Inheritance, lodgers and rights

[derby88]

We’re hoping people may be able to advise.

Our grandmother recently passed away, leaving her estate in a split of;
50% to eldest daughter
25% to youngest daughter
12.5% each to 2 granddaughters (daughters of her youngest daughter)

Eldest daughter is the only one in a position to buy the others out, thus keeping the house within the family.

Eldest daughter has no offspring, and her will splits her estate 50/50 to her 2 nieces (us!) - therefore grandma’s house will eventually become ours should eldest daughter/Aunty buy it now.

However, Eldest daughter/Aunty has a lodger. He has been around for the past 10 years, and lived with her in her current home. Her plan is to ‘buy us all out’ with the sale of her current house, and move into grandmothers house with this lodger. She states they have no romantic relationship (I think he wishes it was!) but similarly they do not have any formal contract for their arrangement. They have a dog together. She tells us he pays £500 a month towards all mortgage/living costs, but again, no contract.

We would like to know if he holds any rights/claim to our grandmother’s house (that should eventually become ours) by moving in with her, and living there indefinitely?
Should we look to advise our Aunty to draw up a formal contract of lodging?
Does the dog class as a dependant and complicate things?

Obviously we are expecting our Aunty to live a long life, however should anything happen, and the lodger is still alive, could he complicate the inheritance or have any claim on her estate (even though her will states 50/50 to each niece)?

many thanks

[2222]

He is not a dependant, and he has no claims on her estate, as long as the only relationship is purely business. I don't know how you can document that conclusively. Even if auntie says that there's no romantic relationship now, things change. After she's died, the lodger may simply lie about it.

Yes, of course, she should draw up a lodger agreement.

Forget about the dog; it has no rights.

What may be more problematic is winkling the lodger out of the house after Auntie dies, but there's nothing much you can do about that now.

[swiss_toni]

Forget about the dog; it has no rights.

The High Court agrees ;-)

https://www.legalcheek.com/2015/11/d...nk-struck-out/