Dispute on a Will - what to do?

Newly_retired

Beneficiaries are not the same as trustees. 

There is obvious confusion here.

Could you quote key sentences from the will, re Executors and Beneficiaries,  leaving out personal information? 

elsien

gjcody said:

Mahogany92 said:

Brie said:

Is there any value in the items he's had in storage?  Even if it's minimal perhaps you can simply say you agree to him selling them and keeping the funds to offset the storage costs.  And make it clear that you are otherwise following his mother's wishes that he is not entitled to anything according to her will.  

You talk about "how little the property is valued for".  Does this refer to a house/flat that you are trying to sell?

Not sure on overall value, furniture and a few other bits but was rather strange as other things like fridge and washing machine remained inside. I will make note of that idea to offset costs for himself.

Apparently my aunt had drafted a new Will naming him on it the year of her passing but never signed it, hence the dispute.

Yes the property is a small one bed flat and the only asset in the estate as we understand so would be used to pay off any debts we aren't aware of yet either!

You cannot agree to him selling them, etc.  As Executor you are legally responsible for every item in the Estate and must include it in the Probate application figures, and you may not distribute anything until the grant of Probate has been made.  It is that which gives you the legal authority.

If she drafted  a new Will, whilst it is not valid, do you not think you should respect it and who was the names Executor in  it?

Everything she owned is an asset and must be priced and included in the Estate calculations.

I tend to work on the basis that if it was so important to someone they would have made sure to sign it and have it legally validated straightaway. Particularly if she spent years estranged from her son and not wanting him to have anything. 

And it doesn’t matter who was named as executors in the draft will because it is just that, a draft. 

gjcody

Though here it appears that she had a Solicitor draft the Will so perhaps she was incapable of getting to him to sign the knew one. If she never wanted him to have anything, why re-write it?

Sadly we will never know and the only person who did cannot answer! The thing is for a low value Estate is it worth spending even more money, which will only be beneficial to the Solicitors.

Of course it doesn't, but it is another thing that shows how she was thinking.