Contesting a Will as Next-of-Kin

Keep_pedalling

Spendless said:

Why did family friend arrange for a solicitor to do the will without checking with family members to see if they knew if one was already in place? 

I can see that both my Grandmothers (mid-late 90s) in the situation you describe would 'forget' that they'd made Wills years earlier in favour of family members and it being arranged that a solicitor came to them would possibly think about the charity looking after them at the end benefitting than the family who hadn't come to see them, especially if there was a lack of understanding about covid restrictions on visiting. 

I think this is going to be very hard to prove though because how would you know what deceased answered when asked about making a will. You've no way of knowing what deceased answered when asked about a will, whether it was 'I don't have one' or 'I've got one but want to change it' .

Last year my son's friend was contacted by a solicitor because he was the sole beneficiary to a large estate due to a relative dying without a will. This relative had needed a lot of care for more than a decade following a RTA. Only last week, this friend showed me paperwork relating to his relatives death, which included some GP appts, one of them less than a month before he died said 'assessed for capacity to make a will'  I have no idea if that is something that should also have happened in your relatives case, I don't know enough about it. 

Many people make new wills at the end of their lives. In this case the deceased had made a will many years in the past, so it is not an unusual thing to do, and frankly the friend would have had no business questing the testators request to arrange a solicitor to make a new will.

74jax

RomfordNavy said:

TheInheritanceProblemSolver said:

That sounds like a very concerning situation.

Unfortunately, proving that somebody was unduly influenced into making a will in terms against their wishes is very difficult. In most cases, simple suspicion of wrongdoing is insufficient to prove the case and direct evidence of the influence itself is necessary.

An enquiry, known as a “Larke v Nugus request” should be made to investigate the production of the Will.

If investigations prove to be fruitless, then family members such as a spouse or children, and any financial dependants, should consider whether they need to make a claim for reasonable financial provision to be made for them from the estate. It may be possible to bring what is known as an Inheritance Act claim to secure such provision.

There are organisations, such as CPAID Solutions (www.cpaid.co.uk), that specialise in sourcing Solicitors who can assist with inheritance issues on a no-win no fee basis.

Very helpful constructive advice, thank you.

Please don't use the company recommended. I've reported the post as it's a new user who has recommended this company a couple of times. 

74jax

I'm so sorry but I still don't understand.

In reply to my questions (thank you) you said you don't live near so it was harder).  I live no where near my mam, and neither does my brother. This was so difficult as, as mentioned, she died when we only had an hour outside allowed. We were still given LA authority to cross borders to visit (once) and to get belongings.

This didn't stop us calling the nurse, doctor, friends, social services etc to know every single thing going on. 

I think a time frame would help, you say the Will was signed 15 days before death, arranged by a friend (with no will interest), so even though you were speaking to the deseased as much as possible via mobile, no Will was mentioned and you never asked where they were.

I'm really trying to put a timeline together, as I appreciate its hard in a distressed state.

It appears the deseased was of sound mind, but, on speaking to you why wouldn't they ask for a simple thing like a charger? It's things like this you need to consider.

When taken to hospital, I'm guessing they asked for toiletries from you, how did you provide this, how did you make sure the house was secure?

Why when you spoke with the friend (I'm guessing you did for updates) was a Will not mentioned. That's quite a big topic to not tell you, especially if they had concerns.

Who is arranging the funeral?

Spendless

Keep_pedalling said:

Spendless said:

Why did family friend arrange for a solicitor to do the will without checking with family members to see if they knew if one was already in place? 

I can see that both my Grandmothers (mid-late 90s) in the situation you describe would 'forget' that they'd made Wills years earlier in favour of family members and it being arranged that a solicitor came to them would possibly think about the charity looking after them at the end benefitting than the family who hadn't come to see them, especially if there was a lack of understanding about covid restrictions on visiting. 

I think this is going to be very hard to prove though because how would you know what deceased answered when asked about making a will. You've no way of knowing what deceased answered when asked about a will, whether it was 'I don't have one' or 'I've got one but want to change it' .

Last year my son's friend was contacted by a solicitor because he was the sole beneficiary to a large estate due to a relative dying without a will. This relative had needed a lot of care for more than a decade following a RTA. Only last week, this friend showed me paperwork relating to his relatives death, which included some GP appts, one of them less than a month before he died said 'assessed for capacity to make a will'  I have no idea if that is something that should also have happened in your relatives case, I don't know enough about it. 

