My friends partner has suddenly died, what is her predicament?

cepheus

My friend has just phoned me tonight. Tragically her partner was misdiagnosed with gallstones, but in fact had a peptic ulcer which burst and caused multiple organ failure. He died Thursday, in his early 50s.

She has lived with him for about 10 years and known him for 30 years as a partner, and shared a mortgage on the house. He worked, she is on disability and is in debt by a couple of thousand. They technically had a shared account as well, but I don't think she knows any of the details, PINs etc and the bank won't help her to access it until the death certificate is provided (this doesn't make any sense to me).

It gets more complicated. He told her at some point that he wanted his estate to pass to her, however there is nothing in writing. It is possible he told his neice something who is a solicitor and was going to draw something up, but we don't know.

He has three brothers/sisters, a brother in law, and half brother as the nearest relatives. They were not very close, and not helping with arrangements, however, they were present at his death. My beareaved friend was too ill to be there, and could be more seriously ill. I have advised her to attend the funeral if possible. Thankfully her Father is helping with some paperwork for the time being.

I don't live near. I may drive down to help with her dogs on Friday, one which is seriously ill as well and costs her a fortune in medicines, which she thinks the world of.

There are two main issues:

a) short term how does she get enough money to survive on, can she sell his car? and

b) what is she entitled to with regards the house, his pension & liabilities

Mojisola

If you can help her, please do. It's an awful situation, especially as she isn't well.

Unless he has specifically named her on things like the pension, or written a will in her favour, she may be entitled to nothing of his.

If they had an account in joint names, then whatever is in that is automatically hers.

The ownership of the house will depend on how they held it. If they were joint tenants, she will now own the whole of the house. If they were tenants in common, it will depend on his will or the intestacy rules in which case his part of the house will go to his blood relations.

cepheus

Yes the 'joint tenants' or 'tenants in common' seems to be the critical rule as far as the house is concerned. I've had a quick look. It also seems that even if she didn't have automatic rights she could apply to the court for financial help from the estate. As far as I know only the house and pension is of any value in the estate.

Joint tenants or tenants-in-common?

If you buy a house jointly with someone else (your spouse, lover, a relative or friend) then it is important to decide whether you will own the property as joint tenants, or tenants-in-common. So what's the difference?
If you are joint tenants then each of you jointly own the entire property (technically it is held by you in trust for yourselves). The consequence of this is that upon the death of one party their interest in the property passes automatically to the survivor. It is therefore usual for married couples to buy a property as joint tenants.

If you decide to hold the property as tenants- in- common, then each owner has a distinct share in the property. If there are two owners this will automatically be half each, if three a third each, and so on. Alternatively you can decide between yourselves what share of the property belongs to each owner. For example, if 2 friends were buying a property together and one contributed more to the purchase price than the other, this could be reflected in the respective shares of the property, say 75% and 25%. The important point is that each of the tenants-in-common always owns their share of the property, and is only entitled to that percentage of the sale proceeds, if sold during their lifetime. If they die, then their share of the property forms part of their estate. It does not automatically pass to the other owner(s).

http://www.lawontheweb.co.uk/Family_Law/Cohabitation

Applying for financial help

You may be able to apply to court for reasonable financial help from the estate of the person who has died intestate. For example, if you were living with the person who has died but you were not married to him, you would not inherit under the rules of intestacy. However, you could apply to court for financial help. You must have lived with him for at least two years immediately before his death. Another example is if you were always treated by the person who died as a child of the family. You would not inherit under the rules of intestacy but you could apply to the court for financial help.

You must make the application within a certain time limit although in some circumstances this can be extended.

The court may order:

• regular payments from the estate
• a lump sum payment from the estate
• property to be transferred from the estate.

If you want to the court for financial help, you will need legal advice. You may get legal aid.

http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/index/your_family/family/who_can_inherit_if_there_is_no_will___the_rules_of_intestacy.htm#applying_for_financial_help

cepheus

Perhaps I also need to find if she was nominated in his occupational pension, if he had one

For occupational pension schemes, any entitlement to a spouses' pension is determined by the scheme deed and trustees.

There are usually 2 types of benefits which are payable

1. The first comes as a lump sum payment. This is usually only paid on the death of the active scheme member. The member can nominate who they would like the benefit to go to before they die and, as such, unmarried partners can benefit as much as married partners.

2. After this, there is the widow/widower's pension. This is usually 50% or 65% of the members pension.

This is determined on an individual basis according to the pension scheme level, but legislation does now stipulate that registered civil partners must be treated same as married couples.
However, this does not extend to couples co-habiting. So most schemes will pay out to married and registered partners but not to unmarried partner not in a civil partnership – this is unlikely to change given the shortfall in funding of many schemes.

http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/pensions/ask-an-expert/article.html?in_article_id=505165&in_page_id=138

roddydogs

Tragically, she wont even be allowed to arrange a funeral, as she is not "Next of Kin".

rosyw

roddydogs wrote: »

Tragically, she wont even be allowed to arrange a funeral, as she is not "Next of Kin".

Sorry, but yes she will. My partner of 34 years died a couple of years ago, the only query was about registering his death, you can only do this if you are next of kin, or were present at the death, which I was, so was able to register it. There is no problem regarding his funeral, although sadly she will not be entitled to claim the bereavement grant or benefit which she would have been able to had they been married.
With regard to the house, what others have already said is correct, but also she needs to check for any insurance which will pay off the mortgage in the vent of his death, many mortgage lenders insist on this.
My sincere sympathies to your friend, I do know what she is going through, any any help and support you can offer will be so much appreciated.

Plans_all_plans

RosyW: if his family aren't keen on the OP and want to arrange the funeral themselves, I'd have thought that the family would have more of a legal right to do it? Or is this not the case?

rosyw

I don't think that's the case, my understanding is that there is no legal requirement other than the death has been properly certified,registered etc., in my situation my partners "family" were in no position to be able to make arrangements, the funeral directors certainly didn't query anything, I simply had to sign to say I was responsible for paying the bill.

cepheus

I don't think she wants to arrange the funeral, and certainly can't afford it, but she will have the responsibility.

Short term finance is the immediate problem.

C_Mababejive

When you say "partner" do you mean that they were not married?

If that is the case

and there is no will

Then she will be in a very difficult position which could potentially leave her homeless.

When you say that she shared a morgage with him,do you mean that the mortgage was paid out of a joint bank account to which they were both signatories/account holders?

Yes? Well she might have some proportional claim on the value of the property but that is far into the future.

The key questions are ;

Was she married?
Do the land reg details show them as joint proprietors?

If the answer to both is No then she could be homeless.

The laws of intestacy will prevail if there is no will as seems likely. Spoken wishes count for almost nothing and relatives get very mercenary when there is money/property to be had. They will hoof her out tout de suite.

Let this be a lesson..if your not married,get a will.

As for his pension,if she isnt named and/or a dependant,she will lose out as well.

SandC

I would advise her to contact his employer to find out if she was named as his nominated beneficiary for his pension. He might have also had death in service benefit, again she needs to find out if she was nominated for this. This is not classed as part of the estate and if she is named then this money could be very helpful to her right now.