Deliberately concealing the existence of a Will: what can be done?

What happens if once the estate of a deceased person has been partially administered a Will is located ?   Is it possible to remove the person who has applied for the grant and to ask that the estate is administered in accordance with this Will?

In today’s modern family structures  relatives can live long distances from each other.   This means that  inevitably their knowledge of the family decisions, such as making a Will, are likely to be unknown to some if not all family members.

If you have lived away from your family and they pass away it is almost certain you may not know whether or not they had made a Will.   However most of us would not necessarily expect that the existence of a Will would be deliberately concealed from you.  Unfortunately this does happen.

In a recent case, decided by the Chancery Division of the High court earlier this year, it came to light that a mother, on the death of her son, had deliberately concealed the existence of a Will made by him.  The sole purpose of her concealment was to obtain a grant on the basis that he had died without a Will. In those circumstances as he had no children or spouse the mother was the person entitled to take out a grant.  She proceeded to do so.

This was a family with a very difficult history, with many family disputes seemingly ongoing over a number of years.

Some time after the grant had been awarded to the mother a Will was located which  provided for the estate to pass to the deceased’s uncle.   He made an application to the court seeking to set aside the grant and admit the newly located Will to probate.

The mother in response argued that the Will was a forgery and should be set aside.     As you can imagine the arguments were difficult and involved expert handwriting evidence among other things.

However, the court were eventually persuaded that the Will was indeed valid and set aside the grant in favour of the deceased’s mother, removing her in her capacity as administrator and allowing the Will to be admitted and the estate distributed to the rightful heir – the uncle.

If you locate a Will even after a grant has been taken out do not assume there is nothing you can do about – this case proves that the grant can be set aside allowing the Will to take priority.

Speak to our Family Disputes Team

Amanda Melton heads up the family dispute team at IBB Law and as such is able to provide advice if you find yourself in this situation.  Contact Amanda on amanda.melton@ibblaw.co.uk

or call 01494 790047.