non tenant of the property is preventing access.

If the deeds have not been transferred and you are the executer then you have a legal responsibility to ensure everything in your dad's estate is accounted for and should get access for recording purposes and to ensure the property is accounted for and secured. Make it clear to her that if any property missing from his estate she may need to be investigated for theft. It isn't hers. She has no right to it.

Don't wait for the deeds to be transferred, Land Registry is taking absolutely ages for these kinds of transactions, unless there's a pending sale, around 2 years..

If there's an issue like the one the OP is having, they will be helpful. I called them because of the horrible legal clusterfuck that my mum left behind, and the need to prove ownership of the property, and they said they'd prioritise it. I got the deeds ten days later. I was really impressed with how helpful and understanding they were.

I feel angry to read she’s going through and getting rid of your late father’s belongings.

That's reassuring

.

An unsigned and undated letter hardly qualifies as a letter does it?

How long was she living with him for? That incident with his caps would be enough for me to not want her to benefit at all.

The person who said she had to be given money is wrong. She has her own money and that would only be if he had been married to her.

If there is no will that has been witnessed and signed, then The estate falls to the deceaseds children in such cases. Legally speaking he may as well have drawn a picture of a rainbow as it counts for nothing if no one witnessed it. Does his partner know about the letter he wrote?

Sorry I just noticed you are named in the will as the beneficiary. The house is yours, the letter is invalid, anyone could have written it.

why would she. LOL
a nobody taking me mum space and me dad money

Me too. I'd be coming with me boys and give her 1 day to pack and go.

I'm not legally knowledgeable but from a practical point of view, the longer she's allowed to stay, the more harm she can do. Six months is way too long. More like a week or so once you've actually got the power in your hand to ask her to go. Brace yourself for it to be unpleasant though.

Do you have keys? If you do I'd go round when she's out and remove anything particularly important. If not you may have to make up a story to go round before you unleash the 'go now' directive.

How long had they been together, and how long has the house been her home @Babbyjones ?

The letter is invalid, anyone could have written it. It goes off his actual will.

That said I'd be going round and moving in.

What does your solicitor advise?

Bloody hell, it's your house! Just go there and take what is rightfully yours. You don't need her permission. And then speak to a solicitor about getting her out and putting the house on the market.