This is complicated

Katykat

Briefly- Mum and dad made a will, Mum died, dad got the house. dad married again, which voided his will. dad died, without making a new will, step mum inherited the house. The house was never changed to her name. She is now in a home, has dementia and is not able to make a will. According to the intestacy law, I am not entitled to anything when she dies. I wont go into how **** off I am, but is there anything I can do? Apparently I have to apply for retrospective probate in order to sell the house ( I have Power of Attorney) My thoughts are to walk away and wipe my hands of it , why should I have the hassle of legal procedings, selling the house etc when I know that everything my mum & dad worked for is not going to me as they both expressed in their wills. Is there any way I can apply for inheritance of my dads share of the house before it goes through probate? What kind of solicitor can advise me best?
I'm sorry if this sounds selfish, I've been beating myself up over it for months. Part of me wants to walk away, but the other part keeps me looking after her even though she is in a home. She is safe now, well fed and has plenty of company, and doesn't even recognise me now, but I keep visiting her still.
Any advise anyone?

NAR

Oh dear what a mess indeed. You definitely need professional advice from a solicitor IMHO, to see how you stand legally and see if there is any way of changing things in your favour. I wish you luck - I fear you might need it and more.

thinkginge

just wanted to say your not selfish and if it happened to me id feel the same. im from a complicated family, lots of steps and halfs lol. there are lawyers who frequent these boards, i think there is a thread for legal advice, dont know where though..........

Nicki

Yes, see a solicitor. Depending on the size of your dad's estate your stepmum should not have inherited everything. The rules on intestacy are that the wife gets a lump sum and the remainder is split with wife getting a life interest in 50% and the other 50% and the remainder of the life interest being split equally between the children. Also if your mum and dad had made mirror wills, then your dad's marriage should not have affected what ultimately happened to your mum's inheritance.

Finally, if your dad was supporting you (or if your stepmum did) even in only very small ways, you could also apply to the court for the intestacy rules to be varied.

As you can see there are possibilities here, so best to get decent advice on your particular circumstances, rather than just stew over the unfairness of it all.

gravitytolls

Agree with all of the above, but must add .... you sound delightful, she's a lucky lady to have you as a step daughter. Whatever happens, don't let it eat you up, and change you from the decent person you are, into a bitter one.

Good luck.

duchy

I do agree you need legal advice-however regardless of where you stand legally I suspect that deep down you might feel that your Dad would expect you to do the right thing for your step-mum -for him -and if you don't you might be left feeling guilty. Definitely check out the intestate stuff-I know it's complicated-we had a similar issue in my family.

bluenose1

How dreadful for you.
You are very good to carry on visiting without her recognising you.

Don't know the Probate side but read somewhere the other day that families of people who had to go into Nursing Homes etc were renting the house out to pay towards the fees rather than selling up. At least you can still have the inheritance of the house eventually.
Would imagine she has Retirement Pension and possibly a private pension that would help towards the fees.
Good luck.

pulliptears

My parents did things another way to avoid fees. My Dad is terminally ill and wanted to get everything sorted out. Mum and Dad made a will that stated should one of them die their 50% share of the house automatically passes to me. This means that should the remaining one need to go into a home they can only ever claim 50% of the value of the house.

Im an only child so it was all very simple. It upset me no end to have to go to the solicitors and do all of this with them, but I can understand Dad not wanting to worry

Bossyboots

Mum's inheritance will have been dealt with at her death so subsequent events should have no bearing, even if mirror wills were drawn up. This simply means that the wills were identical, but they are separate wills, operating as separate legal documents. Anything left to spouse falls to be dealt with under the surviving spouse's will or intestacy if no fresh will is made upon re-marraige.

I do agree though that in fact step mum would appear not to be entitled to the whole house unless it had been transferred into her name as a "joint tenant" during the marriage.

Bossyboots

bluenose1 wrote: »

At least you can still have the inheritance of the house eventually.

Unless the property has been left to the OP in a will, the estate will pass to the step mum's legal next of kin, which is not her stepdaughter.

OP - you need to gather together all the documentation you can find, including a copy of the Land Registry deeds to the house and take them along to a probate solicitor and get some proper advice. Only someone in full possession of all the documents, who can peruse them fully, can give you a definitive answer as to what to do. It does look on first reading that you are entitled to something from your dad's estate, but as Nicki says this will depend on what size that estate was.

pukkamum

This is a problem we only discovered it when my mother-in-law went to make to make a will and she had assumed that when she died her half of the house would go to her kids but they told her that this wasn't so it would go to her husband and if he re-married it would then go to the new wife and any children she may have could end up inheriting the lot. So she was told to will her half directly to her children.