How to find copy of a Will to prove we are entitled to house?

tazical

My uncle has died this week, which is awful on it's own terms, but it has brought to light a problem for my brother and I regarding his estate.

Basically, he has been living for the past 40 years in the house with my grandparents. When my grandparents passed away, as far as we understand, the house should have been divided between my uncle and my mum. However, my mum passed away before my grandparents so my uncle has continued living in the house for the last 6 years since my grandparents' deaths and has not mentioned anything to us in his role as executor about my mum's share of the house. Now he has passed away we are obviously concerned to sort this out and see if we are still entitled to my mum's share.

Is there a way of requesting a copy of my grandparents' Wills so we can start to work out if we should have been entitled to anything from when they passed away? The family politics is all getting very confusing and we have no idea where to go from here!

bryanb

tazical wrote: »

My uncle has died this week, which is awful on it's own terms, but it has brought to light a problem for my brother and I regarding his estate.

Basically, he has been living for the past 40 years in the house with my grandparents. When my grandparents passed away, as far as we understand, the house should have been divided between my uncle and my mum. However, my mum passed away before my grandparents so my uncle has continued living in the house for the last 6 years since my grandparents' deaths and has not mentioned anything to us in his role as executor about my mum's share of the house. Now he has passed away we are obviously concerned to sort this out and see if we are still entitled to my mum's share.

Is there a way of requesting a copy of my grandparents' Wills so we can start to work out if we should have been entitled to anything from when they passed away? The family politics is all getting very confusing and we have no idea where to go from here!

I would start by finding out exactly who is registered as the owner of the house (Land registry)

vivatifosi

You can get a copy of a will if it has been registered for probate from the York Probate Registry. I've used them. It does take a while to come through but they are very helpful. Have a look here for more info:

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1226.htm

PasturesNew

You can get a copy of any will, it'll take between 0 days and about a month, depending where it is:

http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/1226.htm#details

Of course, never underestimate the ability of people to talk about what will happen, but to never end up making an actual will.

dander

I would have thought that if your mother died before the grandparents then the entire property would have passed to your uncle. A deceased person cannot inherit.

Your grandparents estate would have had to have been administered by a solicitor, and if anything had been due to you at that point, you would have been informed.

Debt_Free_Chick

tazical wrote: »

When my grandparents passed away, as far as we understand, the house should have been divided between my uncle and my mum. However, my mum passed away before my grandparents

Assuming your grandparents' wills were worded this simply i.e. that on their death, the house would be shared between mum & uncle then uncle would have inherited the whole house, as mum was not alive to inherit.

localhero

Hi Tazical,

Your starting point is to see if there was a will made by your grandparents - for it's possible they may not have done.

If they didn't then the law of intestacy will apply which means that in the event of your mother predeceasing them, her share will pass down to you and your siblings (if any).

If there was a Will, then by virtue of s33 of the Wills Act, your mother's share will also pass down to you and your siblings in the same way as above, even if the Will is silent about what happens in the event of a child predeceasing. Only where the will expressly states to the contrary will you not inherit.

dander wrote:

Your grandparents estate would have had to have been administered by a solicitor, and if anything had been due to you at that point, you would have been informed.

An estate does not have to be administered by a solicitor. The OP has already stated that her uncle was the executor and so he could have dealt with the probate matter himself.

The potential problem I can see was if your uncle owned the property jointly with your grandparents then he may have received it by survivorship in which case you wouldn't stand to inherit.

Best of luck with your enquiries.

tazical

Thanks very much for all of your replies- they've certainly given us a starting point. We have no real desire to look like gold-diggers in this sad situation but we're just trying to find out where we stand.

Regarding wills- we know that my grandparents certainly had wills and the last copies that we know about left my gran's share (66% at the time of her death, hers + my grandad's) to be divided equally between my mum and my uncle, or their survivors if they are deceased. The other 33% share was owned by my uncle. By our calculations that means that he owns 66% of the house and my mum/her suvivors are entitled to 33%, near enough.

My grandmother spent the last three years of her life with mental problems in a nursing home and we suspect that she may have been encouraged by my uncle to change her will without telling anyone else, so that's why we need to get hold of a copy. The whole situation is entirely messed up, since the house was my parents' to start with. They very unwisely made a Deed of Gift to my grandparents and uncle on the agreement that it would revert back to them or their survivors upon their deaths. It's obvious that there's a been a lot of backstabbing and will changing since then and my brother and I are hopelessly trying to figure it all out.

To make matters more interesting, my uncle wasn't married and had no kids, but had a common law wife who is still living at the property. We have no idea yet if my uncle had his own will to provide for her, so it could get even more complicated yet! :rolleyes:

lincroft1710

Did your uncle make a will? If not who are his next of kin?

lincroft1710

Sorry!! Forgot to ask do you have or can you obtain copy of Deed of Gift?

tazical

We don't know yet if my uncle made a will. If he did he will almost certainly have left everything to his common-law partner. If not, then his only other relatives are my brother and I (niece and nephew), and his brother, with whom he hasn't spoken in 20 years or so. I guess we'll find out next week when some of the legal paperwork gets started.