Help pls advise on contesting a will on hearsay

kinkybootz

This is long winded but will keep as brief as possible...

My uncle/God father passed away in 1993 leaving all his estate to his wife on the understanding her will would be changed to then leave 50% of his inheritance to the 5 neices / nephews when she passed away and her 50% plus all her own money would go whereever she wanted it too..

This was discussed in length with my grandparents, my father and other uncle, my eldest cousin and my step mother.

Sadly when my uncle passed away mt aunt lost the plot, she was on mega anti depressants and would cry for hours on the phone that she just wanted my uncle to come and take her in her sleep so they would be reunited.. it was all very distressing.

We tried to keep in contact but for the past 5 years she would not allow visitors though we have written often and always sent cads and flowers for Christmas, Birthdays and Mothers Day (as she was my God mother)

She was invited to our wedding and sons Christening but chose not to come. And she pushed all her friends away over the course of the years being very harsh and sometimes nasty, we ignored it as she was so so sad as loosing our uncle.

We found out last Thursday she had died, she infact died on 29th Spetember and was buried on 16th October though nobody informed any of our family.

The nieghbour of 40years knew we existed, as did the gardener of 3 years who happens to be the neighbours brother in law...

So a legacy has been left of approx £750,000 as follows

2k to neices / nephews
5k to 1 uncle
30k to nieghbour
50k to the gardener..
the remainder approx 625,000k to Guide dogs

can we contest the will on hearsay.?
Aunti told several members of the family that was what was going to happen with uncles half of estate.

All her jewellery has gone
The gardener has said she fgave it to him before she died but none of the family believe she would have parted with her wedding rings b4 her death.
The gardener has said aunti made him shred 16 a4 folders of paper work b4 she died.
The gardener has said she changed her will in 2006 just after he started working for her.
When speaking to the gardener on Friday morning to try and establish what happened to our aunt I was told in no uncertain terms 'NOT TO ROCK THE BOAT' and he wanted the will sorted out asap. Nobody had even mentioned the estate to him.

What do we do? Contest the will? Report to the police we believe the gardener has done something wrong..?

Advise pls as so very upset by it all.

Voyager2002

Help the Aged would be a good place to start. I would imagine that they could refer you to a solicitor with appropriate expertise.

Voyager2002

And in the meantime, write detailed notes about all your conversations with gardener and neighbour, so that if you later speak to the police or give evidence in court you will not have to rely on your memory at the time.

floss2

Also, do any other members of your family have a copy of the previous will?

Nicki

I think you will be on a sticky wicket I'm afraid.

Your uncle's wife is not a blood relation of yours and therefore even if the will was overturned, you would not inherit under the intestacy laws. You also were not being financially supported by her during your lifetime, so you can't apply under this ground.

To have any chance at all of success, you would need to show that there was an irrevocable agreement between your uncle and aunt that he would leave money to her on the condition that this was passed on, and that this could not be changed in any circumstances. However that is very hard to show and you would need good evidence of this. Given that your uncle left a will (presumably drawn up professionally) had this really been his intention, he would have been advised to leave the aunt a life interest in half the estate, with the remainder to pass to the neices and nephews, and the other half to her outright. The fact he didn't do this would suggest it wasn't his intention that she couldn't touch 50% of the estate whatever happened. It has been 15 years since your uncle died and it is unreasonable to expect his wishes to be honoured if not legally binding after all this time imho especially as your aunt has chosen not to have contact with you over this time.

In your shoes my first port of call would be the solicitor who drew up uncle's will to see whether there is any record of uncle's intentions, but as I say I fear you are on a loser here. Solicitors only have to keep their files for 6 years so it will be a long shot that you will be able to find the evidence you need after this time anyway unless you are very lucky.

TonyMMM

"My uncle/God father passed away in 1993 leaving all his estate to his wife on the understanding her will would be changed...."

Unless he wrote the conditions into his will or set up some kind of trust arrangement to protect the inheritance, I don't think this has any relevance.

Once she had control of the estate it became hers and she can then dispose of it as she wishes - you need to concentrate on establishing the validity of her will .....the sums of money you are talking about are large and you need to get some expert help asap.

Mojisola

You will have the full weight of the Guide Dogs for the Blind against you if you try to challenge the will. They have to defend any legacy that is challenged - it's their legal obligation as a charity.

bunny999

when was the will made ?

Nicki

TonyMMM wrote: »

you need to concentrate on establishing the validity of her will

This won't help. If the will is invalid, then either the aunt's former will (if it still exists) will stand, or she will be deemed to have died intestate. In neither case, will OP stand to get any money as she isn't a blood relative of the deceased. In fact, she would then lose the small legacy she has been left so would be worse off.

The only way OP could get any money would be if she could show that the 50% share of her uncle's estate did not form part of the aunt's estate because it was being held in trust for the neices and nephews under the terms of uncle's will, or a separate trust deed. At the minute though OP has no evidence to support this.

funky-footprints

something very similar to this happened to my fil....not as much money, but certainly a life changing amount, again it was all on hear say, and unfortunatly he didnt get a penny.
i agree with previous comments, in my fil's case, he had nothing to prove the original intentions.

floss2

As I asked earlier, does anyone have a copy of the previous will? Surely if this had been written at the same time as the Uncle's will, there would be a trust clause written in?