My dad died intestate

securityguy

hellsbells0405 wrote: »

I think if it was me I would contact a solicitor for a free half hour interview. Maybe a letter from a solicitor would maybe ease the situation

Leaving aside the point that a letter from a solicitor is just that, a letter, written by a solicitor, and has no more legal force than a pizza leaflet, to whom do you think the OP should get a solicitor to write, and what do you think they should say?

It's an open and shut case. Someone has died intestate, and has a spouse. Not, as in another thread, an estranged daughter, but a straight forward "X was married to Y, and they lived together at house Z". That's the end of the debate: the estate is dealt with under the standard rules of intestacy, probably by the spouse themselves or a solicitor they employ out of the estate.

If there are complex matters regarding children by a previous marriage then all those children can do is appeal to the spouse's better nature. They have no, none, nada recourse in English law. Wasting money on getting solicitors to get involved is just theatre, and a solicitor who didn't make it clear that there was no hope whatsoever of altering the situation (absent discovering and proving a previously unknown will, or managing to get the deceased's marriage ruled invalid) would be acting improperly.