Guardianship of granddaughter.

[cacran]

Our Daughter has a 10 year old child. This child has never seen her father and does not even know who he is.
In these scary times our daughter is worried about who would look after our grandchild, should anything happen to her.The father left before the child was born, his name was not on the birth certificate, however following DNA test which he wanted to be done, she was proved to be his child. He has paid for his child, to his credit, but as I said, he has no contact with her. Neither Father or Mother know of each others whereabouts.
We are more than willing to be guardians of our grandchild ,but want to know how this can be legally arranged. Our daughter owns her own property, outright. She would want us to inherit that too as we actually paid for it. I would be grateful of any advice.

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[sidneypresco]

I think that you should still contact the lawyer directly with this issue, since you are unlikely to get a more accurate consultation here. I wish you to deal with this faster, and your daughter not to be afraid for her child.

[Lola49]

If anything happened to your daughter it is usual that if there is no contact with the father, that the role of guardianship would fall to you. This is what we were let to believe with our daughter's children, unless she is married in which case he would be stepfather and considered as carer for the children.

One thing that your daughter could do is write a will that emphasised her wishes. I don't know of anything that can be put in place prior legally in case anything happens to her except for a will. Normally if the father contested it then it would go to a family court or the local authority would get involved. If the worst did happen, and the children ended up staying with you, at that stage you then go to get an order to ensure that they live with you permanently, because as the father has legal rights, he trumps you legally - he could theoretically remove her if he is legally recognised as her father - i.e. if he is on the birth certificate. But that is very much a 'what if' scenario and you would need to get advice on what to do if the time came.

And the property wishes would also be in her will, unless she is married or her child has reached the age of 18 I think it would also fall to you as you are her next of kin, however a will could stipulate all of this information.