Advice on husbands will

crowie53

Hi I am new to the site and I would appreciate some advice. My husband has applied for severance of joint tenants to tenants in common, and has written his will leaving unequal shares to his children, 2 are our children and the other is his from a previous marriage who will get  a much larger share. If my husband dies  and hasn’t given me the right to live in the property till I die. Can his son force a sale should my husband die as he will own 2/3 of 50% of our mortgage free property. Thanks.

tacpot12

As I understand it the son would be able to force a sale. 

You can in theory challenge the will if it doesn't make adequate provision for your support when he dies. You have only described what happens to particualr house you live in. Does he have other assets and does his will provide for you adequately in some other way? 

If not, you need to discuss with him why he has not provided for you. It may be an oversight if he has written the will himself. (He can just write a new will to correct the error). If the Will was written with professional advice, it seems more odd as the solicitor would have advised him that a will that did not make adequate provision for his wife could be challenged.
If he will not change the will, you probably need professional advice to confirm that the will can be challenged. With this advice you might convince your husband that if he doesn't change his will, you will tie his son up in so much legal cost there won't be anything left from the house! 

crowie53

Hi there thanks for your early reply. We are both retired and no financially dependent children. No it is not an oversight, last week  he showed me a draft of a Will that he was going to use which allowed me the riight to live in the house till I sell or die and had been in touch with a Will writing company. I think he did t like the cost and has written this new will secretly which he has sent to his oldest son, which I found in his deleted emails. He is visiting his family tomorrow so I presume he will have it witnessed and signed.

k3lvc

crowie53 said:

Hi there thanks for your early reply. We are both retired and no financially dependent children. No it is not an oversight, last week  he showed me a draft of a Will that he was going to use which allowed me the riight to live in the house till I sell or die and had been in touch with a Will writing company. I think he did t like the cost and has written this new will secretly which he has sent to his oldest son, which I found in his deleted emails. He is visiting his family tomorrow so I presume he will have it witnessed and signed.

Is the marriage currently 'live' or has it broken down ?
I'd be more concerned that you're going through his deleted emails and looking for a conspiracy rather then discussing and making joint wills ?

crowie53

Married for 40 years but since he retired and we are together all the time our marriage has deteriorated especially since lock down.  He had some health scares recently and wanted his affairs in order, and we didn’t want joint Wills  because we disagreed on how it was distributed. 

Mojisola

As you are now tenants in common, why haven't you got a 50/50 split?

If his will doesn't give you a life interest in his share, you can challenge the will as not adequately providing for you and gain a life interest.

Mojisola

Have you made a will?  Without one, your husband will be the first in line to inherit and your share could end up going mostly to his child. 

If you make one, you can give him a life interest in the house but ensure that your children eventually inherit from you.

Mojisola

Mojisola said:

As you are now tenants in common, why haven't you got a 50/50 split?

If his will doesn't give you a life interest in his share, you can challenge the will as not adequately providing for you and gain a life interest.

Can't edit this - it sounds as if you do have a 50/50 split.

MoneySeeker1

Mojisola said:

Have you made a will?  Without one, your husband will be the first in line to inherit and your share could end up going mostly to his child. 

If you make one, you can give him a life interest in the house but ensure that your children eventually inherit from you.

Wow! Another "something coming out of the woodpile" thread about just how many couples don't seem to consult with each other about JOINT decisions.

Whew!

Does sound like "Since he's done a will that is very different to Automatic Assumptions - you'd better do one too".

Sounds like there is a lot of people out there right now that have found out their "automatic assumptions" are very different to their spouses "automatic assumptions" and they haven't sat down and had a darn good discussion as to how well (or otherwise) their "automatic assumptions" match up with their partners "automatic assumptions".

Good luck!

crowie53

My husband was angry with me because I wouldn’t sign the documents jointly to severe the joint tenancy until I saw that a legal Will  had been drawn up to show I had Life Interest, and he had to apply himself to severe the tenancy through a solicitor for £199. Hence the snooping around.

We do own the property jointly so a 50/50 split.

Mojisola

crowie53 said:

My husband was angry with me because I wouldn’t sign the documents jointly to severe the joint tenancy until I saw that a legal Will  had been drawn up to show I had Life Interest, and he had to apply himself to severe the tenancy through a solicitor for £199. Hence the snooping around.

We do own the property jointly so a 50/50 split.

The problem is, as you've found, that wills can be changed.

You will have the option of fighting his will but it's likely to be expensive and very stressful.

Very sad situation.