1975 Inheritance Act - Claim by Cohabitee

rach1802

I have read through a fair few posts related to the above Act, however I can't find anything similar enough to this situation to help. I'll try to keep this as specific as I can without giving away names, etc but here's where we are:

MiL passed away relatively unexpectedly last spring in her 50s. She wasn't the healthiest person but there was no reason to suspect she would die and things were complicated by lockdowns meaning we hadn't seen her for a while out of fear we might give her Covid. Her partner later revealed a rapid decline in her health which he hadn't informed us of and a safeguarding concern for neglect was raised by the paramedic who took her into hospital.

Upon her death, her son found her will and read it in her home with most of the family present. As all were aware, everything to be split 50/50 between adult son and daughter. MiL had multiple properties, most of which were let out and 1 of which was her home. There was also a Codicil stating that the partner had to move out of the house within x days of MiL's death. That was not read out for fear of causing upset. Son and daughter offer to include both partner and their father in a DoV if there are sufficient funds remaining after mortgages etc paid off. 

Partner gets nasty, saying children are being greedy, MiL would have wanted him to have more etc. He discovers Codicil by calling solicitor who wrote will. Executing MiL's estate reveals records of DV for their whole relationship, which children also experienced when they lived at home. Also uncovers A LOT of debt. Both offspring lose their jobs and enter therapy.

Shortly after funeral, partner instigates a 1975 Act claim. Solicitor advises son & daughter that, due to partner's age and his still working, claim is probably worth 30-50k. Partner pushes for ADR, it's unsuccessful and he also includes a Proprietary Estoppel claim that he can choose one of several properties. Now waiting for Court Proceedings to be issued while partner remains in family home. He is not paying rent. Properties cannot be sold so liabilities remain unsettled.

These claims go all sorts of ways at Court but solicitor has always been honest that partner's claim could be valid - but only up to amount stated. Solicitor feels partner is receiving poor advice and should not have got this far. 

Essentially, I'm asking if anyone has been in a similar situation and what your experience was? Does anyone know if partner has any rights to remain in property at all? He as been served notice to quit.

missnosey122

Until court decides I don't think he has rights to anything he isn't a beneficiary. Sadly the law tends to give more protection to the offender in these cases, he can just sit in the property until he is forced to leave via court either through the proprietary estoppel case or an order for sale which I think is what your solicitor may suggest next. 

rach1802

missnosey122 said:

Until court decides I don't think he has rights to anything he isn't a beneficiary. Sadly the law tends to give more protection to the offender in these cases, he can just sit in the property until he is forced to leave via court either through the proprietary estoppel case or an order for sale which I think is what your solicitor may suggest next. 

Thanks for your reply; unfortunately you're spot on with him having more rights! However, I'm not sure if any/all rights expire when the Notice to Quit does. Currently the solicitor's advice is that a request for Possession Proceedings would most likely fail because a local Court won't want to effectively make judgement on a 1975 case.

Really what we're looking for is to understand not what might 'look bad' for us should it go as far as Court, but what actions, if any, we can legally carry out once the Notice to Quit expires. All of MiL's possessions and valuables remain in the house and he always makes access difficult.

TripleH

Is he arguing that he should have ownership or that he should have a right to live in x property?

I cannot see any issues arranging access to catalog possessions at a mutually agreeable time and identify what is his and what belonged to his late partner in advance so as to avoid misunderstandings later on. If an independent/ impartial party can be involved as witness so much the better.

If access is refused, whether that can be used as evidence against him. Although best run my suggestion through a solicitor as in my mind it sounds sensible, reality might be different.

Keep_pedalling

missnosey122 said:

Until court decides I don't think he has rights to anything he isn't a beneficiary. Sadly the law tends to give more protection to the offender in these cases, he can just sit in the property until he is forced to leave via court either through the proprietary estoppel case or an order for sale which I think is what your solicitor may suggest next. 

This is a civil case, there are no offenders involved. 

TBagpuss

I'm not clear why the other properties could not be sold - has the ex actually got an order to prevent this ? 

even if partner were to be successful I think his claims would be for a monetary lump sum or possibly to be able to remain living in the former family home, not to have a pick for the pother properties. If the debt is MiLs debt then even if his claim is successful, payment of debts takes priority over paying beneficiaries.

Even if his estoppel claim were to succeed (which I suspect is unlikely) then I think the debts take priority

It may be worth asking the solicitors about whether it would be feasible to sell one of the rental properties to enable to debts to be cleared. depending on the level of equity this might be on the basis that any balance be held by the solicitors pending the outcome of the claims.

Your solicitors are best placed to advise about how to proceed - I think asking him to pay rent opens up a lot of issues as the executors would then become landlords and have to comply with all of requirements of that - they may do better speaking to their solicitor about whether there is any way to have this taken into account in assessing any claim.

My understanding is that an Inheritance Act claim is about whether the deceased failed to make reasonable provision in their will, so Ex's needs and resources will be relevant. - the court is entitled to take into account any other relevant circumstances so it could be argued that the history of domestic abuse and the concerns about neglect were relevant. However, I suspect that they will not make much difference (Based on the fact that such issues would rarely change the financial outcome in divorce cases, and Inheritance Act have a lot in common with divorce settlements in terms of the types of factors which as court will look at. 

