Which Will take precedent?

Gareth56

I don't know if this can happen but what if a husband and a wife had two separate wills containing different wishes on their deaths and during a holiday both the husband and wife die in a plane crash, whose will takes precedent, the husband's or the wife's?

Gareth

rosysparkle

The husband's estate will be dealt with according to his will, the wife's estate according to hers.

Do you mean who is deemed to have died first, to determine who has whatever they have left to each other?

If it can't be medically determined which one died first, the older of them is deemed to have died first.

However, many wills contain a clause that that in order for the second person to inherit something from the first person's will, they have to survive for 30 days after the first death.

Gareth56

What I meant was if their wills differed in how the estate was to be split up. So for example if the wife's will wanted to leave the house to the local cats home but the husband's will wanted to leave the house to a member of the family who would get the house?

Xbigman

They don't both own the house, they own half each. One half would go to the cats home and the other half to the family member.
Regards



X

Debt_Free_Chick

Gareth56 wrote:

What I meant was if their wills differed in how the estate was to be split up.

As Xbigman says - each will only deals with the property that each person owns. You can't bequeath something in a will if it doesn't belong to you.

For anything jointly owned, it is deemed to be half each, unless there is evidence that ownership was split in a different way.

tyllwyd

I didn't think it was quite that simple. I'm not a lawyer so I could be completely wrong, but I think it makes a difference if they are beneficial joint tenants or tenants in common. If they are joint tenants, on the first death, the property passes to the survivor - so if the wife was deemed to have died first, her husband would inherit the house and it would all be left according to his will (to the family member). If they were tenants in common, they could leave their own share separately (which needn't be half each if they don't own equal shares).

elliebean_2

tyllwyd wrote:

I didn't think it was quite that simple. I'm not a lawyer so I could be completely wrong, but I think it makes a difference if they are beneficial joint tenants or tenants in common. If they are joint tenants, on the first death, the property passes to the survivor - so if the wife was deemed to have died first, her husband would inherit the house and it would all be left according to his will (to the family member). If they were tenants in common, they could leave their own share separately (which needn't be half each if they don't own equal shares).

Tyllwyd is absolutely right - it depends how the property was owned. If it is owned as tenants in common, the person who dies can leave their beneficial interest (ie their share - usually, but not always 50%) to whoever they choose. If they are joint tenants then the property passes via survivorship (regardless of what their Will says) to the survivor of them and if both have died passes according to the last to die's Will.

Glad

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linlin_3

Isn't this a straight forward answer that the eldest is deemed to have died first?

chinagirl

I seem to remember Jack and Vera Duckworth inheriting some money in Coronation St as a married couple who were related to them had both died, and it was the person who died first left everything to spouse, and so the estate was passed on to whoever was willed to after that, eg the Duckworths. (Storyline had a 'struck by lightening' tale to it i think)

mikey-mike_2

that's it, if it's been on corrie it must be true