Please help.

Harley99 · 14 January 2020 at 11:34PM

I had been left a gift after my father in law passed away in july. He had a will in place but there were some gifts he wanted to give in a last wishes draft that had 2 witnesses sign it.
I have now been told that it's not a valid document and it will not be honoured.
Please if you have any advice or would be very welcome.
There was also a gift to his son and st Catherine's that looked after him in the weeks leading up to his passing.
The executor will not give me any further information.
I am not in the financial situation to be paying for solicitors please please help.
I know my mother and father in law would be so angry at this 😪

Keep_pedalling · 14 January 2020 at 11:45PM

Unfortunately a list of wishes is not binding, and an executor cannot honour those wishes without the approval of the residuary beneficiaries which I presume is your spouse and their siblings.

Legally there is little you can do unless that list of wishes is actually a codicil to his will.

Dox · 15 January 2020 at 12:26AM

I can understand your hurt and anger, but as the previous answer points out, the executor's hands are tied: they must honour the legally valid documents. If the document isn't valid, then there is probably little further information the executor can give you. One thing you might ask is why it isn't valid i.e. why it doesn't qualify as a 'codicil'. To be valid, a codicil needs to refer to the will it is intended to modify, and must be signed and witnessed in the same way as the will itself (although the codicil witnesses don't need to be the same people who witnessed the will).

If the beneficiaries named in the will are prepared to give up part of their inheritance so that you, his son and St Catherine's can benefit, that is a different issue. Again, ask if the executor has approached them.

Please help.

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