[Closed] Is it worth chasing my inheritance?

IANAS, but I'd have thought you needed to do your chasing when he died, not now she's died on the basis that his non-existent will may have left you something when she died, but not when he did?

Sorry about your dad.

You all sound like idiots. The only people who will benefit are lawyers. It will still cost you money.

Life is short. Move on.

IANAL but I was under the impression that if there is no will then the kids are first in line to inherit, unless of course your dad had transferred his house and assets into the witches name or joint ownership.

I think it's definitely worth seeing a lawyer, if you can find a specialist in the field who gives a free initial consultation.
You'll get some good advice over on moneysavingexpert.com , wills, probate etc section.

If there was no will then the wife gets the first £250,000 (in England) and then it's entirely up to her who she leaves it to in her will. The time to chase up any inheritance was when your dad died,sorry.

You'll need to look at intestate inheritance laws and value at the time of his death.

Aren't you entitled to anything from that?

Will talk to some legal people tomorrow, we only found out that there was some money left over this evening.

Lost count of how many times I've seen this in the last 10 yrs.

I think in Scotland 30% goes to the offspring by default, seems sensible.

I can offer absolutely advice apart from saying you're not an idiot and its a perfectly valid question

I wish him an early death.
If I don't get any money fair enough but it is my duty to cause that **** as much grief as possible.

You need to take a step back and consider your motivations. To the impartial observer you're not coming across as the reasonable one.

How can it be that you didn't know whether your Dad left a will or not? I'd have thought this would be a fundamental question when a tricky inheritance question was clearly looming on the horizon.

If a person dies intestate the law is pretty clear on what happens to their estate.

My Mum remarried after my dad died and enjoyed a few years with her new husband before he also died, of exhaustion probably. His estate passed to her and we three kids expect to inherit her estate when she dies.

I agree with [b]hebdencyclist[/b] If your dad was happy in his new relationship and chose to leave no provision for you. He must have had his reasons. Unless his will was made and recorded properly. You have little to go on. Move along.

My dad was the kind of person to write a will and keep it in a box in his wardrobe. She was the kind of person who would rip it up.
She said there was no will and my brother and I were happy for her to live in the house as that's only correct.
As said above we believed she had spent all the house money so there was no point perusing it any further.
I still wish the **** mentioned above dead or cause as much grief as possible. If I could be bothered to provide all the details you would too.
We shall be talking to someone today.

No point IMO. The most you could do is to check her will on the offchance, highly unlikely as you say, that you're included.

If there is no will, then intestacy rules don't favour stepchildren.

The only other avenue is to show that there is not reasonable provision for you in the will - see the court case this week where the lady got a (reduced) share under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 after her estranged mother left the lot to animal charities.

Can't see much beyond making lawyers richer, though.

You can check for a will on line (one of the government websites). Slightly similar situation with me, but I'm not interested in the money, I just think it's odd there wasn't a will. Nothing has been published and he died over a year ago.

This site [url= https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills ]to find if a will has been published[/url]

There's no will on that search.
You have to remember that my dad was a country boy from a small village and seeing a solicitor was as likely as seeing the queen.
Having read some more stuffi t looks like it will all go to that scumbag.
I shall certainly being giving the DWP the heads up and hopefully his benefits will be stopped.
It might be worth everyone having a chat with their parents and checking all the affairs are taken care of.

My dad was the kind of person to write a will and keep it in a box in his wardrobe. She was the kind of person who would rip it up.

you really should have done something about it at the time.

Can you not agree something with her son at all?

Life is too short to feel hate for the ****less muppet of a parasite, don't let it poison your own life, and leave him to poison his own. You have done without that money for the last 10 years. Let it go.

Too late IMO. Far too late.

Families and money make strange bedfellows. Have seen numerous examples and had some first hand experience too.

Lost count of how many times I've seen this in the last 10 yrs.

I think in Scotland 30% goes to the offspring by default, seems sensible.

Quite a few countries have rukes like this. I think in Belgium its distributed evenly between the kids, you cannot write them out of a will.

My wife's grandfather remarried in similar cirucmstances but without the parasitic son part.

When he died, my father in law wasn't entirely disinherited but the outcome of the estate's distribution felt incredibly unfair.

It's a hard concept for people who haven't experienced it first hand to grasp but dimissively saying you should just move on and not let it get to you is a bit like society being similarly dismissive with the injustices of the past (slavery, prejudice, general inequality etc).

It's not just something you can forget. It happened and it hurts and you have every right to feel wronged and angry.

seems to me the only potential victory here is winning the moral high ground. Try to not let it eat you up, just move on as the bigger and better man.

It happened and it hurts and you have every right to feel wronged and angry.

probably, but there are things you can do nothing about, it's does no good to bitter and worry about them

As mentioned when your father died without a will ( you have no proof there was one ) the first £250,000 goes to his wife. Unless she left you something in a will her estate will all go to the son. See a solicitor by all means, but if he's not a crook he'll tell you straight up you have no claim.
Your dad must have loved the woman at some point and in his memory respect that. Don't let bitterness and hatred make you a lesser person, suck it up and move on.

I got over it many years ago.
Now the money has appeared on the scene I'm acting out of pure vindictiveness.
It won't diminish me as a person and won't fester on the result.
I've nothing to lose but if I can **** his life up just a little bit it will make me happy.

I'd say get on it as soon as. I'd be surprised if there wasn't some kind of legal provison for this kind of sitch. Good luck! 🙂

I've nothing to lose but if I can **** his life up just a little bit it will make me happy.

sounds like you'r already on the road to being a lesser person 🙁
But you do have something to loose, your costs will be your own. If you loose they won't come out of your stepmothers estate. Always the chance by acting in a vextacious manner the courts might make you pay the estates costs as well. Go see a good lawyer and take their advise.

