Codicils - a warning

Corelli

Hi,

this is a warning to people not to do DIY codicils. Also, any advice on our situation would be very welcome.

My mother died last October, by May we had all the valuations and were together enough for me to fill in all the forms and apply for Probate. In June I went to sign at the Probate Office but was puzzled that they had only sent me one of the codicils with the will. My mother had signed two, and I queried this. This has meant probate cannot be granted.

If only I had kept quiet. Because there were two both signed on the same day by the same people there were questions that needed to be answered. I still don't know what the queries were, but these were innocuous additions to her will giving two charities £1000 each. They were on official papers given to her by the solicitor who did her will and signed by decorators who were in her flat at the time.

Now, questionnaires were sent to both signatories for them to complete, then a letter was to go to them for them to sign at a local solicitor or at the probate court.

According to the probate court a letter went out on the 22nd of July, the Affidavit that needs to be signed at the local solicitor and they have heard nothing back. If they do not get this signed we have to start again as though our mother had died intestate.

In the meantime we cannot proceed. My brother is left living in a flat he cannot afford as he was our others carer and as we cannot sell he/we are stuck with all the expenses attached, my daughter cannot use her grandmother's legacy to move on in her own life. How unhappy my mother would have been to have known of all this complication when she in ignorance made out two codicils on the same day.

G6JNS

You need to chase up the witnesses to the codicils. It is very unusual for a solicitor to do codicils these days as the word processor makes it easier to print of an amended will for signature. Lack of affidavits does, AFAIK, not mean your mother is treated as having been intestate. Is it the probate office that have told you this?

FreeBear

I wouldn't have expected a codicil, invalid or not, to render a will invalid. If the codicils had been stapled to the original will, that could be a problem.

Corelli

G6JNS wrote: »

You need to chase up the witnesses to the codicils. It is very unusual for a solicitor to do codicils these days as the word processor makes it easier to print of an amended will for signature. Lack of affidavits does, AFAIK, not mean your mother is treated as having been intestate. Is it the probate office that have told you this?

Thanks, it was indeed the probate office that told me this, or rather the person who answered the phone at the court I have been dealing with. It might be worth phoning the main line. Ah, chasing up the witnesses, I'm 100 miles away and have an address and a phone number, neither of which get a response. My brother is closer to the address I have and will be trying to get hold of him/them.

Corelli

FreeBear wrote: »

I wouldn't have expected a codicil, invalid or not, to render a will invalid. If the codicils had been stapled to the original will, that could be a problem.

I didn't think so either, until today. As I said before, I will try the main phone number. Yes, I saw the thread about the staples, what surprising spanners we find in the works sometimes.