Charity threatens to contest will

meritaten

Yeah, mum and the aunts have dug their high heels in now! youngest aunt is phoning the solicitors tomorrow and telling them their decision! then they are quite prepared to sit back and see what happens! they may all be on a limited income but they all say they havent spent money they havent yet got - so what they dont have they arent missing! IYSWIM!

meanwhile, if their share goes down because of costs - then so does the charities! The ladies are not stupid, they know the charity will at some stage cut their losses and cave in!
The are so peeeed off at the charity right now they would rather the £500 go to the solicitors - who have been really good! They ALL say they will NOT be blackmailed or coerced!
I am so proud of them I could burst!

meritaten

Thanks Dianasnan - it does seem to be the larger charities who are the worst offenders - small local charities are grateful for every penny and wouldnt dream of doing this!

mum finds it really upsetting as she used to shop regularly in their local high street shop (so did youngest aunt and myself), mainly for books and trinkets - but none of us can face going in there now! its a shame because its not the volunteers fault and I am sure that some of the trustees of the charity must be unaware of these tactics - how could they condone this?

aliasojo

meritaten wrote: »

The are so peeeed off at the charity right now they would rather the £500 go to the solicitors - who have been really good! They ALL say they will NOT be blackmailed or coerced!
I am so proud of them I could burst!

Yay! Go the oldies. :T I like when people defend what they believe to be right. You give them an extra shortbread finger from me.


*says she who's eaten the last one and is brushing off the evidence*

mountainofdebt

OP - I've pm'd you

meritaten

hi all - myself and youngest aunt and her OH had a meeting with our solicitor and one of the executors of Aunts estate this morning. (The executor is one of the senior partners of the solicitors). Upshot is, they felt that digging our heels in and offering nothing is possibly going to amount to more expense than paying the £500 each! So after a little conflab with Youngest Aunt we asked them to offer £250 from each beneficiary. so now we wait and see! Middle Aunt is going to recieve a visit from the executor as she is currently unable to travel.
My mum wasnt happy about it - but sees the sense in offering them Something!
so its possibly going to be a few weeks now before we know if they accept the offer or not.
will update as and when I know more.
Thanks everyone for your interest and advice - its much appreciated.

meritaten

meritaten wrote: »

Latest update


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!)

UPDATE

HI
I am inserting the update here to save you all searching for it.

The estate is now wound up and mum, sisters and the 'charity' have all recieved thier cheques! Hooorayyyyy!!!
The charity finally settled for a 'donation' from each sister of £250! a small price to pay to get it all over with!
If you are familiar with this thread you will realise just how much work must have been done by the solicitor.......My sis and I were expecting the bill to be about 6 to 8k! The final bill was just over 3k - mum was pleased with this too, even to her that was more than reasonable!
I am going to name the charity, but, the solicitor told me that almost ALL the large charities are the same about these matters.
So, please people if you or someone you know wants to give money to charity in your will -PLEASE specify the exact amount you wish to give them - otherwise your beneficiaries will go through what mum and her sisters did!
The charity in this case was Ty Hafan, one of the largest charities in Wales. They do excellent work - but, I dont like this particular way of fundraising. To me, they tried to rob three OAPs of what was rightfully thiers!

thorsoak

I'm glad that it is all sorted out now - and it's such a shame that it has caused so much heartbreak to your mum and her sisters. The solicitor was quite correct - when I worked for a solicitor in probate execution, without exception all charities are extremely hard-nosed when it comes to demanding their share of the dosh!

For this reason, I would never leave money to a charity without specifying exactly how much they were to receive - and possibly a proviso that if they startedto quibble about the length of time that probate was taking, that the money would go to another charity.

Mallotum_X

Glad its sorted, but all charities, big and small do this. As you said people should name specific amounts in wills for charities, anything else causes heart ache.

VfM4meplse

meritaten wrote: »

I dont want to identify them. Its a very worthwhile charity and I wouldnt want anyone to withold their support. Just want people to realise that if you want to leave money to a charity in their will, be SPECIFIC in the amount! otherwise they charity will try to maximise the amount they get and not give a damn about the other beneficiaries! and its NOT just this charity - most of the large ones apparently do this according to our solicitor!

Thanks OP for naming and shaming at last!

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

It's a balance: the charity does have a legal responsibility to pursue bequests.

It does seem that in this case, the charity got too greedy.

meritaten wrote: »

I think people should know about it, giving to charity is a wonderful thing - but it has to be done of a persons free will........not be coerced or blackmailed into it!

This thread has helped me re-assess my options: I had planned to leave all my wordly goods to charity but now have an added incentive to go forth and multiply.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a website listing greedy charities? As an ardernt donator, I am horrified that my contributions may not be going directly towards the cause I am supporting, but staight into the pockets of solicitors with the specific remit of tormenting grieving families. That to my mind is not a charitable way of conducting any business, let alone one that purports offers assistance to those in need.

Any such listing may harm funds received but the charitable sector will only have themselves to blame.

meritaten

VfM4meplse wrote: »

Thanks OP for naming and shaming at last!

It does seem that in this case, the charity got too greedy.
This thread has helped me re-assess my options: I had planned to leave all my wordly goods to charity but now have an added incentive to go forth and multiply.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a website listing greedy charities? As an ardernt donator, I am horrified that my contributions may not be going directly towards the cause I am supporting, but staight into the pockets of solicitors with the specific remit of tormenting grieving families. That to my mind is not a charitable way of conducting any business, let alone one that purports offers assistance to those in need.

Any such listing may harm funds received but the charitable sector will only have themselves to blame.

I have another criteria VFM - I look at a charities books now before giving money!

I was on Pets and the discussion came round to charities and someone said to have a look at the RSPCAs books as they were on the news pleading poverty! I was shocked! Their balance sheet was soooooooooo informative!
In my naiveity I honest thought that the committee/board that runs the charity would be mainly volunteers and would perhaps have a nominal sum for expenses etc! Do they Heckaslike! some of them are doing very nicely for attending a monthly meeting! so are the advertising firms and telesales companies they employ! you dont need a degree in economics to read a balance sheet - there is always the very handy summary at begining and end!
I want any money I leave a charity to go to the rank and file, and the people/animals for which its going to benefit. so, I will probably leave any money (wont be much, but even a couple of hundred makes a difference to SOME charities), to a local 'charity' which doesnt have charitable status!