I've nothing to lose but if I can **** his life up just a little bit it will make me happy

Then maybe he has won and you have lost?

I do get the bitterness thing, and am watching a family I know go through all these issues at the moment, but they are happier because they are accepting one of them is just like that. You cannot change it, so why waste emotional energy on it?

She said there was no will and my brother and I were happy for her to live in the house as that's only correct.

Sorry - that's were you ****ed-up.

You should have got it sorted at the time and caused some ructions then, not 10 years later.

geetee, the source of the problem is people thinking they have any "right" to an inheritance. With very few exceptions, they simply don't (in any part of the UK AIUI). People can leave their money to whoever they want. End of story. It's their own money, not someone else's inheritance. It seems like the OP's father left everything to his second wife, it became her property and was not merely on loan to her.

Also, leaving it to a 2nd spouse/partner on the "understanding" that they will in turn pass it on to the 1st children (rather than their own or anyone else) is never going to be anything more than a matter of trust that is easily abused. If you want to give it to your own children, then either just leave it to them directly, or get proper legal advice about how to arrange things in a watertight manner. You can probably do something like set up a trust where the spouse has the use of house/investment income while alive but it all goes to specified children when the spouse dies.

"It won't diminish me as a person and won't fester on the result."

It probably won't as you sound as nasty a person as you can get already.

You are of course entitled to your opinion but without knowing the full facts your comment is somewhat harsh.
I'm sure everyone has someone in their lives is that is singled out for that extra special treatment.

I'm sure everyone has someone in their lives is that is singled out for that extra special treatment.

Well, i can genuinely say "no i don't" to that. Thankfully

In the normal course of events you're due nothing, the estate passed on to your fathers second wife who is then free to do as she pleases with it upon her death.

The only possibilities I can see where this works out in your favour is if there was a will made by your father that made provision for you and/or your sibling and those actions weren't carried out either in error or deliberately.

The only long shot possibility i can think of is to try solicitors local to your father on the off chance that he did make a will and that they have retained a copy. if you can find that then you're in a position to make a claim, without it I would have thought it would be a waste of time pursuing it.

I'm sorry to say, but based on what I've seen with friends dealing with their relatives estates, the time to argue was when your Dad died, not now, his estate passed to her then, this is now her estate.

Sorry.

If I could be bothered to provide all the details you would too.

please find the time to divulge us in some of this...if not out of selfish curiosity then to try and possibly understand/relate/emphasis the motivation behind your hatred towards him

First off. My dad was very useful with his hands. Scumbag would buy a banger , my dad would sort it out for him.
He pretty soon cottoned on that he could make a profit selling cars that my dad had fixed up for free.
This went on for years.

Is that the worst thing he did? If so it's not crime of the century and your dad must have known what was going on.

I'm sure everyone has someone in their lives is that is singled out for that extra special treatment.

My brother in our case. He was always favoured and had tons of money spent on his hobby (showjumping) even as an adult. When our family business went bust 8 years ago he was the one throwing his toys out the pram.

We haven't spoken since, but no doubt he'll be at the front of the queue when our parents die. Again claiming how hard done to he is.

[quote="thecaptain"]People can leave their money to whoever they want. End of story. It's their own money, not someone else's inheritance.

Not entirely true, as per [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39278921 ]a very recent Supreme Court ruling[/url].

^ Yeah that's an interesting one - especially as they'd been estranged for 40 years or something & the mother specifically requested in writing she get nothing. The daughter challenged the will under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act and was awarded £50k, appealed the amount & it was tripled, then the charity that was originally left the money appealed & it was reduced to £50k again.

Dunno if any of this would help the OP, it's a difficult situation - while your father might have wanted his wife to get the bulk of it, it must be hard seeing someone else ultimately wind up with it who he might not have.

The she bitch was always a pain in the arse and i guess my dad thought the easiest way to keep her happy was to pander to her **** of a son.
One of the proudest moments of my life was when I got a part time job at 13. I was able to tell my dad that I longer needed pocket money and I never took another penny off him.
I guess the parasite will never have that feeling, just the satisfaction of bleeding a hard working, help anyone kind of person dry.
Which one ends up quarter of a million quid richer though?

Yeah, like I said, with very limited exceptions, such as if the dead person is judged to have acted unreasonably, but in this case it seems he simply didn't make a will and the normal intestacy rules were applied. It would be challenging to argue that the laws specifically designed for this eventuality are unreasonable!

Of course if it can be shown that there was a will and it was lost or deliberately destroyed, then that changes things...

If a will is written then a solicitor should have a copy, as well as the beneficiary.

In Italy when a parent dies, money is split equally between surviving partner and all children. In those circumstances you would have received a fair share of your father's money.

Would a will that is lodged with a solicitor automatically be registered on the official list?
If so how long after death would it go on the list?
If it isn't officially registered does it still stand?
What constitutes a legally binding will?
Would a piece of paper with a sloppy signature that was witnessed by 2 people with equally sloppy signatures be valid?
I'm looking on here but no recent deaths are showing .
https://probatesearch.service.gov.uk/#wills

Go and ask the same questions on http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=217

You'll get some sensible advice.
Only wills that have been registered for probate will be on that list. Someone will have had to approach the solicitor to register the will.
It may be worth contacting all the solicitors in your area to see if they have one lodged, though I'm not sure if they're obliged to tell you.
If the will has been properly witnessed then it may still stand.

Read this.
https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inheritance/if-the-person-didnt-leave-a-will