No will asked to agree to Family deed of agreement

[masjntt]

Hi I am wondering if anyone can clarify a couple of issues regarding the following.

My grandmother died recently and although a will had been prepared she had not been well and was unable to sign it there for dying intestate.

She has no remaining spouse but 8 survivig children. One of her daughters spent the majority of her life living with my grandmother and aring for her in ill health. It is alleged that the unsigned will names her as sole beneficary.

The sister has contacted the solictitor and has asked them to write to each of her brothers / sisters explaining about the will and asking them all to agree to a Deed of Family Arrangement whereby the estate passes to this sister.

My queries are as follows

My understanding is that if a person dies intestestate then in this senario the mothers entire estate would be divided between her 8 surviving children.
If our party signs this agreement then are they affectively signing away there entitlement of the estate - there rights would NOT return upon his sisters death if she were to die first would they?? Basically if left to the sister and she wanted to she could leave the entire estate to a charity for eaxmple if she made a will

If not all of the 8 remaining children are in agreement what would happen next?

Could an agreement be amended to state that whilst happy for the sister to remain living in the property until she dies however not willing to lose inhertiance entitlement .......if that makes sense , however i assume then that if this was the agreement then the 8 remaining children would be jointly liable for property maintance costs etc??

any advice or opinions greatfully appreciated
thanks x

[stevokenevo]

Re: No will asked to agree to Family deed of agreement

i think you could benefit from a '1st hour free' consultation with your local solicitor (yell.com).

They will be able to tell you exactly where you stand and what your options are!

Good luck

[Garlok]

Re: No will asked to agree to Family deed of agreement

Quite right steve.

These things get incredibly messy BUT and it is a big BUT I would advise M to be very careful how this is tackled. the courts at the momenet are taking a very dim view of what they see as the "vulture syndrome" Not meant to be derogatory M.

The danger you are facing as well lies in two areas. theoretically, the eldest can claim the whole of the estate. It used to be the eldest male but in these days of equality it usually taken as either sex. The other thing is the danger of Chancery. If it becomes clear that there can be no agreement between all the claimants of the estate then it is likely the estate will be seized by the governemnt and placed in the care of the courts in chancery. Once there the job to extract it becomes more difficult and expensive.

At that point the proof of legitimate claim to the estate required becomes infinitely harder. It is much much better to get an amicable agrrement between your selves if you possibly can and of course you must "elect" someone to hold the Letters of Administration to distribute the assets as well and of course discharge properly any legitimate claims on the estate.

regards
Garlok

[masjntt]

Re: No will asked to agree to Family deed of agreement

wow i didnt imagine it could get so complicated lol i just thought if a mutal agreement couldnt be reached then the insestate laws would apply meaning the estate was divided equally between the 8 of them

thanks both for ur input - guess a solicitors visit may be worth while then x

[Garlok]

Re: No will asked to agree to Family deed of agreement

Absolutely M.

You might find that they have things up their sleeves we can only assume.

best of luck
regards
Garlok