House ownership after death question

[Fidget]

Afternoon. My Mother died in 2015 leaving apparently no will. (Step father said there was no will after my sister and I had been lead to believe all our lives she had written one )
My step father (married to my Mum for over 30 years) kept Mums name on the deeds of the house, He died in November last year and my sister and I have no sight of his will etc. He has 2 children by a previous marriage who obviously will inherite everything. With the house (Approx value £450,000)still being in joint names would my sister and I be entitled to part of it? My grandmother put all her savings in to it to build an annexe where she lived until her death (surprise surprise her will couldn’t be found either!) Any advice would be appreciated

The deeds say proprietors before the joint names.

[Peridot]

Hi Fidget,

From the sounds of it the property was held as joint tenants so would have automatically passed to your step father on your mothers death. All that would be needed for the property to be dealt with would be an official copy of your mother’s death certificate. This is of course provided they owned the property as joint tenants not tenants in common. If tenants in common there would be a restriction under the proprietorship paragraph.

Whether you would have been entitled to a share of your mothers estate would depend on the value of the estate. Under the intestacy rules the spouse would receive the first £250,000 then the rest is dealt with depending on whether there are children. This may help explain:- https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/fa...-of-intestacy/

from your post post it may be reasonable for you to seek some independent face to face advice from a contested probate specialist. However you may have little option but to accept there is no choice depending on what the value of your mothers estate was. There are also time limits for bringing claims.

Do you know whether your step step father had a will? Might you have been left anything?

Write down what happened following your mothers mothers death and subsequently so you have an accurat timeline to discuss with any specialist you see.

[Fidget]

Thank you for your response

my Step father did leave a will but not have had sight of it
is there a professional way of obtaining sight of it without having to go through his children?
my sister and I are devastated that all my Mums hard earned money and my Grandmothers are going to 2 people they never had interaction with
when you suggested seeking independent advice who in particular would you recommend
once again thank you for your response

jus

[Peridot]

Hi Fidget,

Once probate has been granted you can request a copy of the Grant (which also has the Will attached) here:- https://www.gov.uk/search-will-probate The charge is £10

It may also be sensible to obtain a copy of the house ownership information from HM Land Registry here:- https://www.gov.uk/get-information-a...h-the-register You need a copy of the Title Plan. This would then confirm whether the property was held as joint tenants (so would pass automatically to the surviving partner) or tenants in common which would mean without a Will your mother's share would pass according to the intestacy rules. This may make little difference if the share is significantly less than £250k even with her personal possessions and bank savings etc. but could be worth a look.

I'm afraid we don't recommend firms. It may be sensible to ask about whether anyone in your locality can recommend anyone. Often firms do a free or fixed fee initial appointment just to discuss the issue and give some options on where to go from there, so it is worth asking whoever you contact whether this is something they do or would consider.