Don’t just make a Will, sign it

01/11/2016
Author: Emma Wood

We all know that making a will is important. The cost of dying without one - or dying intestate as it’s formally known – can run into thousands of pounds. Yet many of us still don’t bother until we absolutely have to.

A study carried by unbiased.co.uk found that 23% of people are waiting until later in life to make a will. Nearly a fifth didn’t think they needed one because they believe they’ve nothing to leave, but with the average homeowner having a property worth around £200,000, there’s a lot at stake.

What’s even more surprising is that there are people who make a will and, for whatever reason, don’t sign it.

It’s a sad fact, money changes people. This was illustrated in a recent newspaper report which documented the plight of a woman who had been left in a difficult position by her late partner’s children.

Having been together for more than 25 years, she was left suffering anxiety and unable to grieve her partner after he died unexpectedly. He had written a will which expressed that she was left their home, but had failed to sign it which meant that, as the properties they owned were in his name and they were unmarried, the four children from his previous marriage inherited his estate.

They believed that his assets should be divided equally between them, the lady in the report and her 22 year old daughter from her and her partner’s relationship. That, however, would have meant that she wouldn’t have had enough money to buy her own home.

She was persuaded to seek legal advice after a family member suggested that she wasn’t being treated fairly. Eventually, after months of mediation and court proceedings, it was agreed that the children would buy a property that the lady in question would live in, returning it to the children when she died.

Despite the agreement, she claimed that the children dragged their feet and after losing two houses and having to go back to court for the money, the house she ended up in needed a considerable amount of work, which she had to pay for. Neither her or her daughter will get the money back as the house will go to the other children. To cloud the matter further, the children also put a caveat into the agreement that she would be unable to stay in the house if she ever married.

Prior to this she had always had a good relationship with his children – she had known them since they were little - but two years of uncertainty and wrangling over who would inherit what from his estate had soured the relationship. Perhaps more importantly, it has had a devastating effect on the relationship between her daughter and her half siblings.

Had her partner signed his will, the situation would have been prevented.