unsigned will - complicated

elephantarse

To cut a long story short, my father was an absentee father, he recently passed away, it was very emotionally hard for myself and siblings to deal with as it wasn't a typical scenario - as children we were told he was a monster and wasn't allowed to see him, I contacted him 10 years ago and we had a short relationship, not sure why but he slowed with contact then eventually just didn't bother again. There are 4 of us, the oldest brother stayed in contact with him but then eventually over the last 4 years they didn't have contact.

So - he passes and leaves a will, it was written a long time ago, the executor of the will decided she didn't want anything to do with it so signed her rights away. Its in the hands of a solicitor, upon contacting this solicitor we were told that although the rights were signed away they had found an unsigned will leaving his estate to the eldest brother and that they were going to honour that. We were told to seek legal advice as there is no legally binding will and that us siblings could potentially be legal beneficiaries as it our inheritance.

Can anyone please advise what to do.

FreeBear

An unsigned will is not likely to be accepted by the Probate Registry, so the signed will would be binding. You need to seek expert legal advice as this could potentially end up in a claim against the solicitor acting as the executor.

If there is no legally executed will, then the rules of intestacy would kick in - Again, you need expert legal advice.

pmlindyloo

Read this as it may have implications for you all:

http://anthonygold.co.uk/latest/news/can-an-unsigned-will-be-valid

Although the case in question is about 'a clerical error' the interesting part is that the unsigned will may be treated as a commercial agreement (I think those are the words) and verified by a court.

You are probably going to need legal advice.

Is there any chance that all the potential beneficiaries could come to an agreement? Otherwise a great deal of money is going to be given to lawyers rather than yourselves.

jrtfan

As I understand it, a will must be signed and witnessed in order for it to be valid. If your father did in fact make a new will in favour of his brother, it must state on it that it was revoking any other wills or codicils made previously and this wouldn't take effect until the new will had been signed and witnessed, too. At which time, the older will should have been completely destroyed. But I'm not a legal professional, this is just my personal opinion.

Do you know where this newer will has come from, why the Solicitor is going to honour it and why they have they appointed themselves as Executors? There might be valid explanations for all of this but at the moment, it seems like you're being expected to take their word on trust.

My mum had left the original of her will with her Solicitors and when she died, there was some question surrounding whether or not it was still her latest will, because there was an old note on her file saying that she'd called to make an appointment to change her will, but then hadn't kept the appointment. I didn't know of any newer will and asked what would happen if it couldn't be found. They said in this case, they'd revert to her last known will and execute as per that.

I agree that you should seek legal advice yourself/yourselves, because (again, as I understand it) the Executor isn't obliged to tell beneficiaries anything about details, only that they've been named in a will and might stand to inherit something in due course.

Maybe there will be something on the Citizens Advice Bureau website which could give you some pointers meanwhile?
https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/relationships/death-and-wills/wills/#h-requirements-for-a-valid-will

I hope you can get some answers soon. Good luck.

G6JNS

elephantarse wrote: »

To cut a long story short, my father was an absentee father, he recently passed away, it was very emotionally hard for myself and siblings to deal with as it wasn't a typical scenario - as children we were told he was a monster and wasn't allowed to see him, I contacted him 10 years ago and we had a short relationship, not sure why but he slowed with contact then eventually just didn't bother again. There are 4 of us, the oldest brother stayed in contact with him but then eventually over the last 4 years they didn't have contact.

So - he passes and leaves a will, it was written a long time ago, the executor of the will decided she didn't want anything to do with it so signed her rights away. Its in the hands of a solicitor, upon contacting this solicitor we were told that although the rights were signed away they had found an unsigned will leaving his estate to the eldest brother and that they were going to honour that. We were told to seek legal advice as there is no legally binding will and that us siblings could potentially be legal beneficiaries as it our inheritance.

Can anyone please advise what to do.

If the will is unsigned and there is no other valid will the estate is intestate. If so someone needs to apply for letters of administration so they can administer the estate according to the laws of intestacy.

BobQ

jrtfan wrote: »

As I understand it, a will must be signed and witnessed in order for it to be valid. If your father did in fact make a new will in favour of his brother, it must state on it that it was revoking any other wills or codicils made previously and this wouldn't take effect until the new will had been signed and witnessed, too. At which time, the older will should have been completely destroyed. But I'm not a legal professional, this is just my personal opinion.
.

An unsigned will may state that it revokes any previous wills but that does not mean any existed.

While it has been customary to destroy an old will at the time a new one is made, when I last updated my will the solicitor said that the firm (a reputable chain) no longer recommended this as standard in case anyone challenged the new will. She retained the original on the file with a note added that a newer will dated (whatever) existed.