Only one witness on a will

Flugelhorn

Mojisola said:

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.

They can, and hopefully they will but the OP just needs to make sure that they identify the right people. 

getmore4less

Why was this not picked up when the Aunt died?
Who administered that estate?
Was the Aunt estate distributed correctly?

Brynsam

getmore4less said:

Why was this not picked up when the Aunt died?
Who administered that estate?
Was the Aunt estate distributed correctly?

Smacks of the DIY approach in terms of both will writing and sorting out the aunt's affairs. I suspect that uncle simply thought that if he inherited everything, he didn't need to do anything. OP - would that be a fair summary?

xylophone

It is possible that one death has been very quickly followed by the other so that there was no time for any action to be taken.

Or perhaps the marital home was held as joint tenants and most cash held in joint accounts - the surviving spouse may have been able to access low value sole accounts without probate?

Torry_Quine

It wasn't made in Scotland was it, as you only need one witness here.

Brynsam

Mojisola said:

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.

It does if the beneficiary is also the spouse of the testator and there is only one other witness to a will.