Changing the 'disaster' scenario in a will. Codicil?

Spendless

Last year me and DH made our wills (mirror wills) . It follows the rules if intestacy (first to each other, then 50/50 to our adult children, then their share to any children they may have or if not to each other) until it gets to the 'disaster scenario' Then we put 50%  to go to our DIL (in effect DS share) and the other 50% to go equally between our niblings and Godchild

DS & DIL have no split up after less than a year of marriage. We now wish to remove her from our wills and share it between the niblings/Godchid.

I had an issue with our solicitor because he sent out our wills to us without us having them signed and witnessed, we had to do it ourselves. This does mean that there isn't a valid will anywhere but stored on our property so I could just rip it up but we paid a few hundred £s for this less than a year ago so I'm reluctant. Also intestacy would have the money going to people we don't wish to for various reasons in the event the disaster scenario happened.

 Can we add a legally binding codicil to our existing will removing DIL and changing the amounts due to the others?  

Devongardener

Do you mean your siblings or are you calling your grandchildren ‘niblings’?
if you are not happy with the original solicitor it’s probably better to have a new one drafted with another one.
Otherwise go back to the original solicitor and have the will updated,  checking about the signature witness procedure.  Most solicitors will keep a cool of the signed will, so check again whether they have.

Emmia

I would do a new will in this situation, which should be straightforward for the solicitor to update off their files. I wouldn't start faffing around with codicils etc. especially as your current will has yet to be made binding.

Keep_pedalling

I would also get new wills made. I am not sure why you have an issue with what the solicitor did. If you want them to witness your wills you need to go to them otherwise you sort up your own witnesses. 

Spendless

Niblings is the collective word for Nieces and Nephews I believe, which is what I mean. They along with a Godchild are who are named in our disaster scenario along with our daughter in law, who I wish to remove .  There are no Grandchildren just our adult son and daughter. 


Our wills are legally binding we signed  and had witnessed  ourselves. Our solicitors don't have any signed wills from us because they sent them out blank to us, we never signed them anywhere other than doing it ourselves and these are at our home.  

Keep_pedalling

Spendless said:

Our wills are legally binding we signed  and had witnessed  ourselves. Our solicitors don't have any signed wills from us because they sent them out blank to us, we never signed them anywhere other than doing it ourselves and these are at our home.  

I understand that, but I don’t understand why that is a problem. The alternative would be for you to visit the solicitor to be signed at their offices. 

Devongardener

Spendless said:

Niblings is the collective word for Nieces and Nephews I believe, which is what I mean. They along with a Godchild are who are named in our disaster scenario along with our daughter in law, who I wish to remove .  There are no Grandchildren just our adult son and daughter. 


Our wills are legally binding we signed  and had witnessed  ourselves. Our solicitors don't have any signed wills from us because they sent them out blank to us, we never signed them anywhere other than doing it ourselves and these are at our home.  

Ah OK, I’ve never heard of niblings as a term!

Emmia

Spendless said:

Niblings is the collective word for Nieces and Nephews I believe, which is what I mean. They along with a Godchild are who are named in our disaster scenario along with our daughter in law, who I wish to remove .  There are no Grandchildren just our adult son and daughter. 


Our wills are legally binding we signed  and had witnessed  ourselves. Our solicitors don't have any signed wills from us because they sent them out blank to us, we never signed them anywhere other than doing it ourselves and these are at our home.  

And in the event of a house fire? Are there copies stored anywhere e.g. online, with your executors, the government wills service etc?

Spendless

Keep_pedalling said:

Spendless said:

Our wills are legally binding we signed  and had witnessed  ourselves. Our solicitors don't have any signed wills from us because they sent them out blank to us, we never signed them anywhere other than doing it ourselves and these are at our home.  

I understand that, but I don’t understand why that is a problem. The alternative would be for you to visit the solicitor to be signed at their offices. 

That's exactly what I thought would happen (and what my parents did only a few months ago with a diff solicitor )  and then we would receive a copy of our wills and another copy be stored at the solicitors, which would mean in the event of our copy going missing etc there would be a valid will at the solicitors expressing our wishes. There isn't , only the ones we have at our home.

Emmia

Spendless said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Spendless said:

Our wills are legally binding we signed  and had witnessed  ourselves. Our solicitors don't have any signed wills from us because they sent them out blank to us, we never signed them anywhere other than doing it ourselves and these are at our home.  

I understand that, but I don’t understand why that is a problem. The alternative would be for you to visit the solicitor to be signed at their offices. 

That's exactly what I thought would happen (and what my parents did only a few months ago with a diff solicitor )  and then we would receive a copy of our wills and another copy be stored at the solicitors, which would mean in the event of our copy going missing etc there would be a valid will at the solicitors expressing our wishes. There isn't , only the ones we have at our home.

You can use the government wills service to store a copy of your will. You don't need to have it at the solicitors.

I'd probably also get it scanned so there is a digital copy too.

Keep_pedalling

Spendless said:

Keep_pedalling said:t

Spendless said:

Our wills are legally binding we signed  and had witnessed  ourselves. Our solicitors don't have any signed wills from us because they sent them out blank to us, we never signed them anywhere other than doing it ourselves and these are at our home.  

I understand that, but I don’t understand why that is a problem. The alternative would be for you to visit the solicitor to be signed at their offices. 

That's exactly what I thought would happen (and what my parents did only a few months ago with a diff solicitor )  and then we would receive a copy of our wills and another copy be stored at the solicitors, which would mean in the event of our copy going missing etc there would be a valid will at the solicitors expressing our wishes. There isn't , only the ones we have at our home.

That should have been explained to you at the initial meeting, and you should have had the option.