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Re: Caveats
Oh joy, sounds like he won't give up. I'd suggest contacting the solicitor yourself to check about the Will. If it is an original and there are no other subsequent wills then it will stand. If your father was the executor with no substitutes then another will have to be found and I would suggest as the child (together with a sibling maybe if you have one) you can apply for letters of administration, with the will annexed.
There may be issues unravelling your father's inheritance. I assume they did have a financial consent order approved when they divorced?
Do you have a copy of the 'new' unsigned will? Surely he can't expect more than the 10% I believe you mentioned previously?
First things first you really need to check the alleged original will and also maybe do a search for any more recent one which may cause everything else to be immaterial!
Contact the solicitor first then have a think whether your mother would have used a solicitor to have a new will prepared and if you know which firm that may be. It would then be worth contacting the Solicitors Regulation Authority if you think the law firm no longer exists as the Will may have been passed to another firm, which they will have records of. Or contact the law society and ask if their local societies can put out a message to firms in the likely area for them to contact if they have knowledge of the will. Here is the SRA contact info:- contactcentre@sra.org.uk or call on 01527 504450.
Hopefully you'll at least be in a position to locate an original will if there is one.
If you establish there is a will but that there are no executors then you will need to contact the Probate Registry as to how you deal with the estate then. Here is the gov't link for that:-
https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inh...on-left-a-will
Hopefully you'll be able to establish if there is a will, where it is and who can act as executor so at least you can try and move things forward.
Oh joy, sounds like he won't give up. I'd suggest contacting the solicitor yourself to check about the Will. If it is an original and there are no other subsequent wills then it will stand. If your father was the executor with no substitutes then another will have to be found and I would suggest as the child (together with a sibling maybe if you have one) you can apply for letters of administration, with the will annexed.
There may be issues unravelling your father's inheritance. I assume they did have a financial consent order approved when they divorced?
Do you have a copy of the 'new' unsigned will? Surely he can't expect more than the 10% I believe you mentioned previously?
First things first you really need to check the alleged original will and also maybe do a search for any more recent one which may cause everything else to be immaterial!
Contact the solicitor first then have a think whether your mother would have used a solicitor to have a new will prepared and if you know which firm that may be. It would then be worth contacting the Solicitors Regulation Authority if you think the law firm no longer exists as the Will may have been passed to another firm, which they will have records of. Or contact the law society and ask if their local societies can put out a message to firms in the likely area for them to contact if they have knowledge of the will. Here is the SRA contact info:- contactcentre@sra.org.uk or call on 01527 504450.
Hopefully you'll at least be in a position to locate an original will if there is one.
If you establish there is a will but that there are no executors then you will need to contact the Probate Registry as to how you deal with the estate then. Here is the gov't link for that:-
https://www.gov.uk/wills-probate-inh...on-left-a-will
Hopefully you'll be able to establish if there is a will, where it is and who can act as executor so at least you can try and move things forward.
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