French inheritance laws and Deprivation of Capital in Universal Credit

swingaloo

My in-laws were living in France and both died within months of each other. They had wills which were written whilst living in France but they were amended later when it was made possible to say they were to be dealt with under English law.

It seems the French Notaire is muddying the waters here as ours tried to do. Between that and the selling of the property they managed to bag themselves over a third of the value of the inheritance.

Curioussquid

NedS said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

However rereading your first post it sounds like the French law is an option rather than something that has to be done or would be done by default?  Deprivation of capital is when someone takes action to deprive themselves of capital that is or would rightfully be theirs - if the will would legally be executed as written, without interference from the children, I'm not sure that would be a problem.  Obviously I am not a lawyer and am just going by what you have written, but just looking at the principles of DoC.

What about choosing inaction / choosing not to take action to claim what would rightfully be theirs? 

If you had a winning lotto ticket and chose not to claim the prize, would you have deliberately deprived yourself of what would otherwise rightfully have been yours?

I accept this is different (the opposite) of a deed of variation scenario under UK law where a beneficiary chooses to give away, but the question here is if choosing not to claim any less an act of deprivation?

I think not. According to this Medium article https /medium.com/ adviser/deprivation-of-capital-1d6ee2a67a04 written by a benefits expert:

"Similarly, a person can deprive themselves of an asset even if it has never been in their possession, e.g. a deliberate failure to cash a cheque — CSB/598/1987 or releasing someone from payment of a debt — CIS/1586/1997."

I've had to leave a space between the https and the : because I'm new.

Catonthemoon

I can see your dilemma… you’re really between a rock & a hard place! 

Regarding UC, anything you do (or don’t do) will be the DM’s call. Asking for advice from caseworkers @ the DWP will be futile. If you’re lucky to get through (after being on hold for a couple of hours), you may very well speak to the person who usually makes the tea!! Said person will go on to try & impress you with their knowledge of ‘the system’ and almost certainly give you incorrect advice.
Good luck with everything.

sheramber

Scotland has the same inheritance position.

children are entitled to a share of the moveable estate.

My mother and her siblings signed to allow my grandmother to inherit all my grandfather’s estate. 

HillStreetBlues

NedS said:

Spoonie_Turtle said:

However rereading your first post it sounds like the French law is an option rather than something that has to be done or would be done by default?  Deprivation of capital is when someone takes action to deprive themselves of capital that is or would rightfully be theirs - if the will would legally be executed as written, without interference from the children, I'm not sure that would be a problem.  Obviously I am not a lawyer and am just going by what you have written, but just looking at the principles of DoC.

What about choosing inaction / choosing not to take action to claim what would rightfully be theirs? 

If you had a winning lotto ticket and chose not to claim the prize, would you have deliberately deprived yourself of what would otherwise rightfully have been yours?

I accept this is different (the opposite) of a deed of variation scenario under UK law where a beneficiary chooses to give away, but the question here is if choosing not to claim any less an act of deprivation?

I think it's different, you own the winning ticket, like owning a cheque or owning a credit,  you actually have those,

I see the best comparison is with a pension,  it's disregarded under UC  but you can get the option to take a lump sum,  but failing to do so isn't DoC if you don't take that option.  

Curioussquid

The EU is challenging the change in the French law, so it might even be that by the time the house sells, the law has been revoked anyway. What a headache.