Many people make new wills at the end of their lives. In this case the deceased had made a will many years in the past, so it is not an unusual thing to do, and frankly the friend would have had no business questing the testators request to arrange a solicitor to make a new will.

I don't see it that way from how he's described as being (admittedly only from the OP). We don't know  if he said he hadn't got a will at all - in which case why not just double check with someone

Or did he say he wanted to change a will - in which case fair enough. There's no way of knowing this.

As I said my Grandmothers would 'forget' they had a will already. I've checked with my parents this morning and one's will is over 25 years old, I've suggested they ask her to have a look at it and update it if they wish, rather than have someone assume they haven't if they end up in the same state as the deceased on here.

OP - Best wishes I hope you sort it. 

Keep_pedalling

Spendless said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Spendless said:

Why did family friend arrange for a solicitor to do the will without checking with family members to see if they knew if one was already in place? 

I can see that both my Grandmothers (mid-late 90s) in the situation you describe would 'forget' that they'd made Wills years earlier in favour of family members and it being arranged that a solicitor came to them would possibly think about the charity looking after them at the end benefitting than the family who hadn't come to see them, especially if there was a lack of understanding about covid restrictions on visiting. 

I think this is going to be very hard to prove though because how would you know what deceased answered when asked about making a will. You've no way of knowing what deceased answered when asked about a will, whether it was 'I don't have one' or 'I've got one but want to change it' .

Last year my son's friend was contacted by a solicitor because he was the sole beneficiary to a large estate due to a relative dying without a will. This relative had needed a lot of care for more than a decade following a RTA. Only last week, this friend showed me paperwork relating to his relatives death, which included some GP appts, one of them less than a month before he died said 'assessed for capacity to make a will'  I have no idea if that is something that should also have happened in your relatives case, I don't know enough about it. 

Many people make new wills at the end of their lives. In this case the deceased had made a will many years in the past, so it is not an unusual thing to do, and frankly the friend would have had no business questing the testators request to arrange a solicitor to make a new will.

I don't see it that way from how he's described as being (admittedly only from the OP). We don't know  if he said he hadn't got a will at all - in which case why not just double check with someone

The OP said he had a will that was made many years ago. The decision to make a new one was down to the testator alone regardless of a will was already in place or not. Considering the testator had very little time to make any changes, it would have been more than unreasonable for the friend to put obstacles in the way of him making a new will.

68ComebackSpecial

RomfordNavy said:

Will was signed five days before leaving hospital, that was 15 days before death.

I am struggling to comprehend how the hospice could have exerted undue influence on the writing of the new will if it was drawn up and signed five days before they were transferred there. 

Spendless

Keep_pedalling said:

Spendless said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Spendless said:

Why did family friend arrange for a solicitor to do the will without checking with family members to see if they knew if one was already in place? 

I can see that both my Grandmothers (mid-late 90s) in the situation you describe would 'forget' that they'd made Wills years earlier in favour of family members and it being arranged that a solicitor came to them would possibly think about the charity looking after them at the end benefitting than the family who hadn't come to see them, especially if there was a lack of understanding about covid restrictions on visiting. 

I think this is going to be very hard to prove though because how would you know what deceased answered when asked about making a will. You've no way of knowing what deceased answered when asked about a will, whether it was 'I don't have one' or 'I've got one but want to change it' .

Last year my son's friend was contacted by a solicitor because he was the sole beneficiary to a large estate due to a relative dying without a will. This relative had needed a lot of care for more than a decade following a RTA. Only last week, this friend showed me paperwork relating to his relatives death, which included some GP appts, one of them less than a month before he died said 'assessed for capacity to make a will'  I have no idea if that is something that should also have happened in your relatives case, I don't know enough about it. 

Many people make new wills at the end of their lives. In this case the deceased had made a will many years in the past, so it is not an unusual thing to do, and frankly the friend would have had no business questing the testators request to arrange a solicitor to make a new will.

I don't see it that way from how he's described as being (admittedly only from the OP). We don't know  if he said he hadn't got a will at all - in which case why not just double check with someone

The OP said he had a will that was made many years ago. The decision to make a new one was down to the testator alone regardless of a will was already in place or not. Considering the testator had very little time to make any changes, it would have been more than unreasonable for the friend to put obstacles in the way of him making a new will.

