It can be distressing to learn that a loved one’s will doesn’t provide for you adequately, if at all, or that you don’t inherit anything if they die without a will.
Contact us nowIn certain situations you may able to claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, often referred to as the Inheritance Act. This allows the court to vary the will (or the intestacy rules) to ensure you receive reasonable provision from your loved one’s estate.
Call us free today to see how we can help you understand your options on 0808 164 0808, or request a call back if you’d like one of our no-win, no-fee experts to call you.
Head of Inheritance Disputes Andrew Wilkinson, and Partner Debra Burton, discuss how our team handles inheritance disputes and the approach we take to helping individuals and their families at such a difficult time.
Our inheritance dispute lawyers are happy to discuss the number of different fee options with you.
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Not everyone who is disappointed about a deceased’s will or the outcome of the intestacy rules can bring a claim under the Inheritance Act. Only certain categories of people are eligible to claim:
A widow/widower has a particularly strong claim against the estate under the Inheritance Act 1975. The court approaches these claims more generously than, for example, Inheritance Act claims by adult children, where the provision is likely to be less generous.
A widow/widower can generally expect to be able to enjoy the standard of living that they enjoyed when their partner was alive, assuming of course the estate is big enough. If that provision isn’t made for them, then the court has the power to intervene and correct the situation.
If your ex-spouse or civil partner has died without leaving you with reasonable financial provision, you may be able to claim for this following the death of your partner. This is possible providing that you have not remarried, or that any previous divorce settlement is in place preventing you from making a claim.
For example, if you drew up a pre-nuptial or post-nuptial agreement that had a clause restricting your ability to gain any inheritance, then you might be barred from this. To understand these rules further, and if you are considering bringing an Inheritance Act claim for reasonable financial provision following the death of an ex-spouse or civil partner, it is important to seek expert legal advice in the first instance.
If you have been cohabiting with the deceased in the two years just before their death, as if husband and wife, but have either been left out of the will, or have not been provided for adequately in it, you may be able to claim against the estate of the deceased under the Inheritance Act 1975. This applies to both opposite sex and same sex partners of the deceased.
It is worth noting that the court will not take into account any periods of involuntary separation, for example arising from employment, hospital visits or if one partner is living in a care home. Such occurrences would not ‘stop the clock’ for the two year period. However, if you voluntarily left the shared home and stopped cohabiting, this would count as stopping the clock.
We were instructed by the partner of the deceased following his sudden and unexpected death. In the weeks prior to his death, the deceased had provided instructions to a will writer to prepare his will but had not received it before passing away.
In that will the deceased had left the bulk of his estate to our client with small legacies to her children and a friend. Unfortunately the deceased died before he could sign the will and as our client and the deceased were unmarried, his estate passed in accordance with the intestacy rules to his closest surviving relative, his sister, with whom he had been estranged for many years.
Our client had little in the way of assets and significant medical problems, which severely impacted her every day life and her earning capacity. She had relied heavily on the deceased for his support in all aspects of her life. It was clear that our client had a strong basis for a successful Inheritance Act claim against her late partner’s estate.
Attempts were made to reach a resolution with the sister without the necessity for court proceedings. Unfortunately, she was unwilling to engage and an Inheritance Act claim was issued in the High Court. Joint expert medical reports were obtained on the client and extensive witness evidence was obtained from the deceased’s friends and work colleagues in support of our client’s claim. Ultimately this evidence clearly indicated that our client was likely to be successful at trial and the significant cost consequences to the sister if our client was, resulted in the sister finally agreeing to engage in mediation.
That mediation resulted in a settlement whereby our client received a significant lump sum payment from the estate and the payment of her legal fees.
This could be a child of the deceased (biological or adopted), or someone treated as a child of the deceased (e.g. a step child)
In circumstances where a parent has remarried, or has co-habited with a new partner, or where children and parents are estranged, children can be left out of a will, or not provided for fully within it. Inheritance Act claims by children are not uncommon.
A child left out of a will cannot make a claim against an estate simply because they are the child of the deceased. They will need to show some requirement for maintenance in order to do so. Estranged child inheritance may be difficult to obtain.
The deceased, our client’s father, raised our client (his only child), and had a close relationship with him until his teenage years. The deceased struggled with various personal issues and there was a breakdown in that relationship which ultimately resulted in our client going into care, although the deceased and our client remained in regular contact.
The deceased made a will with a firm of solicitors shortly before he died leaving his estate to a sibling and explicitly made no provision for our client, who at that time was a minor and was in the care of the local authority. The deceased passed away shortly after this and the professional executors of his estate proceeded to administer the estate in accordance with the terms of that Will and obtained a Grant of Probate.
