Wills can and often are challenged by dependants who think they should have received more from an estate than they get and in this case bought before a court, a daughter thought she should have a larger share of her aristocrat father’s £1.3 million estate. However, the judge did not agree and held her responsible for the breakdown of the relationship some 35 years previously.
The 56-year-old woman was a troubled child and teenager who choose to reject her father’s lifestyle and live a more colourful life, one that her father neither understood or approved of. She claimed that she had struggled with life having lived in social housing and being reliant on state benefits.
The woman sought redress from the courts to enable her to buy her home and to undertake a fine arts degree using the Inheritance (Provisions for Family and Dependents) Act 1975 because she alleged he did not make reasonable provision for her by leaving her £20,000.
The court disagreed and dismissed her claim, it was her behavior that caused the estrangement between them and it had gone on for all her adulthood. The father had treated her the same as his other children in the respect that he believed that once they were adults he was not obligated to support them financially and she had been the only one to have any expectation that he would do so. The woman had been financially independent and therefore it was decided that the money she had been left was a reasonable amount in the circumstances.
This case highlights the need to make a Will using the expertise of a lawyer to ensure that you have covered all eventualities in the wording of your Will to avoid any challenges or complications. Contact us today.