Grounds to Contest a will?

G

galleryman

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Can anyone advise what constitutes grounds to contest a Will?.

Specifically, can ANY family member who is simply upset by what they receive in a will (relative to what other family members received) contest that will?
Does the relative have to be a spouse or child of the deceased to have any right to contest because they feel their bequest if any was not enough?
 
Re: Grounds to Contest A Will

There's an article in the Irish Times today about Gordon Lambert's niece and nephew challenging his will. You don't have to be a spouse or child to challenge a will but you really need specialist advice here as it will hinge on whether you (or whoever) were promised something under a will and you either think that someone has used undue influence on the deceased to change their will or if you changed your position to your detriment based on a promise from the deceased (most commonly seen where a relative takes care of someone in their old age and is "promised the farm" so to speak)

Absent specific circumstances like that, just because one feels that the bequest is not enough isn't enough reason to challenge a will.

Sprite
 
Re: Grounds to Contest A Will

Contesting a Will can be a very expensive business. And the outcome will depend on who pays. Without knowing the case, but it might be best to check with a Will expert. Not that many around but I know of a couple in Dublin.
 
Re: Grounds to Contest A Will

If the person is not a spouse or a child then they do not have to be left anything and even children have no automatic right of inheritance.
 
Re: Grounds to Contest

Pulped, yes, under the Succession Acts. But there are other circumstances in equity where someone can make a claim that they are entitled to enforce a promise of inheritance previously made. There's no mention of this in the OP's post though so on the face of it, there's no entitlement.

Sprite
 
Re: Grounds to Contest

Thanks for the replies.

TO clarify, in the scenario I was enquiring about the relative in question was NOT a spouse or Child of the deceased. There was no broken promise and no reason to believe the deceased was not in full mental health when making the will.
So there are no grounds to contest.

Thanks
 
Re: Grounds to Contest

Certainly doesn't appear to be any grounds in that case, nope. Are they a bit of a whinger?

Sprite
 
Well maybe there are grounds. we do not know the circumstances surrounding this matter. Maybe it was an Uncle or Aunt who get helped out by the some other relative and was to repay on death. We don't know so it is wrong tp be drawing to conclusions so quickly.
 
That's a totally different situation and involves a debt of the deceased, which would normally be paid out of the estate before distribution. Other than the two grounds mentioned (duress/incapacity and equitable grounds), what other grounds are you aware of where a non-spouse/child can challenge a will? One can never know all the circs of any of these posts, but can certainly give a reasonable, educated, opinion based on the facts as given.

As with all posts to this site, advice/opinion here is not a substitute for professional advice and no-one is suggesting it is. However, the reason that this site is helpful is because its members give *some* information/share their knowledge about certain topics. If you have reasons for thinking that anything said on this thread was incorrect, then fire ahead, but I think that OP will probably find the opinions given helpful rather than us all asking him/her about all possible permutations and combinations and guessing at facts not mentioned.

Sprite
 
And really, instead of me asking whether the disgruntled person was a "whinger", what I should have asked was if the complainer had put forth any particular reason why they would challenge the will?

Sprite
 
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