Was there a will?

Ivrytwr3

After some advice here! A colleague has approached me with this problem and i really have no experience in this:

OK, in approx 95 - 96 mum dies of cancer at quite a young age (40's).

Colleague at the time was 22 and 1 x younger brother 20 (both young and niaive!)

Mum had remarried a few years previously and had built their own home, step-dad, mum and 2 x sons lived their until mums passing.

Step-dad has 3 other daughters.

Now, when the mum passed, as there was no connection/relationship to the step-father, the 2 boys moved out and have had no contact with the step dad.

No will or inheritance was ever mentioned or recieved and they would now, if possible, start to look into whether they have any claim or missed an inheritance.

Any advice?

Pee

Ouch. Def should have been, shouldn't there.

You can write to York Probate regisry with £5 for a copy of any Will on which probate has been granted. Let them have as much info, i.e. name, address at date of death, date of death.

From a practical point of view it is quite likely the house would be owned by the married couple as joint tenants, meaning it passed to the survivor, with any money in joint accounts except say an ISA in mum's sole name which would also have passed to her husband, probably without the need for a Grant of probate.

If I was them, i would contact step dad and stay on good terms.

Ivrytwr3

If I was them, i would contact step dad and stay on good terms.

It's been what? 14 years now and neither brother have had any contact with step-dad.

Errata

Depending on how much mum's estate was worth (someone else will have a figure, I think it's around £250k), in the absence of a will the estate passes to the surviving spouse.

BitterAndTwisted

I always thought that if a person dies intestate there is a set formula for how the estate would be distributed. Something like 50% to surviving spouse and the balancing 50% split between the children. I am happy to be corrected on this and I admit I haven't tried to find out for certain.

Now that I have stirred myself and checked this is the info I have found and I was correct, the surviving spouse and the "issue" (children of the person who died intestate) share the estate between them.

http://www.wisewills.co.uk/intestate.htm

Upon further investigation it looks like currently the first £125,000 goes to the surviving spouse and any balance is shared between spouse and children. I appears that the intestacy law was changed this year, but I can't find any info that suggest the law was retrospective.

RAS

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

I always thought that if a person dies intestate there is a set formula for how the estate would be distributed. Something like 50% to surviving spouse and the balancing 50% split between the children. I am happy to be corrected on this and I admit I haven't tried to find out for certain.

Now that I have stirred myself and checked this is the info I have found and I was correct, the surviving spouse and the "issue" (children of the person who died intestate) share the estate between them.

http://www.wisewills.co.uk/intestate.htm

Upon further investigation it looks like currently the first £125,000 goes to the surviving spouse and any balance is shared between spouse and children. I appears that the intestacy law was changed this year, but I can't find any info that suggest the law was retrospective.

This applies to any sole possessions. If the house was in joint names as joint tenants and the couple had a joint bank account, then those items would not be included in the estate, as they were already jointly owned by the step-father

clairehi

Interesting question. I think its unlikely that they will be entitled to anything. If (as is most likely) the property was owned as joint tenants it would have automatically passed to step dad on her death and they would not (AFAIK) be entitled to anything. So would the contents of all joint bank accounts. Only if she had other assets worth over 125K would they have a claim.

It is possible the property was owned as tenants in common, in which case SD would not automatically inherit her half of the house, and the children could have a claim under intestacy rules, if the total value of the estate was more than £125 000. Its unlikely they would be tenants in common though unless as part of inheritance tax planning, which would also have involved writing a will.

Definitely worth checking with the Land Registry who the current owner is listed as. It is quite possible that step dad has never advised them of mum's death and she is still on the deeds. These would also state whether the house was owned jointly or as t-i-c. However I am not sure if this info is still publicly available due to identity theft problems?

I am not an expert, just a layperson who has recently acted as an executor, so cant guarantee my opinion is correct.

Pee

It is worth checking at the Land Registry, I agree.

tandraig

taking all other factors into consideration - there may be a problem here with the length of time between the death (95 to 96 you think?). it was nearly 15 years ago! this is complicated - if there was a will and sons were named then the money should still be in an account for them. the executor would be named on the will and they could then get in touch with them and request their inheritance.
if the lady died intestate though - as far as i understand it the estate would be shared by her husband and surviving issue and surely the boys would have been contacted - and this is where time comes in - only after all 'reasonable' methods to find them have failed can the estate be divided - and once that is done i believe (tho if anyone knows better feel free to put me right) the monies cannot be recovered if an heir turns up.
its worth finding out if there is a will as the money may well be sitting there waiting for them - but be prepared for disappointment.