leaving a house in a will but to only one child.when there is two

geoffky · 10 January 2009 at 2:22PM

Bit of a problem with a family member.The mother of two children aged in there 40s and the mother has fell out with one of the children and has had a will written to say that one of the children gets nothing upon her death...the question is i reckon the other child can contest this will and get half..is this right or can she do this? ps its on my wifes side of the family and find it very sad that it came to this but everyone is stubborn and refuses to entertain forgiveness...

debtfreein4years · 10 January 2009 at 2:25PM

anyone can contest the will. Im not sure what exactly happens, but I know that if one party is not happy then they can go to the courts and have the will changed.

its not as simple as that but thats the very basic jist of it.

Jvic28 · 10 January 2009 at 2:25PM

I have no idea really but I'd say that it can't be contested. Isn't that the point of a will?

Jvic28 · 10 January 2009 at 2:26PM

Woops, debtfreein4years just got in there before me. I think there would have to be a very good reason for the courts to change a will wouldn't there?

hethmar · 10 January 2009 at 2:28PM

Id be interested in the answer to this.

I would just mention, one of my very wealthy ancestor's will (18th century) left all the bits and bobs to members of the family and then to one of her children just one shilling. I did query that from an expert on wills and they said it was a way of avoiding that child challenging the will - that is, by leaving the one shilling (a smallish amount even then) it clearly indicated that she was compos mentis and that it was clearly her will to do this.

Old_Git · 10 January 2009 at 2:28PM

any will can be contested .
If you want to avoid contesting a will leave the black sheep £1 .
That way they cant say they got nothing ,but any will can be contested .

tanith · 10 January 2009 at 2:35PM

I think if the person making the will clearly states their wishes, ie: I leave nothing to

whoever she names this will make it more difficult to contest she can even put the reason for her decision if she wishes to..

Poppy9 · 10 January 2009 at 2:45PM

She will be able to challenge if she believes her mother was not of sound mind or was under undue influence.

Hopefully if she has used a good solicitor to write her will it's less likely to be that any challenge will be upheld.

One of my elderly aunts keeps changing her mind about who she is leaving her estate to and her solicitor is saying he won't change it again. She is trying to use her money as leverage so she will get away with treating people badly while she's alive. Well she's now found out that no one cares about her blooming money and she's been told to leave it all to charity as no one wants it and no one will put up with being treated the way she wants to treat people. We are not talking a fortune, probably about £60k.

zaphod_beeblebrox_2 · 10 January 2009 at 2:47PM

This may help ..

http://www.grindeys.co.uk/Default.aspx?cId=4&sId=16&dId=26

SailorSam · 10 January 2009 at 2:51PM

The chances that a claim would be successful are minimum, and the legal fees would alone be enough to put most people off.

Swan_2 · 10 January 2009 at 3:02PM

bear in mind that although a will can be contested, proving unsound mind or undue influence is likely to be difficult and costly, with no guarantee of success

a close family member of mine was widowed & found that her late husband had left their home (which they'd both been living in) to some people he'd met & befriended while they were on holiday a few years earlier
for reasons I won't go into here, he'd clearly been of unsound mind for several years, but after having a QC look at the case, she was advised to leave well alone as trying to prove that would have used up most, if not all, of her own savings & if the petition failed, she'd have been left with nothing

EDIT ... cross posted with SailorSam, I'm so slow at typing

leaving a house in a will but to only one child.when there is two

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