Only one witness on a will

dbg77

Can you help we recently lost my Uncle and we have now been told that his will was witnessed by one person . However my aunts will was with my uncles and was witnessed by the same person at the same time on the same day. Both wills are identical I. Their distribution of the estate stating that the spouse would receive the estate but after that there were benificiaries  
detailed these people detailed were the same in both wills. Would this show that there were two witnesses at the time of signing although both parties wills are the same there must have been three people In the room at the time of the signing the wills of which None will benefit from the will that is remaining all answers gratefully received 
thank you 

wilfred30

In order to be valid, a Will needs to be witnessed by two people who are not beneficiaries.

I'm a little confused by you saying that there must've been 3 people in the room at the time.  Do you mean your uncle, aunt and the witness?

dbg77

Yes that is the case both wills were signed at the same time and witnessed by the same person they are mirrors of each other so my aunt would have witnessed my uncle and vice versa

wilfred30

In that case, both of their Wills are invalid.  As I said, a beneficiary cannot witness a Will.

Your uncle has therefore died 'intestate' but, as your aunt is presumably still alive, she will inherit anyway (providing they were actually married).

Happy to be corrected by those more knowledgeable if anything I've said is not correct.

dbg77

Both aunt and uncle have now passed this is the problem 

Mojisola

wilfred30 said:

In that case, both of their Wills are invalid.  As I said, a beneficiary cannot witness a Will.

Having a beneficiary witness a will doesn't make the will invalid but it does mean the witness can't inherit.

In this case, the estate will, as you say, have to be treated as if there was no will because only one witness signed it.

dbg77

Ok that makes sense many thanks 

Mojisola

dbg77 said:

Both aunt and uncle have now passed this is the problem 

His estate will have to be treated as if there was no will and the administrators will have to distribute the estate according to the intestacy rules.

Flugelhorn

Hopefully the intestacy rules will follow what Aunt and Uncle would have wished, however they are very clear rules and must be followed. The relatives referred to will be the relatives of the last one of Aunt or Uncle who died as at the death of the first, the whole estate will have gone to the surviving spouse
https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will

Sea_Shell

When you say they "witnessed" each other sign, do you mean they were in the room, or that they actually signed?

As I understand it a will is not valid unless SIGNED by two witnesses and if one of those are also a beneficiary, they cannot inherit, but the will otherwise remains valid.   Is that right?

Mojisola

Flugelhorn said:

Hopefully the intestacy rules will follow what Aunt and Uncle would have wished, however they are very clear rules and must be followed.

Although, if the beneficiaries who would inherit under the intestacy rules aren't the ones listed in the will, they can do a deed of variation and distribute the will according to Uncle's wishes.