Real-life case study: Daughter wins inheritance claim against her father’s estate
Our specialist inheritance team recently represented a daughter in an inheritance claim against her father’s estate under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975.
The claim was successful, despite the fact that it was strongly opposed by the Claimant’s sisters.
Inheritance claims must be brought promptly, and our client came to us for advice very close to the expiry of the limitation date. We nevertheless agreed to proceed on a No Win, No Fee basis and acted quickly to make sure the claim was commenced in court within time.
The file of the solicitors who had prepared her father’s Will showed that his reason for excluding her from his Will was because they had a poor relationship and because she had inherited the entirety of her late mother’s estate.
There was a significant dispute between our client and her sisters about what she actually received from her mother’s estate. She said that while it was intended that her mother’s share of the property would be passed to her, this didn’t actually happen. Instead, it automatically passed to her husband, our client’s father. Our client therefore argued that her father’s estate consisted of a property which her mother had intended for her.
The difficulty she faced in making an inheritance claim against her father’s estate was the fact that she was employed and had a significant amount of capital following the sale of her own home. Her income met her outgoings, and she was due to receive in excess of £100,000 after the sale of her matrimonial home. The financial position of children who make an inheritance claim against a parent’s estate is one of the key factors when the court decides if they should receive anything.
We therefore presented her inheritance claim on the basis that her share of the sale proceeds was insufficient to rehouse herself and that her ability to work long term was limited due to her age and disabilities.
This strategy succeeded, and we managed to achieve an excellent out of court settlement for her. She received a five-figure sum, including payment of her legal costs.
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