Marital Claim Contests Last Will and Testament
Recently my uncle passed away. He left a will stating that he wanted his estate to be divided up equally between my 3 cousins and myself, round £200,000 in total. some is tied up in a house. We are all the offspring of his brothers as he had no children.
He was married, but for the last 8 years had been seperated from his wife and her 3 children (from other partners) as she left him and the home they shared. They bought the house in joint names from the council, but when she left she demanded a £15,000 lump and wanted to sign the house and mortgage over to him. my uncle agreed.
3 years later my uncle sold that house, moved to another where he lived comfortably until he passed away. His wife never set foot in this house, they never signed any divorce papers.
Shortly after his death we received a letter from his wife's solicitor requesting to see the will, stating that she believes she has a right to all or some of his estate as some of this was purchased with money he had from the sale of the council house.
She claims that if she had not been a council tenant he would not have been able to buy the house. However he had been a council tenant all his life and she had never worked before, whilst or after they were together and so without him could not have ever bought the council house.
We are waiting for Her solicitor to send full details of their claim. does she have any legal grounds overriding the will?
She certainly may have
She certainly may have grounds to challenge the distribution of your Uncle's estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act. She may also be able to argue that your Uncle was holding his last property on trust for both of them as a result some form of trust.
The law surrounding both of these areas of the law is complicated but whether she can successfully make a claim on the estate will depend on all of the facts. The fact that they never divorced will also add weight to her claim.
If she is pursuing a claim I would suggest that you instruct a solicitor to act for you to help you defend any claim that she may bring.
I am a Legal Advisor employed by Sarginsons Law and specialise in Civil Litigation matters. I deal with disputes between individuals and businesses including Landlord and Tenant issues, debt recovery and property disputes.
Telephone 02476 553181<