Deceased child's inheritance to her children?

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lyonsie

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A very good friend of mine (sadly deceased a number of years) has four brothers and three children. Her last remaining parent died and her brothers have the house almost sale agreed. I don't believe there was a will, but have heard that the brothers are proposing to divide the sale four ways and nothing to the children of their deceased siblings children.
If there wasn't a will, can the children (interfere, for want of a better word) and claim their mothers share. If this is possible, how would they go about doing this?
It's not a lot of money at stake here, €100K for the house...
Four ways, they each get €25K each... Five ways, they would get €20k each, €20K going to be divided between the three children. I know they could do with the money, I also know they wouldn't want to alienate themselves from their uncles, but if there was a simple way around this and they had a legal entitlement to inherit their deceased mothers inheritance, then maybe a simple phone call to the solicitor handeling the sale might be sufficient?
 
Intestacy
If a person dies without having made a will or if the will is invalid for whatever reason, that person is said to have died "intestate". If there is a valid will, but part of it is invalid then that part is dealt with as if there was an intestacy. The rules for division of property on intestacy are as follows:

If the deceased is survived by

  • spouse/civil partner but no children - spouse/civil partner gets entire estate
  • spouse/civil partner and children - spouse/civil partner gets two-thirds, one-third is divided equally between children (if a child has already died his/her children take a share)
  • parents, no spouse/civil partner or children - divided equally or entirely to one parent if only one survives.
  • children, no spouse/civil partner - divided equally between children (as above)
  • brothers and sisters only - shared equally, the children of a deceased brother or sister take the share
  • nieces and nephews only - divided equally between those surviving
  • other relatives - divided equally between nearest equal relationship
  • no relatives - the state
 
lyonsie is asking about their friend's parent's estate so it is divided between their 4 sons and the issue of their deceased issue.

In this case it would be 20,000 to each uncle and 6,666 to each child.

I reckon if there is a solicitor handling things that would be the best person to contact but consider how quickly the entire estate could evaporate in legal fees if it turns nasty.
 
Thank you for your quick replies. Mrs Vimes, you put it very clear. I don't think it would be nasty, but some of the 'brothers/uncles' are in need of the money and are not seeing things clearly. If it was put to them that legally their nieces and nephew have as much a claim on their grandmothers estate as them it could all end peacefully.
I feel obliged to try on behalf of my friends children to investigate and perhaps make a few calls on their behalf when I have a better understanding of their entitlement.
Thank you.
 
What age are the children? I suspect if they're very young the proceeds might not be theirs to do with as they choose, until later on in their lives. Also, be careful yourself as interfering will almost always have consequences, even though you're trying to do the right thing (in your opinion).
 
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lyonsie said:
If there wasn't a will, can the children (interfere, for want of a better word) and claim their mothers share.
Click to expand...
Inference is that the children are over 18 and have the capacity to interfere directly in claiming their share of the inheritance. In that instance it is their call on whether they wish to make a claim and should contact the Administrator of the Estate directly.
 
The OP is not a party to this matter.

The solicitor handling the sale should not speak to him.

The solicitor handling the sale may not even be the solicitor who dealt with Probate. It may be that the parties extracted a Grant personally.

The correct thing to do is to have :

(a) One of the deceased siblings offspring contact the Administrator of the estate to enquire as to where the proceeds of sale are going. It may well be the case that the offspring have been factored in.

(b) Or their guardian to contact the Administrator if the offspring are under age.

If the house is sold ( and the Administrator has power to sell with a Grant of Administration) it is for the Administrator to distribute the proceeds of sale according to the rules of intestacy. If they fail to do so, they have a liability to un paid beneficiaries.

mf
 
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