Contest a Will
Will Dispute Solicitor
If you feel your loved one hasn’t provided adequately for you, you may feel you want to contest the Will. Alternatively you may feel that your loved one has been subject to influence by others to change their Will in a way that does not favour you or those you would have expected the deceased to leave a gift to.
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Contesting a will is a specialist and often sensitive, delicate and complex matter and expert legal advice is essential.
There are many grounds on which a person can contest a will including:
- A beneficiary disputes their inheritance
- The claim is brought on the ground the deceased’s dependants or family did not receive ‘reasonable’ financial provision from the estate
- A professional negligence claim against the writer of the will
- Disagreements between the executors of the Will
- The deceased did not have a sufficient mental capacity to satisfy legal requirements
- The testator was under duress or undue influence
- The will is fraudulent
- The will was not validly made nor validly executed
- Improper alterations (not using codicils*) were made to the Will after its initial execution
- The will is not the last Will and Testament of the deceased i.e. another Will exists
- The deceased’s Will cannot be found
Any action in disputing a Will must be brought within 6 months from the grant of probate. It is nonetheless a good idea to lodge your dispute immediately prior to the grant of probate. This means ideally any claims should be brought within 6 months from the date of death.
After you have established your reasons for contesting the will, a ‘caveat’ can then be lodged at the Probate Registry. This caveat prevents a grant of probate from occurring without you being notified. If an injunction is granted against probate then it also halts any verification of beneficiaries under the will. Therefore it is vital that a caveat is lodged before the grant of probate happens, if not it may be too late to contest the will.
After you have lodged a ‘caveat’ the beneficiaries may counter-issue you with a ‘warning’ this applies whether you personally are beneficiary or not. This warning means that they disagree with your claim and feel that you do not have any entitlement under the will or that they are satisfied with its validity. If ‘warning’ documentation is issued, you will need to decide whether or not to proceed further. You will have to consider that further action may lead to issuing legal proceedings and potentially a court case.
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