Death, no will, house goes to siblings rather than wife

M

mdoyle44ie

Guest
A friend of mine's husband passed away a while ago; they had no children. According to her, there was no will but it was her husband's wishes that the house go entirely to his siblings. (To be honest it's even uncertain as to who owns the house even though they lived there for 50 years) However, there appears to be no will.

From my understanding of "the legal right share"(sorry, cannot include a URL but it's mentioned on the Citizens Information site) , his wife is entitled by law to half his estate? Can she be totally excluded from her rights to the house?
 
1. No will - rules of intestacy apply.
2. Spouse /no children - spouse inherits entire of deceased's estate.
3. What is the estate? Is the house owned by either or both of them? If neither of them own it, it may not form part of his estate.

Legal right share only arises where there is a will.

mf
 
I concur with my learned friend.

As she now owns whatever interest he had in the property, she is free to dispose of it as she likes. If she wants to give some expression to her husband's wishes, she may do so (but if she hands over the house, they might be hit with CAT).

One possibility she might consider, if she wants to continue living there, is to make a will leaving the property to them.
 
mf1 said:
1. No will - rules of intestacy apply.
2. Spouse /no children - spouse inherits entire of deceased's estate.
3. What is the estate? Is the house owned by either or both of them? If neither of them own it, it may not form part of his estate.

Legal right share only arises where there is a will.

mf
Click to expand...

Agree. The important thing is to establish who owns the house.

I wouldnt advise getting into the ifs and buts of what would have happened if a Will had been made - the facts are that one wasnt, so it legally it must be dealt with as an intestacy. Ideally, she should get a grant of administration so that everything is clarified and dealt with in good time - this type of thing has a tendancy to get messy to sort out when left on the long finger.
 
Vague claims of what the spouse intended are not supported outside of the US courts system afaics.

The whole of the estate goes to the surviving next of kin, in this case the spouse.

ONQ.
 
Agree with the others posters. If there is no will, the wife gets everything. What the husband stated verbally as to what he wanted to happen to the house after his death, has no bearing in law. He can not cut his wife out of his will 100%. But if he wanted to leave a share of the home to his siblings, he should have made a Will saying so. If he didn't, his wife gets everything, and she has no legal obligation whatsoever to give it to anyone else. If it turns out that the husband did not own the home, it is possible that he and his wife may claim squatters rights to it if they lived in it for at least 12 unbroken, uncontested years. She may need to get herself to a solicitor if that is the case, as odds she won't be able to handle a claim like that by herself.
 
Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it. Just to note that I checked with the Property Registration Authority - the ownership of the house was indeed in her husband's name.
 
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