 I understand what you are saying is it was legally up to him, but it comes away with an unsavoury 'feel' to it. The deceased had many years to change his will in favour of anyone he wanted and didn't. From the replies on here I see that is what is asked when a charity is involved in the final stages, have you made a will, Patient can  incorrectly  claim not and a new one is made and maybe sometimes it favours a charity involved. .

I'm not adding to the discussion for the OP though, so I'll bow out now. 

elsien

If your relative was well enough to make a will, I can't see any reason why you would need to be involved in choice of hospice as that would be a discussion around them and the hospital. And possibly having to go wherever there was a bed. It would have been courteous for someone to let you know, but you have no way of knowing how much the lack of contact was your relative's active decision - he may have decided it was easier for him not to have those conversations. Hospitals are usually quite keen to let someone know. Might they have contacted another family member instead? 

Ditto contacting you - hospitals and hospices have phones.  Your relative could have made contact with you even if the mobile phone was dead - the hospice obviously had your number because they contacted you in the end.   I'm also a little confused as to how the friend knew where he was and was arranging solicitors but didn't tell you; if your relative had wanted you involved, would they either not have said so, or asked the friend to contact you if they were struggling to do so direclty? 

Keep_pedalling

Spendless said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Spendless said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Spendless said:

Why did family friend arrange for a solicitor to do the will without checking with family members to see if they knew if one was already in place? 

I can see that both my Grandmothers (mid-late 90s) in the situation you describe would 'forget' that they'd made Wills years earlier in favour of family members and it being arranged that a solicitor came to them would possibly think about the charity looking after them at the end benefitting than the family who hadn't come to see them, especially if there was a lack of understanding about covid restrictions on visiting. 

I think this is going to be very hard to prove though because how would you know what deceased answered when asked about making a will. You've no way of knowing what deceased answered when asked about a will, whether it was 'I don't have one' or 'I've got one but want to change it' .

Last year my son's friend was contacted by a solicitor because he was the sole beneficiary to a large estate due to a relative dying without a will. This relative had needed a lot of care for more than a decade following a RTA. Only last week, this friend showed me paperwork relating to his relatives death, which included some GP appts, one of them less than a month before he died said 'assessed for capacity to make a will'  I have no idea if that is something that should also have happened in your relatives case, I don't know enough about it. 

Many people make new wills at the end of their lives. In this case the deceased had made a will many years in the past, so it is not an unusual thing to do, and frankly the friend would have had no business questing the testators request to arrange a solicitor to make a new will.

I don't see it that way from how he's described as being (admittedly only from the OP). We don't know  if he said he hadn't got a will at all - in which case why not just double check with someone

The OP said he had a will that was made many years ago. The decision to make a new one was down to the testator alone regardless of a will was already in place or not. Considering the testator had very little time to make any changes, it would have been more than unreasonable for the friend to put obstacles in the way of him making a new will.

 I understand what you are saying is it was legally up to him, but it comes away with an unsavoury 'feel' to it. The deceased had many years to change his will in favour of anyone he wanted and didn't. From the replies on here I see that is what is asked when a charity is involved in the final stages, have you made a will, Patient can  incorrectly  claim not and a new one is made and maybe sometimes it favours a charity involved. .

I'm not adding to the discussion for the OP though, so I'll bow out now. 

Unfortunately many people die having either not made a will or failing to update a will for decades despite having had many years to do so. For many it is only a terminal diagnosis that prompts them to do something about this, and this appears to be the case here. 

Without evidence otherwise I can’t see anything unusual about this situation. If the testator had surviving children or a spouse then I think they might have a case, other relatives don’t have a hope of success.

Skiddaw1

p00hsticks said:

RomfordNavy said:

A close friend arranged the Solicitors to visit to do the will as the deceased was apparently being pressurised by the Nurses to get a Will done. 

Pressurised in what way ?

In my experience, nurses specialising in end-of-life care are not 'ordinary' ward nurses. It's a major part of their job where appropriate to help ensure that the process of dying is as smooth as possible,  including helping the terminally ill feel that they have everything in order before they die. That includes making a will, helping them to obtain appropriate benefits, talking about pension and employment options etc, as well as dealing with their medical needs

My thoughts exactly.

In all honesty, I think the most likely explanation is that the deceased made an informed decision and acted accordingly (with the practical support of their close friend and the nursing staff).