Inheritance and step parents

Inheritance and step parents

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Johnniem

Original Poster:

2,660 posts

222 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Anyone know anything about this stuff or had past experience?

Father and step mother married for 35 years (so very good innings). Father died in 2000 and left everything to her except a leagcy to each of the four grandchildren when they reached the age of 23. This was a lovely thing to do and I suspect it was to take the heat off us as parents for stumping up home deposit monies! I see no problem in what he put in his will, after all, despite the fact that the stepmother and I are rather ambivalent about each other, there is no reason to deny her a good life after she put in 35 years of keeping house and 'raising' children. My sister and I weren't mentioned in his will at all (that was a bit of a shocker but, to be frank, he was a bit like that - 'my business is my business so butt out') but presumably we would expect the step parent to do the right thing. The step mother is actually quite a toxic woman and is probably using the inheritance as a method of control but for me it hasn't worked as I now don't communicate. It was a one way street (only contact was if I made the effort) for 12 years and I offered her the opportunity to make it a two way street two years ago and she has remained steadfast and has not contacted me since my letter to her. Fair enough I say.

Anyway, back to now. Neither my sister nor I are trustees of his estate and step mother has not made a will (she is actually relatively healthy for someone close to 80). She is occasionally reminded (by others who are trustees) but it seems to fall on stony ground. One of the trustees has told my sister, 'if she doesn't make a will then there will be carnage!'

I understand that if she dies intestate then the money and property go to her blood relatives, which my sister and I are not. We were not adopted by her so are therefore, legally, not entitled to anything unless she writes a will to say that we get the property (which was promised to us by our father and, subsequent to his death, by her.

I would be pretty miffed if we weren't allowed our family heirlooms and, if truth be told, the property would be nice too but does anyone have any experience of being in this position? My sister is as poor as a church mouse and since her divorce has had to move back into the family home (7 beds Victorian house in SE London - nice!). She gets on fairly well with step mother as she has dealt with the differences they had. She could really do with the inheritance, if only to give her a decent life. For me it is less critical.

Any trust lawyers out there or chaps who have had similar experiences and came out the other side? Is it all doom and gloom?

JM

TooMany2cvs

29,008 posts

125 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Sorry to be so blunt about this, but - quite simply, you didn't inherit anything from your father.

He left some money to the grandkids, which is in trust for them - and there will be trustees of those trusts - but his estate is long-since closed down, and there are no "trustees" of it. There probably never were, just an executor. Once those trusts for the grandkids were set up, and the money put into them, then everything else became your step-mother's property, to do with as she will.

And that includes those "family heirlooms" - they are your stepmother's property, clear and simple, and have been for 13-14 years. Those were your father's wishes, as expressed in his will. If you wanted to contest it, the time has LOOOONG since passed, but verbal "promises" as to what somebody intends to leave you are worth the paper they're written on. After all, anybody could say "Well, he promised _me_ that...", so unless everybody agrees, it'd require a court case to vary the will.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jarndyce_and_Jarndyce

If she dies intestate, then the rules of intestacy apply as to who gets her estate. And you and your sister, as adult stepchildren through a long-dead spouse, are below David Cameron in the pecking order.
https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-w...
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/wales/relationships_...

TinyCappo

2,106 posts

152 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Time to make amends perhaps?

CYMR0

3,940 posts

199 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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A couple of things:

1. Is it possible that father left a lifetime interest to stepmother, not the property outright? I know there's no evidence of this but with all due respect to OP, the way in which the question is phrased doesn't sound like he understands the situation well.

2. It is possible that the sister may be entitled to something as a dependent via a 1975 Act claim or as a person in actual occupation of the property at the time of stepmother's eventual death.

However neither of these are my area so I will bow out gracefully now, just putting those out there as potential long shots.

However the short answer is that, if everything is left to the stepmother then it means exactly what it says on the tin. However why would the father have drafted a will with that effect if he did not understand that was what he was doing, and desire that outcome? It certainly seems strange to make provision for grandchildren but to disinherit the children.

Durzel

12,232 posts

167 months

Friday 25th July 2014
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Maybe he thought they were innocent of any wrongdoing, and OP and her sister aren't?

He obviously had unresolved issues if the will is as described, but be that as it may his will laid out his wishes - so to be as blunt as the first reply: tough luck.

Johnniem

Original Poster:

2,660 posts

222 months

Friday 25th July 2014
quotequote all
For me it is more about heirlooms as I have provided well for me and mine. The money side of things would more benefit my sister. I completely accept what my fathers wishes were and that step mother inherited everything. I also accept that there is no turning back on the original will. My query was more about the intestacy side. That has been answered, so thanks for that. It wasn't a sob story just a request for any similar experiences.