Any advice

Disgruntled1979

Hi first time posting 
my dad recently died and left his half of the house he co owns with my mum to my two step brothers who are also the will executors which has left my mum in a state of limbo she hasn’t got the funds to contest the will through a solicitor she has been able to get some bits sorted trying to get an agreement signed to say they will not try forcing the sale until my mum passes away which they have responded to with two conditions to 1 that no one contests the will and two that we do not make any attempts to acquire a report on my dads mental state which states he was not mentally fit (advanced dementia)that was done prior to him making his amended will 
obviously this made us more curious 
my question is can we contest without representation and how can we go after the report which is held under data protection as it’s only freely available to the executors 

Disgruntled1979

I should also ask can they seriously get my mum to sign an agreement that binds other people to their conditions 

naedanger

Disgruntled1979 said:

I should also ask can they seriously get my mum to sign an agreement that binds other people to their conditions 

I wouldn't think so, but I doubt someone else could challenge the will on her behalf. (Or if someone else could challenge the will on her behalf then they could get her to agree not to support such an action.) 

I think your mother really needs to speak to a solicitor about the matter before she signs any agreement. Even if she cannot afford to contest the will she needs to be sure there are no loopholes in the agreement. And it would be worth at least discussing the costs of contesting a will e.g. arguing that there was insufficient provision for her may be less expensive than arguing the will was improperly influenced by others. (And if he lived in Scotland and she was married to him she would have certain legal rights.)

xylophone

Can you confirm that  your parents were not residents of Scotland and that the property was owned as tenants-in-common?


 If so, have you checked the deeds of the property here?


https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/land-registry


Is a Form A restriction shown?


If your mother is a tenant-in-common. see this


https://www.land-registry-documents.co.uk/information/joint-ownership-tennants/

Upon the death of tenants in common, their share passes not automatically to the survivor as with joint tenants but via the deceased’s will or, if there is no will, via the rules of intestacy. Only the equitable share passes however, not the legal title.

Death of a Joint Proprietor

As mentioned in the first paragraph, only the equitable title can be held as tenants in common. The legal title must and will always be held as joint tenants. This means that on the death of tenants in common where only one survivor remains, although the survivor does not acquire the equity share left by the deceased, he does become the sole owner of the legal estate. This means he and he alone has the right to deal with the legal title (sell, mortgage, gift etc). He holds the property on trust for himself and the beneficiaries under the deceased’s will.

In order to protect the beneficiaries, when joint proprietors originally decide to hold a property as tenants in common a restriction should be registered at Land Registry. Where the transfer to the proprietors indicates they wish to hold as tenants in common this restriction will be registered automatically. The effect of the restriction is that a disposition (i.e. a transfer or mortgage) by a sole proprietor cannot be registered.

To get past this restriction and sell the property, the sole surviving tenant in common can appoint a second trustee along with himself. This can be done either in the transfer or by a separate deed. The trustee then signs the transfer along with the proprietor and receives the sale proceeds jointly. It is then the responsibility of the trustee together with the surviving tenant in common to ensure that the beneficiaries receive their share. As long as the purchase money is paid to two or more trustees the purchaser is protected from any claim that the beneficiaries might have if they do not receive the money they are entitled to.

Are you also saying that your father's will was made while he was suffering from advanced dementia?

Under no circumstances whatsoever should your mother be signing any documents or entering into any form of verbal or written agreement until she has obtained advice from a solicitor.

elsien

Surely your mum was in a position to know whether dad was likely to have capacity or not when the will was signed?
So does she think he understood what he was doing at the time,  or not?

Flugelhorn

definitely need to check how the house was owned - was it jointly or tenants in common? You can check this for £3 on the Land Registry - makes a big difference to how this pans out 

theoretica

Disgruntled1979 said:

I should also ask can they seriously get my mum to sign an agreement that binds other people to their conditions 

I believe so - or rather an agreement that holds 'unless' and the unless can be something the parties have no control over. They could for instance sign an agreement that gave the house to your mum unless/until Boris Johnson goes horseriding... 

Disgruntled1979

my my parents were separated his will was changed within a few weeks of him being deemed unfit there was a change made to the deed which changed it from a joint tenancy 

tacpot12

You can contest the will without representation, but you are very likely to struggle with the complexity of the process, and fail as a result. This will then leave your mother in the situation where she is ultimately forced to leave the house. the Your mother needs professional legal advice. A solicitor may be willing to guide you through process providing you do all the work, but it's a high risk strategy. Claiming that she has not been sufficiently well provided for (as mentioned above), is another option. A solicitor with experience in contentious probate would be able to advice on the best course of action. Their advice might to pursue both avenues. 

This link shows that at least one NHS Trust will consider releasing confidential information to a non-executor relative that has a claim in the event of someone's death: Rights of the Deceased | North Bristol NHS Trust (nbt.nhs.uk)

Having a solicitor write to the provider of the report might give the provider more confidence that the report would not be mis-used.

Keep_pedalling

From the link tacpot12 provided it would seem clear that the OPs mother has a right to see those records. The fact that the step brothers do not want anyone to see those would indicate that the the will was made while he lacked mental capacity, with undo influence from the brothers.

If this is the case then there is an extremely  strong chance that a court would invalidate the will. Your mother really needs to take legal advice as a matte4 of urgency. Does she have legal cover with her home insurance? 

xylophone

my my parents were separated his will was changed within a few weeks of him being deemed unfit there was a change made to the deed which changed it from a joint tenancy 

Are you saying that your parents originally owned the property as joint tenants but that your father (or  a person acting under Power of Attorney) severed the joint tenancy?

https://www.gov.uk/joint-property-ownership/change-from-joint-tenants-to-tenants-in-common

Some general information which may be of interest

https://www.paradigmfamilylaw.co.uk/severance-joint-tenancy-guide/#:~:text=This is known as 'Severing,the event' so to speak.

Even if the joint tenancy has been severed, your mother is still the owner of half the equitable interest and now that your father has died, regardless of his will, is now the sole owner of the legal estate.

In this connection, see my post above.

With regard to

his will was changed within a few weeks of him being deemed unfit 

this surely needs investigation/ challenge?