Charity threatens to contest will

meritaten

Updated on Page6
Sorry this is rather long and complicated!
I am posting this on behalf of my mother who is very upset right now.
Her sister died early last year and in her will left instructions that the house be sold and the proceeds divided between her three sisters and a certain charity. the charity were also to recieve the residual (mainly her jewellery).
I turned out that as the house was about to be sold the solictitors discovered that the lease (freehold) was actually still in the name of my grandmother, the original owner of the house and whose will specified that the house go to the three sisters with my aunt (the deceased having a life interest - when gran had alzhiemers my aunt took her to the solicitors and got her to deed of gift the house to HER). the sale fell through and the house went up for auction (twice!) as leasehold.
my mum was executor of my grandmothers will, but is unwell and I legally took over her duties.
the house eventually sold and and I signed over the lease to the new owners.
The problem now is this
last november when the solicitors informed everyone of the accounts of the estate (not huge - the house sold for less than 70k) the charity consulted thier solicitors and 5 months later they have sent a letter which the solicitors have passed on to the sisters.
because the house was sold leasehold they now have about 5k from that and with the sale of the jewellery 17k have almost 22k the sisters have 20k each from the sale of the house and this is before solicitors costs (did I mention that the solicitors were executors?).
they are not at all happy with this! they say the house should have been sold freehold and that the sisters should agree to them having a quarter of the total value of the house.
this would mean that
the sisters would get around 16k each
the charity would get nearer 30k
the charity is now threatening to contest the will! the sisters are unanimous that they are not giving the charity more - the will was upheld legally by the executors and they feel the charity has had a very generous bequest.
Can the charity contest the will? my understanding of contesting a will is that it rarely succeeds unless any dependants of the deceased were cut out or undue pressure was put upon the deceased. anyone know of this happening and did the charity succeed?
for obvious reasons I cannot name the charity - but they are a large one and is a very popular cause.
(personally they wont get another penny from me as the letter they have sent is patronising, threatening and bullying!)

meritaten

sorry - I dont think I made it plain that the quarter interest in house because of my grandmother being the leaseholder meant that the charity only got a quarter of the freehold (or do I mean leasehold? its so darn complicated!). so the sisters got the major share of the sale of the house and leasehold (or freehold)!
oh and the sisters are ALL pensioners and not well off!

thorsoak

Unfortunately, charities are very "hardnosed" when it comes to getting any bequests due to them - and you are going to need the solicitors to be equally so

I've known charities threaten all sorts of things to try and chase up bequests - and for that very reason I am very wary about the idea of leaving any money that I might have (and pigs might fly!) to a charity - they will use the most expensive lawyers to get their two-pennorth!

meritaten

too right thorsoak - the letter the solictior passed on to my mum was awful! she is so upset. they are getting more than the sisters are as it is - and they dont care that the sisters are all pensioners, two of them are widows and not well and they are all not well off! I read it and was disgusted - I have supported this charity in the past - but not any more!
I dont believe that a court would award them any more money -but they may just be hard-nosed enough to delay things for years (and the one sister really needs the money). so mum is wondering whether to cave in.
I have spoken to the youngest sister (tbh the only one who is compos mentos enough to deal with the solicitors and she is meeting with them tomorrow). because of the one sister they want to wrap this up ASAP (plus the solicitors costs are mounting). but they dont want to be bullied into agreeing to this greedy charities demands!

DVardysShadow

I am confused. Is this what happened?

1. Grandmother owned the house outright [freehold]
2. Grandmother's will left the house to her 4? daughters, but with a life interest to your aunt whose will we are talking about
3. Before Grandmother died [but while under the influence of Alzheimer's], she gave a lease to the aunt with the life interest.
4. This aunt left a leasehold and some jewellery
5. The freehold remains with Grandmother's estate, unresolved
6. The charity are basing the claim on the leasehold belonging with the aunt who has died

If this is the case, then you need to be clear about what happened when the house was signed over. It almost seems that the charity are basing a claim on undue pressure in the case of another will having not gone far enough!

meritaten

meritaten wrote: »

too right thorsoak - the letter the solictior passed on to my mum was awful! she is so upset. they are getting more than the sisters are as it is - and they dont care that the sisters are all pensioners, two of them are widows and not well and they are all not well off! I read it and was disgusted - I have supported this charity in the past - but not any more!
I dont believe that a court would award them any more money -but they may just be hard-nosed enough to delay things for years (and the one sister really needs the money). so mum is wondering whether to cave in.
I have spoken to the youngest sister (tbh the only one who is compos mentos enough to deal with the solicitors and she is meeting with them tomorrow). because of the one sister they want to wrap this up ASAP (plus the solicitors costs are mounting). but they dont want to be bullied into agreeing to this greedy charities demands!

I think the solicitors have done quite well by the sisters so far - remains to be seen if they are capable of seeing off this charity! I will NEVER EVER put any money their way now after the letter I just saw! greedy barstwards!

meritaten

NO DVardy
My grandmother had the house bought her by her parents - the ground rent was paid to a mining company. she bought the leasehold and left the house to her three daughter with the fourth daughter having a life interest in thehouse. the house was then given to fourth daughter while gran was suffering from alzhiemers (not here or there now) but fourth daughter thought the house was freehold. she died and the house was put on the market - the sale fell through when it was discovered that the grandmother who had died still had the lease in her name. mum was executor of the will but unable to fulfil that so I took over. the house was on an auction site as leasehold when I took over. it was on the site that the lease was available for purchase. when the house finally sold I signed the lease over to the new owners for a fee. so they now own the house freehold. the fee went into the estate as part of the house sale. but as daughter didnt own the house freehold it was NOT a major part of the charities share. that went to the sisters - exactly as my grandmother intended!

onlyroz

I'm sorry, I still can't make head or tail of this. What does your solicitor say?

meritaten

Its really complicated isnt it? youngest aunt is meeting with the solicitor tomorrow. but the way I understand it is that the charity believe they should get a quarter of the total value of the house - but the sisters were actually entitled to the third share of the house that they got. the charity had a share of the house the fourth sister was entitled to. This makes MY HEAD spin - so I am sure I am not explaining it well!

meritaten

Can I just perhaps simplify this by asking if anyone has any experience of a charity contesting a will? winning or losing?

onlyroz

OK, so granny died and the house was split in 4. Then the 4th sister died and split her share back between her sisters and a charity. So the three surviving sisters have 1/4 + (1/4 * 1/4) of the house, while the charity gets 1/4 * 1/4 of the house. Yup my head is spinning.