Can they claim?

HowdenL

My mum told me and my sister exactly what she wanted to do with her money- she had just found out she had terminal cancer and was in hospital. Two days later she died.
When she died- two ' friends' of my mum texted me that they had two cheques for 5k and other cheques - and they were going to cash them. I immediately phoned her bank and they froze her account saying the cheques would now be worthless. After receiving my mum's money I paid all of mum's outstanding bills. Then gave money to grandchildren and great grandchildren as she stated.
These 'friends' - through a solicitor, are now threatening to go to county court because these are promissory notes and have to be paid.
I am worried sick. Their is no more money to pay these.

xylophone

https://www.gov.uk/hmrc-internal-manuals/inheritance-tax-manual/ihtm28300
may be relevant.

A cheque is a revocable mandate or authority to the transferor’s bankers to pay money. It can be revoked at any time until it is cleared by the bank. This means that in strictness a cheque that has been written by the deceased but not cleared by the bank before they died is not a valid debt of the deceased.

Keep_pedalling

They can try, but this is a bluff. Any cheque written to pay a bill for services rendered would be classed as a debt against the estate and should be paid, but that is not the case with gifts, they will fail and there is plenty of case law to back that up. 

A cheque is not a promissory note, and can be revoked any time prior to being cashed. Reply to the solicitor and refer them to Curnock v Inland Revenue (2003)

https://www.casemine.com/judgement/uk/5a8ff78060d03e7f57eadad1

Marcon

HowdenL said:

My mum told me and my sister exactly what she wanted to do with her money- she had just found out she had terminal cancer and was in hospital. Two days later she died.
When she died- two ' friends' of my mum texted me that they had two cheques for 5k and other cheques - and they were going to cash them. I immediately phoned her bank and they froze her account saying the cheques would now be worthless. After receiving my mum's money I paid all of mum's outstanding bills. Then gave money to grandchildren and great grandchildren as she stated.
These 'friends' - through a solicitor, are now threatening to go to county court because these are promissory notes and have to be paid.
I am worried sick. Their is no more money to pay these.

Already answered when you asked a month ago: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6289099/cashing-a-cheque#latest

Happily the answer is still the same, so do please stop worrying. It's a try on.

74jax

Was the estate correctly administered? Especially as she died intestate?

It doesn't make a difference to this particular question, but if it was, you can happily state to the solicitor as per rules of intestacy the estate has been administered and no payment for these cheques will be made. You could then refer to court case.

Was there a previous will that was cancelled that these gifts were made on maybe?

Were the cheques written within last 3 months? I wonder why someone would write a cheque to cash on death, could it be mum knew you can't do this but it got the friends off their back? 

p00hsticks

Marcon said:

HowdenL said:

My mum told me and my sister exactly what she wanted to do with her money- she had just found out she had terminal cancer and was in hospital. Two days later she died.
When she died- two ' friends' of my mum texted me that they had two cheques for 5k and other cheques - and they were going to cash them. I immediately phoned her bank and they froze her account saying the cheques would now be worthless. After receiving my mum's money I paid all of mum's outstanding bills. Then gave money to grandchildren and great grandchildren as she stated.
These 'friends' - through a solicitor, are now threatening to go to county court because these are promissory notes and have to be paid.
I am worried sick. Their is no more money to pay these.

Already answered when you asked a month ago: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6289099/cashing-a-cheque#latest

Happily the answer is still the same, so do please stop worrying. It's a try on.

Having read the previous thread though - if the mother did genuinely write out these cheques as a 'gesture of friendship' just before she died, you have to wonder if, when passing on her instructions about what to do with the remaining money, she was assuming that the cheques had already been presented..... which in my mind would leave a moral if not a legal obligation to ensure that the friends got the money.

NSG666

Didn't this get answered for you by Keep-peddling in your post from the 9th August? You might want to revisit if.

Cashing a cheque — MoneySavingExpert Forum

HowdenL

Thank you all. 
Yes Marcon,  I did read previous answer- but then the threat if court cane and it gave me a jolt. I have no moral obligation to these women as we have found from bank stubs and statements that they have taken huge amounts of money off my mum