Is there a procedure for disappointed heirs and/or beneficiaries to make a claim against an estate?
Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, the following categories of individuals can make a claim for reasonable financial provision from the estate of a deceased person if a will or the applicable intestacy rules do not do so:
- present or former spouses and civil partners (provided they have not entered into a subsequent marriage or civil partnership);
- cohabitees, whether same-sex or opposite-sex, who had lived with the deceased for two years prior to their death;
- a child of the deceased or anyone who was treated by the deceased as a child of a family in which the deceased stood in the role of parent; or
- any other person who was being maintained wholly or partly by the deceased immediately before his or her death.
Claims must be made within six months of the grant of representation being taken out; however, in relation to deaths after 10 October 2014, there is nothing to prevent an application being made before such a grant is taken out. Claims can only be made if the deceased was domiciled in England and Wales at the time of death.
Alternatively, a person with a potential interest in an estate can bring an action to challenge the validity of a will on the following grounds:
- it was not validly executed;
- the deceased lacked testamentary capacity at the time of its execution;
- the deceased did not know or approve its contents;
- in making it, the deceased was subject to undue influence; and
- it was forged or there was some other type of fraud involved.
England & Wales Guide
The England & Wales guide answers the principal questions for Private Clients relating to the law in this jurisdiction.