We were approached by the client’s local authority guardian a few months prior to the client turning 18 to try and find out what had happened to the deceased’s ashes and to try and facilitate the return of some of the client’s possessions, which were at the deceased’s house. Upon reviewing the matter it was clear that the client, had strong grounds for a successful claim against the deceased’s estate under the Inheritance Act, although the statutory timeframe for bringing the claim had expired some months previously. The local authority was unwilling to deal with such a claim, with the client due to shortly turn 18, but was prepared to agree to us providing notification of a potential Inheritance Act claim to the executors and beneficiary.
Shortly after the client turned 18, he made contact with us and instructed us to proceed with an Inheritance Act claim. By this time the client was approximately 6 months outside the statutory time limits for bringing an Inheritance Act claim (6 months from the date of a Grant of Probate). A claim was prepared and issued, the executors took a neutral stance and the beneficiary of the estate agreed to mediate. That mediation resulted in a significant settlement for our client, equating to over half of the deceased’s estate.
Our client’s mother passed away unexpectedly, leaving a will she had made with a firm of solicitors whereby she appointed the partners in that firm as her executors and left our client a small legacy. The bulk of her estate passed to our client’s other sibling and two step-siblings.
It became apparent when we analysed our client’s options that her personal circumstances meant that even though she was an adult child, she had a viable Inheritance Act claim against her mother’s estate. A letter of claim was sent and negotiations entered into at an early stage, which ultimately resulted in a settlement being agreed without mediation or court proceedings having to be issued.
Maintenance refers to necessary material items or income in order to meet the everyday expenses of living, and therefore must not be excessive. It is worth noting that the Inheritance Act 1975 claims also cover adult children if they are not financially independent. Again, this category of people will need to show a need for maintenance that can be provided by claiming some value from the estate of the deceased.
This is a catch all provision within the Inheritance Act 1975 which can be used by people who do not fit within the other categories of people, but still had a relationship with the deceased and were not adequately provided for by the will.
The definition of being maintained is fairly wide and can include the deceased paying or even just contributing to mortgage or rent, paying off debts, paying for school fees or providing someone with a regular income. Anyone who was living with the deceased prior to their death for less than two years may still be able to qualify under this section.
Inheritance Act claims by dependents involves needing to show they were being supported and also the basis upon which that support was being offered and accepted. This is something we can help with when you contact us to enquire about bringing an inheritance claim. Inheritance Act claims by cohabitants can also occur, where they hope to secure a financial maintenance claim from the estate solicitor.
It is important to realise that even if someone is eligible to bring an Inheritance Act claim, they won’t automatically get something from the estate. It may have been entirely reasonable for the deceased not to have provided for them in their will, or made only limited provision. They may have received a lot of money or financial assistance during the deceased’s lifetime already, they may be financially independent and/or there may be a number of competing claims against the estate, which may not be large enough to satisfy them all.
When assessing what individuals are likely to receive from claims under the Inheritance Act 1975, it depends on who is making the claim. For anyone other than a spouse or civil partner, any claim is limited to what is required for their maintenance. For spouses and civil partners, the test is higher – it is what would be reasonable for them to receive in all the circumstances not limited to maintenance.
The Inheritance Act itself sets out a range of factors which would be considered when deciding what a person may receive, if anything during family inheritance disputes. These include:
• their own financial needs and resources
• the size of the estate
• whether any other person is bringing an inheritance act claim
• the resources and needs of the actual beneficiaries of the estate
• any obligations the deceased may have had towards that person
• any physical or mental disability the claimant may have
• any other matter, including any conduct which may be relevant
Each claim has to be assessed properly due to the many different scenarios that can occur case by case.
There is a time limit for bringing Contentious Probate claims. They normally have to be issued at court within 6 months from the date of the grant of probate. You can search online to see whether or not a grant has been issued.
Depending on how complex the deceased’s estate is, a grant of probate could be issued only a few weeks after the deceased’s death so this may not leave a lot of time for someone to make a claim. Therefore you should act quickly and get in touch with legal professionals.
It is possible to bring a claim after the 6 months has expired, but you will need permission from the court to do so. The court looks at the full range of factors, such as the reasons for the delay in making the claim, and what prejudice would be suffered to the estate and any other beneficiary. There is no guarantee that the court would grant permission even if the delay is only a few weeks. Similarly, just because a claim may be brought many years after the grant, it doesn’t mean that permission would be refused.
It will be up to the court to decide, and again depends on the individual facts of the case.
