Will not signed

sloughflint

Mojisola wrote: »

Alikay has a good point about the house - that might not be counted as part of the estate.

If the tenancy was joint, half the house would be counted for taxation purposes still when dealing with the estate. It just means that the house would automatically pass to the surviving joint tenant upon death of the co-owner.

Mojisola

sloughflint wrote: »

If the tenancy was joint, half the house would be counted for taxation purposes still when dealing with the estate. It just means that the house would automatically pass to the surviving joint tenant upon death of the co-owner.

I was thinking of the distribution under the intestacy laws - if the parents were joint tenants wouldn't the house be passed to the survivor automatically and so not be included in the £125,000 that the spouse is awarded?

sloughflint

Yes Mosijola. The house would pass automatically to the co-owner;Will or no Will. I was pointing out the taxation aspect of the estate.

By Will or no Will, I mean even if someone wanted to pass a share of their house to someone other than the co-owner in their Will, this would not happen under joint tenancy. The house would still automatically become the property of the surviving co-owner.

Strapped

Nicki wrote: »

An unsigned will is not valid. However I believe that it is possible for recipients of assets on an intestacy to agree to a variation of the settlement. It's certainly possible to do this with a will. This helps with IHT and other matters. This should be a really simple thing for a solicitor to advise on, and very cheap to sort out. I'd ask a local probate solicitor for some advise about this.

Nicki is correct. Exactly this situation occured with my mother-in-law, who died the night after making her will, which she had not yet signed. In her will she had left the house to one of her 5 children. In order to make this "legal" the other siblings (inc my hubby) had to sign some paperwork agreeing to abide by her wishes ie effectively signing away their interest in their inheritence by intestacy laws.

vaio

sloughflint wrote: »

…….In seriousness though, anything posted on a forum on any topic (not necessarily legal) should not be taken as gospel.

Unless of course I posted it.

Seriously, depending on the circumstances and value of the estate it could well be worth getting advice as the way the estate is divided now can have inheritance tax implications later

localhero

Hi Newtownmadras,

The sums passing according to the intestacy laws do not include jointy owned property.

Therefore if your dad jointly owned a house as joint tenants worth £400,000, had a joint bank account worth £50,000 and then had other assets worth £100,000 in his own name name, then under the intestacy laws the whole lot would pass to his wife.

If your dad had assets in his own name name (ie a share of property owned as tenants in common), shares etc that exceed £125,000, then his wife receives the first £125,000 outright, then a life interest in half of the remainder (interest on the capital until they die), and the children receive the other half at 18. (As well as the other half once his wife has died).

Where any of the beneficiaries are under 18, then it is not possible for them to join in a Deed of Variation without the authority of the courts. If it cannot be shown that it would be in the minor's interests to join the DOV, then the courts are unlikely to agree to that.

If your dad therefore did leave an estate greater than £125,000 and there are minor beneficiaries, then a last resort is to get the unsigned Will approved by probate. If it can be shown what the deceased intended then the Probate Registry will generally try to give effect to his wishes. Unfortunately this will be a costly business and there is no guarantee of success and so really is a last resort. The automatic assumption made by most professionals is: Will not signed = not valid. On the face of it that is correct, but they often don't realise or don't think it is worth pursuing it any further.

That's the law anyway OP so best of luck.

By the way Sloughflint, you are quite right re the IHT situation, in my hypothetical scenario in paragraph 2, then his estate for IHT would be approx £325,000 - give or take a bit of negotiation as to what a half share of the house would be worth.