Can you get your inheritance back after being cut out of a will?

published 10 April 2017

If you feel you've been unfairly cut out of a will, you might have a chance of making a claim and inheriting anyway. Emma Lunn reports.

Last month saw three animal charities win a case at the Supreme Court against a woman cut out of her mother's £486,000 will. The protracted dispute over Melita Jackson's will had been going on since her death in 2004. Heather Ilott, now a mother of five in her 50s, was Jackson's only child but had been estranged from her mother since she was 17. When Jackson died aged 70, she left her £486,000 estate to charity, but nothing to her daughter. Ilott challenged the will under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 and was awarded £50,000 by a district court on the basis she had been "unreasonably" excluded by her mother. A further challenge from Ilott resulted in the Court of Appeal subsequently upping the award to £163,000. But with the increase, the charities took the case to the Supreme Court, which reverted the award back to the original £50,000.

The lengthy case was unusual in that it reached the Supreme Court it was the first case bought under the Inheritance Act to reach that level. However, the number of people disputing wills is increasing each year. Jessica Neyt, partner at Knights Professional Services, says this is due to a number of factors. "People are living longer and revising what they had originally outlined in their will. And mortgage-free properties are often involved in disputes, which have a much higher value than they did years ago," she explains. "Also, people are more proactive than they used to be and are more aware of their rights."

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

The next step is usually to obtain a copy of the will. This can be tricky if relations with the executors are not amicable, but you can obtain the necessary details by making an application for a "Larke v Nugus" statement (so named after a test case in 1979). Caroline Hewitt, solicitor at law firm SAS Daniels, says: "Solicitors are under an obligation to provide information about wills they have prepared. It is in the interests of all parties to comply with this step before court proceedings are issued as it can often flush out issues before costs are incurred". Once probate has been stopped and the will's contents divulged, your solicitor can establish if you have a case to challenge the validity of the will.

There are a number of occasions when a will might not be valid. These include if the testator did not have "testamentary capacity" when they made the will, or if they were "unduly influenced" by someone else when setting out their wishes. A will can also be declared invalid if the formal requirements necessary for a will were not met, such as the document not being properly signed or witnessed. "There are currently two tests for assessing whether a testator has testamentary capacity: a common law test, as set down in the case of Banks v Goodfellow; and a statutory test, introduced by the Mental Capacity Act 2005," says Joseph Henry, associate at legal firm Hodge Jones & Allen.

Henry says it's relatively rare for wills to be found to be invalid because of undue influence. In order for a case to succeed it must be proved, rather than presumed, that the testator was unduly influenced. "The fact that a situation may support a case of undue influence is not enough. The fact that someone may have persuaded or appealed to the testator to make a particular decision is legitimate and does not amount to undue influence, there must have been coercion," he explains. If a will is found to be invalid, the deceased's estate will be distributed in line with any earlier will. In the absence of an earlier will, the rules of intestacy apply.

Despite the Ilott case making it all the way to the Supreme Court, most contested wills don't make it to court at all. It's in the interests of all concerned, and cheaper, to resolve issues via mediation between solicitors for both sides. "A solicitor engaged at an early stage can put together a persuasive letter of claim', which should help persuade the opponent, either a beneficiary under the will or more usually the executors, to negotiate a settlement or engage a professional mediator to broker a deal," says Helen Brown, head of dispute resolution at Slater Heelis LLP. "If no deal can be done, and the amount of money in dispute is a reasonable sum, High Court proceedings may be necessary."

Even if a will is valid, it's still possible for certain people to bring a claim using the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 on the basis that the will failed to make adequate provision for them. The Inheritance Act can also be used if there is no will in place and the claimant wouldn't inherit under intestacy rules. The 1975 act allows disappointed parties to challenge a will in two scenarios. The first is if they were given assurances by the testator during their lifetime about inheriting land or property only for the will not to honour the promises. In this situation, a legal challenge called "Proprietary estoppel" can be used.

The other option is to contest a will on the basis of your financial dependency on the deceased. To do this, a claimant will need to fit into one of several specified categories: the spouse or civil partner of the deceased, the former spouse of the deceased who has not remarried, a child or treated as a child of the deceased, or anyone who was maintained by the deceased (such as a cohabiting partner).

Daniel Curran, founder of probate firm Finders International, says proving dependency is key to winning a case and this mostly works for underage or disabled claimants. "Unlike many European countries where children have an automatic right to 50% of their parent's estates, a claim against a UK will which excludes provision for children may be doomed to fail, whereas claims based on dependency have a better chance of succeeding," he says.

Contesting a will under the Inheritance Act can take time as evidence will need to be obtained in order to present a claim. Once a letter of claim has been sent, there are protocols providing timescales for both parties to reply and set out their case. As with cases challenging the validity of a will, solicitors suggest claimants using the Inheritance Act attempt mediation before starting civil court proceedings.

The Inheritance Act can also be used to challenge provision under the rules of intestacy. These rules come into play if someone dies "intestate" (without making a will). In the UK, spouses or civil partners automatically inherit, but cohabiting partners are ignored in favour of family members. If someone remarries, their new spouse will inherit before any children. "Under the 1975 act, each case is dependent on personal circumstances. A long-term cohabitee who has been left nothing under the intestacy rules will have better prospects of success than an adult child who has been excluded from a will," says Nicola White, an associate solicitor at Blacks Solicitors.

For spouses making an inheritance claim, the court will use similar considerations to those it would use in a divorce: is what the person has been left fair and adequate? When adult children challenge a will, they will need to establish a reasonable and ongoing need for maintenance. Someone with a good career and financial standing will find it much harder to win a case than a disabled or impoverished claimant.

Emma Lunn is a multi-award-winning journalist who specialises in personal finance and consumer issues. With more than 18 years’ experience in personal finance, Emma has covered topics including mortgages, first-time buyers, leasehold, banking, debt, budgeting, broadband, energy, pensions and investments. Emma’s one of the most prolific freelance personal finance journalists with a back catalogue of work in newspapers such as The Guardian, The Independent, The Daily Telegraph, the Mail on Sunday and the Mirror. As a freelancer she has also completed various in-house contracts at The Guardian, The Independent, Mortgage Solutions, Orange and Moneywise.

She also writes regularly for specialist magazines and websites such as Property Hub, Mortgage Strategy and YourMoney.com. She’s particularly proud of her work writing about the leasehold sector and a Guardian front-page story about a dodgy landlord. She has a real passion for helping people learn about money – especially when many people are struggling to get by in today’s challenging economic climate – and prides herself on simplifying complex subjects.