My mother's Will

Kinclad

Hi, I hope someone may be able to provide me with some guidance.

My mother passed away in June this year, she leaves my father in their marital home, along with my older brother.

My mother had written a Will, but we were unable to find her copy in amongst my parents physical filling (my dad's was there).

So I knew which solicitors my parents generated their wills with, so I tried calling them. The number was unobtainable, so I done some googling and the solicitors had been closed down for fraudulent practices.

So I have no idea how do obtain the will, I'm presuming legally the will needs to be enforced? 

Although my mother's will (iirc), was to leave everything to my father and then my brother and I. One thing we did do about 10 years ago (when I mum had to go into a care home due to dementia), was to change my parents ownership of their home to tenants in common.

With my mum now being passed away, how does that change my father's ownership of the property? Is he now the sole owner?

Thanks for any help

Mark

Keep_pedalling

If she left everything to him, then yes he is now the sole owner.

All the documents held with their solicitor should have been transfered to a new one, you can find out who this is by contacting the Solicitor Regulation Authority on 0370 606 2555.

Flugelhorn

if the original  will can't be found then letters of admin can be applied for and the rules of intestacy followed.
Sounds like these will have the same effect as her will would have had
Only query would be whether she actually intended "her half" of the property under TiC to go to you and your brother (would be the normal reason for making the change) 

Ayr_Rage

I had a similar issue when trying to redeem my mortgage, the legal practice had been closed.

There was a notice on the door advising who had taken their records and after a short walk around the corner it was a great relief to find the other firm had all the documents.

After a bit of an awkward conversation it transpired my old solicitor was now residing in Bar-L.

Keep_pedalling

Flugelhorn said:

if the original  will can't be found then letters of admin can be applied for and the rules of intestacy followed.
Sounds like these will have the same effect as her will would have had
Only query would be whether she actually intended "her half" of the property under TiC to go to you and your brother (would be the normal reason for making the change) 

Only if the OP’s mother’s estate is below £322k, anything over that is split between the surviving spouse and the children.

Sounds like she may not have had the capacity to change her will but it would have been important that the father could in the circumstances. 

Kinclad

Keep_pedalling said:

Flugelhorn said:

if the original  will can't be found then letters of admin can be applied for and the rules of intestacy followed.
Sounds like these will have the same effect as her will would have had
Only query would be whether she actually intended "her half" of the property under TiC to go to you and your brother (would be the normal reason for making the change) 

Only if the OP’s mother’s estate is below £322k, anything over that is split between the surviving spouse and the children.

Sounds like she may not have had the capacity to change her will but it would have been important that the father could in the circumstances. 

Thanks, iirc the change to tenants in common was made at the same time my father had to apply as a deputy for my mother. I only ever thought of this as something to cover us, should my father passed away whilst my mum was still in care. But now my mother has passed, I wasn't sure how that affects the ownership of the marital home.

The house is worth in the region of 600k

Keep_pedalling

Kinclad said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Flugelhorn said:

if the original  will can't be found then letters of admin can be applied for and the rules of intestacy followed.
Sounds like these will have the same effect as her will would have had
Only query would be whether she actually intended "her half" of the property under TiC to go to you and your brother (would be the normal reason for making the change) 

Only if the OP’s mother’s estate is below £322k, anything over that is split between the surviving spouse and the children.

Sounds like she may not have had the capacity to change her will but it would have been important that the father could in the circumstances. 

Thanks, iirc the change to tenants in common was made at the same time my father had to apply as a deputy for my mother. I only ever thought of this as something to cover us, should my father died whilst my mum was in care. But now my mother has passed, I wasn't sure how that affects the ownership of the marital home.

The house is worth in the region of 600k

Presumably he made a new will at the same time.

So her share is £300k and if she has less than £22k in other sole assets, intestacy would pass everything to your father. Unlike Joint tenancy her share does not pass automatically as it heritable estate controlled by will or the laws of intestacy.