Contesting a Will as Next-of-Kin

maman

RomfordNavy said:

74jax said:

The close friends were there virtually daily.  Some of them have incurred significant costs carrying out the deceased wishes but none got even a mention in the final Will.

I know you've mentioned this before but this is really normal.
You obviously don't do things for friends or family during palative stages hoping they will include you in the will. You carry out wishes as you are close and want too. 

When those tasks involve significant cost I can understand why those friends expected to get some gratuity to cover the costs.

Lets the the case of the friend who arranged the Solicitor to do the Will.  The now deceased was under pressure from the Nurses to get a Will written, they had asked said friend to chase-up partially completed equity release on a property to cover the cost of having the Will written.  As this was obviously causing qute a bit of distress, in the end the friend said don't worry about the cost I will pay for it and arranged for Solicitors to visit.  I don't think it unreasonable for that friend to have quite reasonably expected some small gratuity to cover the those costs.  You have to bear in mind that the deceased was very independent and all ways has been, they would never ask anyone to do something without paying them.

For me, there's a difference.  The deceased, in their lifetime, could run up a bill with a solicitor or care home or  Sky tv or anyone else and independently  pay their way. If the bills were outstanding after death then they would, quite legitimately, be paid from the estate.

A payment for doing someone a favour and perhaps recommending and contacting a solicitor and arranging an appointment is not something I'd expect recompense for or to be written into a will.  That was choice to volunteer to pay. 

RomfordNavy

74jax said:

The close friends were there virtually daily.

But you said you couldn't visit because of covid?  Do you mean you didn't want to travel to visit? Which is entirely different?

To contest this Will, you really need to show a timeline so we can help you, as none of this is making sense. 

I never said I couldn't visit because of covid, where did you get that from.

RomfordNavy

maman said:

I think it's possible that the deceased may have thought he had to give the name of a family member when asked for NoK at the hospital.  I think hospitals could word this differently like asking' Who would you like us to contact?'. 

The next-of-kin thing was a long-term arrangement between us.

RomfordNavy

Manxman_in_exile said:

Maybe I've missed it in another reply, but what is the correct thing to do (and who does it) when all the executors renounce and nobody else (family or friends) wants to get involved with the estate?  As, for example, in this case where the beneficiaries are all charities and may not even be aware of the death - or even the bequest.

Quite and this is where we started this thread before everyone started voicing their personal opinions without understanding the full situation.

It seems that family are simply not able to apply for Letters of Administration to resolve this because they are not mentioned in the Will anywhere.  As the family are not beneficiaries they are not authorised to do anything about this Will, had they been given £1 each then the situation would be different but as it stands the only thing they can legally do is to contest the Will.

There is no primary benificiary, so everything will have to be agreed between the equally proportioned charities involved. What will happen is that the charities will involve their solicitors, probably spend a lot of time arguing betwen themselves and by the time all of these solicitors have had their slice of the pie there is not likely to be much left for the deceased's chosen charities.

RomfordNavy

Manxman_in_exile said:

...and nobody else (family or friends) wants to get involved with the estate?

It's not that they don't want to get involved, far from it, but that as non-beneficiaries they cannot get involved.  If only the deceased had given £1 to each of the family then the situation would be very different.

Pollycat

RomfordNavy said:

Lets the the case of the friend who arranged the Solicitor to do the Will.  The now deceased was under pressure from the Nurses to get a Will written, they had asked said friend to chase-up partially completed equity release on a property to cover the cost of having the Will written.  As this was obviously causing qute a bit of distress, in the end the friend said don't worry about the cost I will pay for it and arranged for Solicitors to visit.  I don't think it unreasonable for that friend to have quite reasonably expected some small gratuity to cover the those costs.  You have to bear in mind that the deceased was very independent and all ways has been, they would never ask anyone to do something without paying them.

Are you seriously alleging that nurses in a palliative care situation put a patient of theirs under pressure to complete a will?
Do you have personal knowledge of this i.e. were you present when this pressure was brought to bear? 
Do you - or anyone else - have proof of this pressure?

RomfordNavy

thegreenone said:

OP, who witnessed the signing of the new Will, please?  I would be very surprised if hospital staff are permitted to do that and as  far as I am aware, Hospice staff are not allowed to do so either.  Cousin's GP should have visited and made an assessment first.

Witnesses were Solicitor and Solicitors Assistant.  As far as we are aware no medical assesment was done first.

thegreenone said:

Also, as someone pointed out earlier, why would your cousin make a hospice a beneficiary when he hadn't even been there?

Quite we find this a bit suspicious.  Hoowever if the deceased had been pressurised into making this Will then that might explain it.

thegreenone said:

No use to OP now but you can contact a Primary Care Trust to pass on concerns to GPs/hospitals. They are listed on the internet and hopefully you can find a relative that way.  I did this when I was very concerned about my late brother's mental health issues.  They were very helpful.

Very helpful info for future.  However in this case we were expecting the next phone call to be that the person was on their way home so might not have do so anyway.

KxMx

RomfordNavy said:

Manxman_in_exile said:

...and nobody else (family or friends) wants to get involved with the estate?

It's not that they don't want to get involved, far from it, but that as non-beneficiaries they cannot get involved.  If only the deceased had given £1 to each of the family then the situation would be very different.

Yet you have posted that there were two executors, who both relinquished the role because they were upset with both the will contents and that they didn't get anything/wouldn't be paid for acting as exeuctors. 

Had one or both executors stayed and carried out the deceased wishes without being mercenary you wouldn't have such a mess now.

My Nan died without a will so her estate went to my mother and aunt. It didn't stop me acting as joint administrator with my mother - whom Nan had expressed a wish to sort things out with full support from Aunt, who in the circumstances wouldn't have been able to help anyway.

I assisted with paperwork and almost single handed sorted & organised the clearance of her bungalow myself. 

RomfordNavy

Thrugelmir said:

...
I can understand why somebody with a terminal illness would feel a gratitude towards such an organisation. While being looked after in there. 

Yes but Will was made in hospital before they had even seen the hospice!  I can understand some proportion being donated to the end-of-life charities but not everything while completely foresaking family and close friends.

RomfordNavy

Robin9 said:

I may have missed it somewhere - but how did you get to know of the death?  I would presume a phone call from the hospital and they would have asked which Funeral Director they should contact (he would need a Death Cert from the hospital)

Phone call from Hospice.  They had only notified us two days earlier that the now deceased had been with them for a week.