Solicitors Specialising In Contesting Wills

If you need a firm of solicitors specialising in contesting wills, our expert team is here to help. We treat inheritance disputes with the sensitivity they require, protecting our client’s interests while seeking to preserve important family relationships. With decades of experience in this complex area of law, we are ideally placed to advise you on your legal position and assist you in pursuing any claim you choose to bring.

Please call us now on 01603 672222 for a no-obligation conversation today or Click Here To Make An Online Enquiry.

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How Can Solicitors Specialising In Contesting Wills Help?

Contesting a Will is difficult but not impossible. While the law recognises an individual’s rights to deal with their estate as they please, there are a few situations in which the Courts may step in to alter the terms of a Will. They include the following:

• The Will Is Invalid.

Wills must satisfy strict legal criteria to be valid. Those criteria are as follows:

The Will must have been made by a person aged 18 years or over.
The Will must have been made voluntarily.
The Will must have been made by a person of sound mind.
The Will must have been made in writing.
The Will must have been signed in the presence of two witnesses.
The Will must have been signed by the two witnesses in the presence of the person making it.

If any of the above criteria are not met, the Will is open to challenge on the basis of invalidity. Say, for example, you are concerned that your loved one was placed under undue pressure to leave certain assets to someone they had only recently met. In that situation, the Will might be invalid since it was not made voluntarily.

Will disputes on the basis of invalidity can be complicated, but our solicitors specialising in contesting Wills have the expertise and experience required to swiftly assess the merits of your case and help you pursue any challenge.

• The Will Does Not Make Reasonable Financial Provision For You.

Nobody, not even a spouse or civil partner, is automatically entitled to be included in somebody’s Will. However, if the Will does not make ‘reasonable financial provision’ for you, you may have cause to make a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975, more commonly known as the ‘Inheritance Act’.

Only specific classes of individuals are eligible to make a claim under the Inheritance Act. They include the deceased person’s spouse, children, and anyone who had been financially dependent on the deceased.

Unless you were the deceased’s spouse or civil partner, your claim under the Inheritance Act will only succeed if you can prove that you require assistance from the deceased person’s estate to meet your basic living expenses, such as housing. If you had been able to meet those basic expenses without the deceased’s help when they were alive, your claim will fail.

Special rules apply to Inheritance Act claims made by spouses or civil partners. To succeed in a claim in this capacity, you need only show that the Will does not provide for you to maintain your lifestyle. Accordingly, the scope for spouses and civil partners to bring a claim under the Inheritance Act is greater than for individuals in other categories.

• The Deceased Reneged On A Promise Made To You During Their Lifetime.

If the deceased had promised to leave you something in their Will but didn’t, you may be able to contest the Will if you had acted in reliance on that promise. Claims of this nature are brought under a legal principle known as ‘proprietary estoppel’.

Proprietary estoppel claims are notoriously complex. To succeed, you need to establish the following:

The deceased made a clear and unambiguous promise to you during their lifetime.
You acted in reliance on that promise to your detriment.
It would be unfair to allow the deceased person to renege on that promise.

Say, for example, the deceased had promised to leave their business to you in their Will if you worked for them for free. You agreed and duly worked for no remuneration in reliance on their promise. If the deceased person subsequently left their business to someone else, you may be able to make a proprietary estoppel claim.

Our solicitors specialising in contesting Wills have extensive experience in proprietary estoppel claims. We’ll assess the evidence in support of your case, advise on the likelihood of success, and build the strongest possible case to present in Court where necessary.

Where Can You Find Our Solicitors Specialising In Contesting Wills?

We have offices across Norfolk and North Suffolk, and our solicitors specialising in contesting Wills serve their local communities and clients further afield. We would be happy to have an initial chat with you to learn more about your situation and answer any queries.