House share on death

susan42

I apologise if this is in the wrong place

Basically

My father made a will dividing his assets on death to his 4 children

It was worded 25 % to 3 children. And 25 % to be shared to his 4 child's children (12.5 % each) the reason for this was the children were young and although he wanted to give the money direct to the 4th child, the 4th child was going through a divorce. And was safe guarding the 4th child's share. To be changed when divorce was finalised

Advised by solicitor at time who has since been struck off

After the will was wrote. My father signed a letter, (dated ) saying if anything happened to him the 25% that was the 4th share to the grandchildren belonged to the 4th child not the grandchildren. Well the divorce was finalised and before the father could get back to the solicitors he passed away suddenly

On his death the 4th child received the 25% and all was ok.

The question is : is this right can the 4th child have the 25% or does it belong to the grandchildren

The solicitor handled everything and the children were 10 and 8 at the time

The assets was a house and one of the children bought the other parties outright

Richard_Webster

A simple letter is not enough to overturn the contents of a will.

Once the two grandchildren are 18 they can ratify what has happened if they are happy with it - but do not need to! Wills can be varied by deed after death by agreement of all the relevant beneficiaries, but as minors they cannot agree.

Until then the 4th share should be held in trust for them.

The letter is ineffective unless expressed to be a variation of the will AND signed by the deceased in the presence of two witnesses present at the same time who then added their signatures.

dzug1

Unless it was worded as a codicil I don't think the letter has any legal standing.


So the original will stands

susan42

Hi Richard thank you for the info

The letter was signed by my father and by two independent witnesses.

After the original will my father realised it might be a problem and so the letter was drafted.

The one grandchild is happy with the arrangement. The other is ok but relative s are telling him he has been robbed and he doesn't know what to think. He says it's ok then drags it up again. He 's 25 now

AdrianC

So - four children - A, B, C, D - each originally left one quarter of the estate.
But D's quarter was then left in a new will to his two children - D1, D2 - instead of to D, as a short-term measure due to a divorce, with a witnessed letter (which may or may not be an official codicil) confirming this.

D1 is perfectly happy for their 1/8th to go to D. D2 seems happy, but is getting external pressure (Mrs D2?) to push for the will to be enforced?

Let's assume the letter is found not to be legally enforceable. The simple answer is for either a variation of the will to allow D1s share to go to D, or just a simple gift from D1 to D, assuming that would carry no other implications.

D2 then needs to make a decision whether the external pressure means more to him than his grandfather's clear wishes, and how his relationships with both this external pressuriser and the rest of his family will be affected. The ball is firmly in D2's court.