No win no Fee and getting £60,000 - £70,000 back?

UKNeil
UKNeil Posts: 20 Forumite
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in Deaths, funerals & probate
My father passed away last year and left everything to me. Shortly after making his will and several months before his death he entrusted a relative with £60,000 plus which they kept in their bank account and helped pay for some of his carers in the last months of his life. My father said that I would receive this money after his death at a later date. After my father passed away the relative is now claiming that this was a gift to them and will not be sending me the money. Is it best to tackle this through a no win no fee lawyer?

Comments

  • lincroft1710
    lincroft1710 Posts: 17,640 Forumite
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    I doubt a NWNF law firm would be interested, they tend to want "easy" cases
    If you are querying your Council Tax band would you please state whether you are in England, Scotland or Wales
  • Keep_pedalling
    Keep_pedalling Posts: 16,618 Forumite
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    Unless you have some written proof that for some unfathomable reason your father deposited a large sum of money in someone else’s bank account for safe keeping, you are going to struggle to get this money back and a NWNF solicitor is unlikely to take on a case with very low odds of wining.
  • Dox
    Dox Posts: 3,116 Forumite
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    Impossible to prove without something in writing - and it sounds as if you don't have anything. A most peculiar thing for someone to do without getting documentary evidence; perhaps you father did gift the money to the relative but chose to tell you something else (possibly quite innocently because he was confused).
  • MEM62
    MEM62 Posts: 4,749 Forumite
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    UKNeil wrote: »
    Is it best to tackle this through a no win no fee lawyer?

    My first thought is why on earth you would want to entrust the recovery of such a sum to the bottom feeders of the legal world. NWNF firms only accept slam-dunk cases (They don't like getting involved in proper litigation) and will take a high percentage of anything they recover as their fees. Madness.

    That aside, the issue you are going to have is that, if there is no formal agreement in place and you have nothing other than a conversation with your father to prove your case then you are unlikely to recover the money. In any case, it would probably need the executor of his state to pursue that claim. And that would need a proper, professional legal representation.
  • Malthusian
    Malthusian Posts: 10,936 Forumite
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    Dox wrote: »
    A most peculiar thing for someone to do without getting documentary evidence

    A most peculiar thing for someone to do even with documentary evidence. There was no reason he couldn't pay his carers out of his own bank account. And no reason to hand over £60k+ in advance.
    perhaps you father did gift the money to the relative but chose to tell you something else (possibly quite innocently because he was confused).
    He was definitely confused at some point. Either he handed money over for a very strange reason, or he made a gift to a friend knowing exactly what he was doing, and got confused about it later.

    I agree that based on the information presented the OP has no chance of success.
  • pphillips
    pphillips Posts: 1,631 Forumite
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    Unless you have convincing evidence, it's probably not worth taking to court. If you're the executor, you could get a solicitor to write to the relative requesting the money due to the estate. Otherwise, I think it would be better to try and settle using civil mediation.
  • Dox
    Dox Posts: 3,116 Forumite
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    pphillips wrote: »
    Unless you have convincing evidence, it's probably not worth taking to court. If you're the executor, you could get a solicitor to write to the relative requesting the money due to the estate. Otherwise, I think it would be better to try and settle using civil mediation.

    Mediation won't get anywhere either unless there is some compelling evidence that the sum involved was not a gift.
  • Marcon
    Marcon Posts: 10,661 Forumite
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    pphillips wrote: »
    Unless you have convincing evidence, it's probably not worth taking to court. If you're the executor, you could get a solicitor to write to the relative requesting the money due to the estate. Otherwise, I think it would be better to try and settle using civil mediation.

    If you have convincing evidence, you wouldn't need to go to court.

    If you don't, neither a solicitor's letter nor mediation is likely to get any cash out of someone who only has to contend that the money was a gift, thus putting the onus on OP to prove otherwise.
    Googling on your question might have been both quicker and easier, if you're only after simple facts rather than opinions!  
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