Updated will found

Katiec950

Hi,

Asking on behalf of my brother (based in Scotland) 

His girlfriend passed away then her mother passed too. Her dad passed several years prior. The solicitor had said that the estate was intestate and began to identify cousins. The solicitor has almost completed finalising the estate and has found a newer will. It was found in the solicitors safe and says that my brother is the sole beneficiary.

The cousins have been chasing the solicitor to progress the estate as they thought they were beneficiaries and are soon to be told about the new will.

The solicitor said that the will is valid, signed, witnessed and stored in their safe on premises. There was an error where they were using an old will.

Would the cousins be able to challenge this? The solicitor says no but, I just need a bit of reassurance for him. Obviously it's poor that an admin error has caused all this but, he is worried that this could start a legal battle?

Thanks for any help!

Flugelhorn

don't know about in Scotland but certainly in England a valid will like that would override the old one (though why was she intestate if they were using an older will? was it because all the named beneficiaries were deceased?) .

I hope the solicitor isn't going to charge for work done on the old one when they didn't check their records properly

Katiec950

Hi, yes the named people on the old will were all deceased

Hoenir

Difficult to see the grounds to challenge a perfectly legal will. 

buddy9

Were both wills the girlfriends? Who were the deceased beneficiaries of the first will that caused the estate to initially fall into intestacy?

Katiec950

The wills were made by the girlfriend’s mum. In the first one the only beneficiaries were her husband and daughter so when the daughter died they moved to intestate. However, they found a more up to date will which says that in the event of the death of the husband and daughter, the estate is passed to my brother

buddy9

Katiec950 said:

The wills were made by the girlfriend’s mum. In the first one the only beneficiaries were her husband and daughter so when the daughter died they moved to intestate. However, they found a more up to date will which says that in the event of the death of the husband and daughter, the estate is passed to my brother

On the basis of what you say nothing for the cousins. No obvious grounds for challenge.

Katiec950

Thanks all 

FlorayG

I think the only thing the cousins can do is chase the solicitor for some compensation - although it's unlikely they will get any. I'm sure this isn't a rare occurrence, lots of people don't tell anyone except the solicitor where their will is

Keep_pedalling

FlorayG said:

I think the only thing the cousins can do is chase the solicitor for some compensation - although it's unlikely they will get any. I'm sure this isn't a rare occurrence, lots of people don't tell anyone except the solicitor where their will is

I think it is pretty rare when the solicitor dealing with the estate is the same one holding the latest will. 

Marcon

Katiec950 said:

Hi,

Asking on behalf of my brother (based in Scotland) 

His girlfriend passed away then her mother passed too. Her dad passed several years prior. The solicitor had said that the estate was intestate and began to identify cousins. The solicitor has almost completed finalising the estate and has found a newer will. It was found in the solicitors safe and says that my brother is the sole beneficiary.

The cousins have been chasing the solicitor to progress the estate as they thought they were beneficiaries and are soon to be told about the new will.

The solicitor said that the will is valid, signed, witnessed and stored in their safe on premises. There was an error where they were using an old will.

Would the cousins be able to challenge this? The solicitor says no but, I just need a bit of reassurance for him. Obviously it's poor that an admin error has caused all this but, he is worried that this could start a legal battle?

Thanks for any help!

You are asking for reassurance for your solicitor - a qualified legal professional? Not sure how 'reassuring' replies from a bunch of random strangers on an internet forum are going to be. If he's worried he needs to talk to his partners (assuming he isn't a sole practitioner), or take advice himself - at his cost, not yours or the estate's.

Keep_pedalling said:

FlorayG said:

I think the only thing the cousins can do is chase the solicitor for some compensation - although it's unlikely they will get any. I'm sure this isn't a rare occurrence, lots of people don't tell anyone except the solicitor where their will is

I think it is pretty rare when the solicitor dealing with the estate is the same one holding the latest will. 

Quite...