Why are wills contested

In this section. View team. Close X Our team. View Profile. Sarah Bolt Senior Associate. Oliver Black Solicitor.

Joseph Brophy Solicitor. Oliver Rees Solicitor. Matthew Nester Solicitor. Kieran Forsyth Associate. Close X. Roman Kubiak TEP. Email: [email protected]. Contact number: Connect with Roman. View Full Profile. Grounds for contesting a will Watch our short video which explains the main grounds for contesting a will. Grounds for contesting a will: Lack of testamentary capacity For a person to make a valid will they must be of sound mind. Watch our video explaining lack of testamentary capacity.

It must appear that the testator intended by their signature to give effect to the will. Each witness must either attest and sign the will or acknowledge the signature in the presence of the testator, but not necessarily in the presence of any other witness. The legal presumption is that a will has been validly executed unless there is evidence to the contrary such as doubts over any of the above factors. There are also strict rules about who can and cannot witness a will.

Watch our video below explaining lack of valid execution. Contact our experts to discuss your situation. Grounds for contesting a will: Lack of knowledge and approval A person must have knowledge of, and approve of, the content of their will.

For instance, where there is a substantial gift in the will to a person who helped prepare it. Watch our video explaining lack of knowledge and approval. Grounds for contesting a will: Undue influence To prove that a person was unduly influenced, coerced or under duress when making a will you must show 'actual undue influence'.

Watch our video explaining undue influence. Grounds for contesting a will: Fraudulent wills and forged wills You are able to contest a will if you believe it was forged or fraud has taken place. Watch our video about fraudulent and forged wills.

Whatever the issue, our team has the experience necessary to help you. Watch one of our clients speak about how she was able to contest her uncle's will following concerns that he was subjected to undue influence and fraud when he was elderly and vulnerable. Click the video below to hear her story. Your questions answered Do you offer free consultations? We offer a free 20 minute telephone consultation.

Contact us now to find out more. How much am I entitled to? How quickly will my claim to contest a will be dealt with? Am I eligible to contest a will? What are my chances of contesting a will or defending a will dispute? We offer free, no-obligation consultations and flexible pricing options, tailored to your needs.

A will can be invalid for several reasons: these can include the person who made the will not having had the necessary mental and legal capacity to make a will or not understanding the content of the will; the will maker being coerced into agreeing to the terms of the will by other people; or the will being drafted fraudulently. In addition to the above, where a will does not provide reasonable financial provision for family members or those who have been maintained by the deceased during their lifetime, a claim may be brought under the Inheritance Provision for Family and Dependants Act for reasonable financial provision.

The validity of a will can be contested if you believe it was created under one or more of the following conditions:. This Act also sets out who is entitled to make a claim on these grounds; normally,.

Anyone can challenge the validity of a will. If there is no valid previous will, then the estate will be distributed in line with the rules of intestacy. Given the amount of investigation required to challenge a will, it is normally a very time-consuming and expensive process, and the exact costs are dependent on the specifics of the case. There are different ways of funding a claim, which should be discussed with your solicitor:. Sometimes, unsuccessful challenges to the will may be paid for by the estate, but this is the exception rather than the rule and will only be the case when it can be shown that the will maker caused the litigation.

For a claim for reasonable financial provision, there is a time limit of 6 months from the date the grant of probate is issued. The first thing to do is seek immediate legal advice from a solicitor; they will help you determine whether you have a claim. It is at this stage that resolving the dispute should be attempted — if the dispute cannot be resolved through mediation during this initial stage, then after months issuing a claim at Court should be considered.

It is not uncommon for the court process for contesting a will to take months. There is no time limit within which you need to bring a claim to challenge the validity of a will. So you can challenge a will before or after probate has been obtained and a will can be overturned after probate.

The grant of probate is confirmation of the authority of the executor the person who is responsible for the estate administration. If a grant of probate has not yet been obtained, a caveat can be entered to stop it being issued which allows time for investigations to be made in respect of the claim and the estate is protected.

However, once a grant of probate has been obtained, the executor is able to have access to the estate assets and distribute them so assets may have been dissipated and be unable to be recovered. It may be more difficult to bring a claim if some time has elapsed due to lack of evidence or persuading the court of legitimate concerns if there has been an inexplicable delay. The best advice is therefore to proceed as early and as quickly as possible.

When someone dies and leaves a will it is for the executor named within the will to apply for a grant of probate to allo Undue influence is one of the possible grounds to challenge the validity of a will, and the suspicion of it often lies b Contentious probate is the umbrella term for any dispute relating to a person's estate after their death.

Contesting a will. It has built up considerable experience in dealing with some high profile cases over the years". Request legal advice on contesting a will. Details of your situation. Further information. What happens when a will is contested? What are the grounds for contesting a will? The grounds for contesting a will include: lack of testamentary capacity undue influence or coercion lack of knowledge and approval Wills Act and forgery and fraud.

Related services Will disputes. Court of Protection problems. Wills and tax planning. Estate Planning Basics. By drafting a living trust, designating beneficiaries, and holding property jointly, you may be able to avoid probate. Whether you're an executor, administrator, or heir to a probate estate, you probably want to know—just how long is this going to take?

Read on. Knowing what probate actually involves will help ease your fears about the process, one that isn't always as complex as you might think. With careful planning, probate can sometimes be avoided.

Still, probate doesn't have to be a scary process. When you create your will as part of your estate plan, you are making sure your last wishes will be carried out. All that careful planning and thought could be for naught, though, if someone successfully contests your will. Making sure your will can't be contested will ensure your final intentions are fulfilled. You know having a last will is important—it protects your family and provides for your final wishes. Now that you're finally sitting down to write that will, be on the lookout for these common but easy-to-avoid mistakes.

If you want to obtain a copy of a will for legal reasons or simply out of curiosity you may be able to access it simply by requesting it. Learn why an estate account is the ideal vehicle to properly administer an estate and how you can easily open one. Living Trusts. Taking a few steps now could mean saving your estate — and your loved ones — valuable time and expenses later.

What Is a Will Contest? How to Contest a Will A last will and testament is presumed to be valid by the probate court if it is in the proper format. There are only four main legal reasons a will can be contested: How the will is signed and witnessed.

A problem with execution can lead to a will being declared invalid. Execution is all about how the will is signed and witnessed. Mental capacity at time of will signing. One of the most commonly argued reasons for a will contest is that the testator person signing the will did not have testamentary capacity, sometimes called mental capacity.