Unclear Will, don't know if I'm entitled

rupiereeves

My father recently passed away and we are unable to find his will. However, we do have my grandfathers will who stated that his wife could remain in his house until she dies but on her death it would pass to my Father. As he has died, we are now unsure of where everybody stands. We have been to 3 solicitors who all have given different information and all say it is unclear.
Can anybody help or recommend where I can get some advice.

Many Thanks

fluffnutter

Has your grandfather's wife died? I.e. did your dad actually inherit the house? Is your grandfather's wife your dad's mother? Does your dad have any siblings?

NAR

So when grandmother passed away (assumed) why did your father not transfer the property into his name?

Savvy_Sue

Plus: How confident are you that your father wrote a will?

I believe that if you contact a local solicitor's firm which he might have used, they will check with all the other local firms to see if anyone is holding his will or had him on their books.

McKneff

Sounds like Grandma is still alive, it would have passed to your father so I would think once Grandma is no more it would pass to you and your siblings. Unless yu can find a will that says different.
(and assuming you are in England) Your mother also may have a claim, depending on certain circumstances.

Emmzi

1. whose name is on the deeds
2. is gran still alive
3. is a formal liferent in place?

Nicki

You've consulted 3 solicitors who have all got law degrees, years of experience doing this kind of work, and the benefit of actually reading the grandfather's will and asking all pertinent questions of you, and they have all advised you the situation isn't clear cut. On that basis, I wouldn't take any legal advice from Internet amateurs as that is not more likely to be correct than the professionals

Practically, how good are family relationships? Given that the legal situation is not clear cut and you could end up wasting a lot of the estate going to court to have this resolved, could you all get together and agree between yourselves how this is to be resolved? Or agree to submit to mediation which would be a lot cheaper than going to court?

Worst case scenario, if you do need to litigate, I'd get an experienced barrister's opinion before issuing any proceedings, and would keep a very close eye on things to ensure that the legal costs weren't going to exceed the value of the estate, and only go ahead if the barrister thought I had a reasonable chance of success and keep reviewing those chances with my legal team as new information comes to light if any.

McKneff

But for goodness sake, wait till Granny dies at least........

JethroUK

rupiereeves wrote: »

My father recently passed away and we are unable to find his will. However, we do have my grandfathers will who stated that his wife could remain in his house until she dies but on her death it would pass to my Father. As he has died, we are now unsure of where everybody stands. We have been to 3 solicitors who all have given different information and all say it is unclear.
Can anybody help or recommend where I can get some advice.

Many Thanks

In the absence of critical information everyone will have to guess

'Assuming' your grandma has gone, and assuming you have no brothers or sisters, and assuming your father has no will to the contrary, then the house is yours

jackyann

I'm afraid your post raises a lot of questions, but I would consider the following:
Have you contacted the Probate Office? It is common (although not universal) practice to lodge a copy of a will with them.
You can pay a small fee (I paid £3, 2 years ago) to the Land Registry to fins out who owns a particular house. Not all properties are registered, but the majority are.
There is a specific sub-forum on here for will & inheritance issues - you may get more experienced advice there.

I agree with nicki - get together as a family, agree on as much as you possibly can and take that to a solicitor that you all feel you can trust.

rupiereeves

Thank you everyone for your thoughts and advice.
My Grandma is still alive although she is more my Grandads wife than my grandma as it wasn't my fathers mother and it isn't a close relationship.
She is a little accentric and difficult to sit down with and have a frank conversation. Her family are also ruthless and I wouldn't put it past them to try and cause problems.
My mum is still here and of course, no matter who gets it, it doesn't matter. Its just ensuring it stays within my Grandads side of the family.
It all gets a bit complicated as the house belonged to my Father but was held in trust by him and my Grandma and my Grandma could stay in it as long as she wanted.
My Father has now passed away so she is the only person holding this property in trust.
My only concern is that my Mother has been left with nothing and is now struggling financially and I want to make sure that she doesn't lose out because of a badly written will as we all know what my Grandad wanted.
Again, thank you for your replies.