Intestacy rules

System

Mummypanda wrote: »

Hi, To cut a long story short my father's first cousin passed away without leaving a will. The closest surviving relatives are my father and his brother and sisters so are all first cousins. A cousin once removed has come forward and also staked a claim to the estate, his mother would have been a first cousin but she had died before the deceased so did not have a vested interest. Is he entitled to a claim in the estate even though there are closer surviving relatives? I realise he would have been entitled to his mother's share, but only if there were no closer relatives. Please help I have searched websites but can not find a clear answer.

Just as an aside, this person has also put in for probate over my father even though he didn't know the deceased and only found out about this after he was approached by heir hunters, my father is down as next of kin but this person seems to think he is within his rights to do this and has not taken my father's feelings in to consideration.

https://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@money/documents/digitalasset/dg_171985.pdf

nearlyrich

Having just inherited from a cousin of my deceased mother I can offer a recent experience and that is that a cousin once removed (ie me) is entitled to their parents share ( If they are an only child)

getmore4less

!!!!!! wrote: »

https://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum_dg/groups/dg_digitalassets/@dg/@en/@money/documents/digitalasset/dg_171985.pdf

That looks incomplete.

Mummypanda

getmore4less wrote: »

So if the first cousin has died their child/children inherit what would have been their share?

that's my understanding,

The issue with them getting the grant is they can employ people that can charge to do the work....


Why did your father not applied for probate as soon as they knew?[/QUOTE]

Thanks again for your reply. My father did apply but then the cousin once removed applied, for some reason the probate registry apppinted him and not my father. Probably because he turned up with a barristor to fight his case.

System

getmore4less wrote: »

That looks incomplete.

It makes sense if you start from 'DECEASED' and follow out through the father (mother's line will be the same as father's)

Mummypanda

nearlyrich wrote: »

Having just inherited from a cousin of my deceased mother I can offer a recent experience and that is that a cousin once removed (ie me) is entitled to their parents share ( If they are an only child)

Thanks for your reply that is really helpful. Can I just ask if there were any closer relatives than yourself that inheritted as well? That is what we are not sure of. If there are close relatives surviving do relatives that are further down the family tree inherit as well.

Flugelhorn

If there are no parents / children / siblings then first cousins (of either side) will all inherit equally - if they have died then their share is passed to their descendants.

In this case the first cousin once removed is in the same position as you would be if your father had predeceased his cousin. You would then inherit his share (split between any siblings)

nearlyrich

Mummypanda wrote: »

Thanks for your reply that is really helpful. Can I just ask if there were any closer relatives than yourself that inheritted as well? That is what we are not sure of. If there are close relatives surviving do relatives that are further down the family tree inherit as well.

When it comes to distributing to cousins as in our case and it seems yours the surviving cousins get a share and the children of deceased cousins get their share of the parents share.


This might clarify or confuse...apologies if the latter!


In our case the cousin that died intestate was an only child in his 60's he never married. He had around 60 first cousins....some already deceased some still living.


His parents had both passed away as had all the parent's siblings. His dad had nine siblings and his mum had one.


The estate was split into 10 equal shares one for each of the parents siblings families and it was further split in each family by the number of children the parent's sibling had.


In the cases the children are still living they inherited their share.


In other cases such as in our family group my mum had two siblings one is still alive so one third share went to that sibling, the second third share was split between my two cousins whose parent had died and our third was split between the six of us...the biggest share of the whole estate went to the solicitor..and my modest inheritance went to my favourite charity.

Crabapple

This link is very useful for working out who is entitled to a share of an estate

https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will

From what you say, the person who has come forward would be entitled to his mother's share (or to a proportion of that if he has brothers and sisters). The starting point is the class of beneficiary entitled, then any of those people plus any issue of any who have died will receive funds.

I don't quite understand about the Grant as that would normally only be issued to one of the closest relatives (so your father and/or his siblings, not the next generation down). However your posts suggest that the Grant has already been issued, and if so the only possible way to undo that is going to be lengthy and expensive.

secretheirhunter_2

A cousin once removed would have an equal entitlement to take a Grant as any first cousin, provided that their parent had predeceased the deceased intestate.