On the plus side, inheritance act claims are based on maintenance rather than lump sums (this may be why he is trying for estoppel as well) which may limit his claims. 

Unfortunately as with many types of litigation it can be very time consuming and expensive - 

Keep_pedalling

There are a lot of hoops to jump through to evict anyone from their home, and the advice to anyone being evicted with nowhere else to go is to stay put, as anyone who leaves voluntary will not get rehoused by the LA.

The executors will be in the same situation for the rental properties although it will be possible to sell those with sitting tenants to another landlord.

rach1802

Thank you all so much for your replies. 

To clarify on a few points - the home was solely owned by MiL, who originally purchased it with her ex-husband and she kept it in the divorce. Partner technically has no right to be there at all but as mentioned, removing him will be very difficult. We will likely be looking at a scenario of cataloguing what we can when we can with a view to sell to fund legal bills. This property has a very sizeable mortgage and the plan was to sell it to pay that off. Now interest is being accrued with no financial offset.

With regards the other properties that cannot be sold, that is because his estoppel claim names those properties being 'promised'. They are the highest value with the most equity. One of these properties was in the process of being sold but that is now on hold because of the estoppel claim. It was mortgage-free and would have gone a long way to paying off some debt. All other, unaffected, properties are being marketed with landlords in mind as there is no desire to evict tenants. These have minimal equity. The estate has approximately 50% debt with minimal liquid. In fact, we had to personally pay the IHT bill and have not yet been repaid.

He is aiming to get a property given to him mortgage-free and has rejected anything less. 

rach1802

TBagpuss said:

My understanding is that an Inheritance Act claim is about whether the deceased failed to make reasonable provision in their will, so Ex's needs and resources will be relevant. - the court is entitled to take into account any other relevant circumstances so it could be argued that the history of domestic abuse and the concerns about neglect were relevant. However, I suspect that they will not make much difference (Based on the fact that such issues would rarely change the financial outcome in divorce cases, and Inheritance Act have a lot in common with divorce settlements in terms of the types of factors which as court will look at. 

Yes absolutely - we could argue that her provision was totally reasonable given the circumstances but I suspect it wasn't in the strict eyes of a Court. 

With regards his assets, he partially disclosed his accounts and we were able to prove, even with the partial disclosure, that he has no maintenance requirement because he runs his own profitable business. This is roughly when the estoppel claim was added and he has pushed us this far regardless fo the lack of evidence for either. I would hope the abuse & neglect can be taken into account, especially given the extensive official records involved, but as you say it's not guaranteed.

Marcon

rach1802 said:

I have read through a fair few posts related to the above Act, however I can't find anything similar enough to this situation to help. I'll try to keep this as specific as I can without giving away names, etc but here's where we are:

MiL passed away relatively unexpectedly last spring in her 50s. She wasn't the healthiest person but there was no reason to suspect she would die and things were complicated by lockdowns meaning we hadn't seen her for a while out of fear we might give her Covid. Her partner later revealed a rapid decline in her health which he hadn't informed us of and a safeguarding concern for neglect was raised by the paramedic who took her into hospital.

Upon her death, her son found her will and read it in her home with most of the family present. As all were aware, everything to be split 50/50 between adult son and daughter. MiL had multiple properties, most of which were let out and 1 of which was her home. There was also a Codicil stating that the partner had to move out of the house within x days of MiL's death. That was not read out for fear of causing upset. Son and daughter offer to include both partner and their father in a DoV if there are sufficient funds remaining after mortgages etc paid off. 

Partner gets nasty, saying children are being greedy, MiL would have wanted him to have more etc. He discovers Codicil by calling solicitor who wrote will. Executing MiL's estate reveals records of DV for their whole relationship, which children also experienced when they lived at home. Also uncovers A LOT of debt. Both offspring lose their jobs and enter therapy.

Shortly after funeral, partner instigates a 1975 Act claim. Solicitor advises son & daughter that, due to partner's age and his still working, claim is probably worth 30-50k. Partner pushes for ADR, it's unsuccessful and he also includes a Proprietary Estoppel claim that he can choose one of several properties. Now waiting for Court Proceedings to be issued while partner remains in family home. He is not paying rent. Properties cannot be sold so liabilities remain unsettled.

These claims go all sorts of ways at Court but solicitor has always been honest that partner's claim could be valid - but only up to amount stated. Solicitor feels partner is receiving poor advice and should not have got this far. 

Essentially, I'm asking if anyone has been in a similar situation and what your experience was? Does anyone know if partner has any rights to remain in property at all? He as been served notice to quit.

I think the difficulty here is that nobody will have been in an identical situation - and in these cases, the devil is always in the detail. The only person who can give you sensible advice is someone in possession of the full facts: your solicitor. 

rach1802

I think the difficulty here is that nobody will have been in an identical situation - and in these cases, the devil is always in the detail. The only person who can give you sensible advice is someone in possession of the full facts: your solicitor. 

Yes that's very true, which makes this difficult to research and/or predict an outcome for. It would be good to hear from anyone who dealt with a 1975 claim that didn't go as far as court because those aren't visible.

Solicitor is due to get back soon with next steps but is very concerned with what looks good to a judge, whereas with the occupation we want to know what's possible.