Eligibility to claim estate - no proof???

bramshallman · 5 May 2018 at 5:38PM

Hi All

My mother has inherited a sum of money from her late father. She has applied to the court as his only known NOK and been awarded a grant of administration. Around the same time, a woman claiming to be another daughter of the deceased contacted my mum expecting to receive half the estate. Neither my mum or the other sibling have had much of a relationship with the deceased due to him having abandoned them (at least in my mum's case) and it taking many years to relocate him.

The mystery sibling has been asked to provide a birth certificate by my mother who is now the executor of the deceased estate. After many excuses and contradictions it has emerged that the deceased is not named on her birth certificate as her father.. this space is simply blank. Where does this leave my mother legally? Does she have to share the estate with her in the absence of proof? How else could proof be obtained by the mystery sibling?

Naturally my mum has placed a notice of death in the London Gazette, on expiry if this (2 months and 1 day) is my mum entitled to keep the entire estate in the absence of any proof of being a beneficiary from the mystery sibling??

Thank you all in advance

Tigsteroonie · 5 May 2018 at 5:51PM

With no birth certificate, the only other proof this individual could produce is DNA evidence; and in the absence of the deceased, your mother would have to provide DNA for the labs to then test the likelihood of them being half-siblings. It's Jeremy Kyle territory.

Has this other individual made any suggestion as to how they might progress in the absence of proof? If it's as simple as saying "He was my father", then hello, he was my father too

Yorkshireman99 · 5 May 2018 at 6:09PM

No proof no payout! The claimed sibling needs to have that made very clear.

Flugelhorn · 5 May 2018 at 7:05PM

say the "sister" had been adopted into another family then even a DNA match wouldn't give her any rights.

The lack of a name on the birth cert and presumably any mention in a will gives the "sister" no chance at all

Ammy · 7 May 2018 at 8:56AM

Looking at things from the other side, I will find myself in a similar situation to the ‘sister’ shortly.

My father, who has end stage heart failure is only expected to live for a few more weeks. He does not have a will and was rather anxious about this as he believed that his estate would go to the State; the reason he thinks this is because he was not married to my mum and he is not named on my birth certificate. I have been told by a solicitor who did visit him to try to draw up a will that the laws of intestacy would apply and as he does not have a spouse and I am his only child then his full estate would come to me.

Although he was involved on and off in my life, this could of course still be disputed by other (distant) members of the family trying to push me to one side to get their hands on his money. But if that does happen then I’m told that it would indeed require a DNA test to resolve the matter as Tigsteroonie mentions above.

My dad has had ill health for some time now and made it clear to those around him that he’d like myself and my 5 year old son to inherit so I’ve no idea why he didn’t just make a will to tie up any loose ends.

Flugelhorn · 7 May 2018 at 9:17AM

There is a bit of a difference Ammy in that your father recognises you as his child and you are in contact with him in life , I think the OP's sister just appeared out of the blue.

It is such a shame that he didn't manage to make the will, is it worth another go by the solicitor? So long as he names you in it then there should be no argument from others in the family

Brynsam · 7 May 2018 at 9:40AM

Flugelhorn wrote: »

There is a bit of a difference Ammy in that your father recognises you as his child and you are in contact with him in life , I think the OP's sister just appeared out of the blue.

But an illegitimate child could still claim if the DNA evidence stacks up. See http://www.privycouncil.org.uk/Formalities/Components/Assets/Beneficiaries/Who-esle-May-Benefit-From-A-Will.html

Many people with unmarried parents don't have a father on their birth certificate. Unless both parents are present at the time of registration, the father would need to complete a statutory declaration of parenthood to acknowledge the child is his - and funnily enough quite a lot of men don't want to do that...

unforeseen · 7 May 2018 at 10:00AM

Flugelhorn wrote: »

say the "sister" had been adopted into another family then even a DNA match wouldn't give her any rights.

The lack of a name on the birth cert and presumably any mention in a will gives the "sister" no chance at all

On adoption , even in the case of the mother and a new partner/husband adopting, a new birth certificate is issued with the new parents' details

The lack of a name on the birth certificate pushes the proof back to DNA

Middlestitch · 7 May 2018 at 10:01AM

bramshallman wrote: »

Naturally my mum has placed a notice of death in the London Gazette, on expiry if this (2 months and 1 day) is my mum entitled to keep the entire estate in the absence of any proof of being a beneficiary from the mystery sibling??

Birth certificates are helpful but not necessarily conclusive. Your mother has been alerted to a possible claim, so the claimant needs to be given adequate time to prove her case - and DNA evidence would certainly be one way to do so.

Depending on the value of the estate, it could be worth a word with a solicitor working in this area to discuss how best to handle things.

Brynsam · 7 May 2018 at 10:03AM

unforeseen wrote: »

On adoption a new birth certificate is issued with the new parents' details

The Adoption Act 2006 was not retrospective - see link in my previous post (wet towel round head territory!).

Mojisola · 7 May 2018 at 10:10AM

Ammy wrote: »

Looking at things from the other side, I will find myself in a similar situation to the ‘sister’ shortly.

My father, who has end stage heart failure is only expected to live for a few more weeks.

I have been told by a solicitor who did visit him to try to draw up a will that the laws of intestacy would apply and as he does not have a spouse and I am his only child then his full estate would come to me.

Although he was involved on and off in my life, this could of course still be disputed by other (distant) members of the family trying to push me to one side to get their hands on his money. But if that does happen then I’m told that it would indeed require a DNA test to resolve the matter as Tigsteroonie mentions above.

Did the solicitor suggest how you could prove that you are his daughter if your position is challenged?

Could you get an acceptable dna test done now to confirm your parentage? If not, you would have to keep something that could be proved to belong to your father in order to match against your dna.

It's a horrible thing to have to worry about while your Dad is in his last days.

Eligibility to claim estate - no proof???

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free