Solicitors are up to no good

[bearishonhouses]

On 31/05/2021 at 05:56, sammersmith said:

Interesting. In this case there is a will with probate granted and living blood relatives, but the will explicitly calls states that no provision is to be made for the children as "she's given them enough financial support already during her lifetime" 😬. The husband's will is equally tight when it comes to the children. He gives a very small amount (less than £100) to some grandchildren but that's it. 

This might make the children not entitled blood relatives?

It is a long, long time since I studied law but fwiw I recall correctly, legacies to named beneficiaries who have predeceased the legator fail (other than the issue's issue exception - which enable grandchildren to stand in for their predeceased parents - i.e. a child of the legator. )   

Any gifts that fail then fall into the residue of the estate and are inherited by whoever is named as the residuary legatee.  If there is no residuary legatee named, as appears to be the case here. the rules of intestacy apply; which say, absent a surviving spouse, the estate is split equally between children - and grandchildren can stand in for their parents to claim if need be. (Adopted children rank equally with biological children, step children are excluded.)

If there are no descendants of the deceased then we go back to descendants of the parents of the deceased (i.e siblings, nephews & nieces etc). If there are no descendants of the parents, go back to look at descendants of the grandparents (i.e. aunts, uncle cousins etc.) If there are no living descendants of the grandparents then the estate goes to the crown. 

[Pop321]

7 hours ago, bearishonhouses said:

It is a long, long time since I studied law but fwiw I recall correctly, legacies to named beneficiaries who have predeceased the legator fail (other than the issue's issue exception - which enable grandchildren to stand in for their predeceased parents - i.e. a child of the legator. )   

Any gifts that fail then fall into the residue of the estate and are inherited by whoever is named as the residuary legatee.  If there is no residuary legatee named, as appears to be the case here. the rules of intestacy apply; which say, absent a surviving spouse, the estate is split equally between children - and grandchildren can stand in for their parents to claim if need be. (Adopted children rank equally with biological children, step children are excluded.)

If there are no descendants of the deceased then we go back to descendants of the parents of the deceased (i.e siblings, nephews & nieces etc). If there are no descendants of the parents, go back to look at descendants of the grandparents (i.e. aunts, uncle cousins etc.) If there are no living descendants of the grandparents then the estate goes to the crown. 

Yep, I said intestate probably applies here and that the kids (who were originally effectively disinherited) will now be making things difficult....because they want to ruin their own parents legacy. Ie even though they are now inheriting they effectively don’t want the money and would rather value their parents ‘worth’ as nothing. Even if it’s just one of the kids....lots of emotions.

Some suggestions to the original poster to walk away. My suggestion was to not burn bridges, express interest and even make an offer....but to expect nothing, move on and look at other options and effectively emotionally walk away.

No harm having a foot in the door....the only harm is to expect success and miss out on other options. 

[crescent]

Sounds like a total mess - buy something else ! 

[sammersmith]

10 hours ago, bearishonhouses said:

legacies to named beneficiaries who have predeceased the legator fail 

From what i can tell, the last surviving Catholic priest who was named as a beneficiary died in the same year as the owner and only about a month after probate was granted. So, he did outlive her but only just.

10 hours ago, bearishonhouses said:

Any gifts that fail then fall into the residue of the estate and are inherited by whoever is named as the residuary legatee.

This is interesting. I guess then it depends whose estate this house is now part of. The original owner or the priest. It seems to have fallen between the cracks.   

[sammersmith]

3 hours ago, Pop321 said:

Yep, I said intestate probably applies here and that the kids (who were originally effectively disinherited) will now be making things difficult....because they want to ruin their own parents legacy. Ie even though they are now inheriting they effectively don’t want the money and would rather value their parents ‘worth’ as nothing. Even if it’s just one of the kids....lots of emotions.

Yes, i can well believe that but the timings just seem so odd. How can the kids or solicitors be happy with the situation that they're still named on the property as executors after almost 8 years. The kids are also in their 50s/60s themselves so they're not getting any younger

3 hours ago, Pop321 said:

Some suggestions to the original poster to walk away. My suggestion was to not burn bridges, express interest and even make an offer....but to expect nothing, move on and look at other options and effectively emotionally walk away.

No harm having a foot in the door....the only harm is to expect success and miss out on other options. 

If it was a standard house, like a 1930's semi, then i'd walk and not invest any more time in this. If there's a problem with one of those then there are plenty more identical properties without these problems. However this is a very unique house and I've honestly never seen anything like it. 

I agree there's no harm in approaching with an offer - the house has been for sale in the past so, at least on the face of it, they are open to selling. I also won't buy in this silly boom so i need to wait this out till October/November. 

[Gigantic Purple Slug]

19 minutes ago, sammersmith said:

Yes, i can well believe that but the timings just seem so odd. How can the kids or solicitors be happy with the situation that they're still named on the property as executors after almost 8 years. The kids are also in their 50s/60s themselves so they're not getting any younger

If it was a standard house, like a 1930's semi, then i'd walk and not invest any more time in this. If there's a problem with one of those then there are plenty more identical properties without these problems. However this is a very unique house and I've honestly never seen anything like it. 

I agree there's no harm in approaching with an offer - the house has been for sale in the past so, at least on the face of it, they are open to selling. I also won't buy in this silly boom so i need to wait this out till October/November. 

Would depend on how the will is worded.

There are often things called survivorship clauses which stipulate that the beneficiary needs to outlive the deceased by a set time (often 28 days) before they become eligible to inherit.

Then there are the clauses which dictate what happens to a benificaries share if they are deceased.

I think I would first of all figure out whether the priests were in fact eligible to inherit the estate. If you know their dod and have the will you can figure this out.

If one died before they were eligible it could be that the original estate is partially intestate if it is not stipulated in the will who their share goes to after that.

Once you figure out whether the priests were eligible to inherit or not then you move on to pulling the priests wills which should be easy if you know their names and dods. Despite the fact someone said priests are unlikely to have eligible relatives, this is not correct, as if they did die intestate then their brothers/sisters/nephews/nieces would become eligible. Also possible of course that a priest would leave all their estate to either a charity or the church, which may at least get you an ally in moving things along.

It's worth remembering that some children are fully estranged from their parents and want absolutely nothing to do with them at all. From the wording of the will you have given, this doesn't seem to be a totally unlikely possibility.