Disputing an Estate.
In certain situations it may be appropriate to consider action with support from a contentious probate solicitor.
Learn moreWhat is contentious probate?
Contentious probate is the specialist area of law in relation to disputes arising out of someone’s estate after they have passed away.
What is a contentious probate solicitor?
A contentious probate solicitor acts when there is a dispute between the executors, beneficiaries or any third party. This is different to a probate solicitor who deals with the administration of someone’s estate after they pass away.
How can a contentious probate solicitor help?
Using their specialist expertise, a contentious probate solicitor will assess the disputed situation and advise how best they can help once the set of circumstances are understood.
How can a Certainty Will Search help your dispute?
A Certainty Will Search establishes whether the Will being used to distribute the estate is the latest Will, the estate is indeed intestate, or find a later valid Will. The result could materially change the circumstances of the dispute.
REAL STORIES
Certainty Will Search prevents possible inheritance dispute
The passing of a loved one can lead to disputes within the family.
Those who are set to inherit favourably either under the rules of intestacy or a favoured Will may insist that there is no Will.
Read moreSupportive Resources
Are you a legal professional?
Does your firm have a contentious probate team?
Get in touch with the team to become a listed contentious probate professional and gain access to our estate management platform.
Contact usFAQs
No two scenarios are ever the same however some common scenarios are set out below:
Someone has passed away leaving a Will that is suspicious due to its content, timing and/or choice of executor;
Someone’s estate has been depleted before they passed away by someone other than the deceased meaning the estate is less valuable than expected;
You were expecting to inherit on the deceased’s death but have not been included as a beneficiary in their Will or only to a lesser extent than you anticipated;
You were promised some inheritance but the deceased passed away leaving a testamentary document that does not benefit you;
You were in receipt of financial support from the deceased before their death but do not benefit on their death;
You are named as the executor of a Will but there is a dispute with your co-executor or the beneficiaries; and
There is a dispute as to the occupation or sale of the deceased’s property.
Clients often say to us that they thought their loved one had a Will but they cannot find it, that someone is distributing an estate according to a Will that they are sure was revoked by a later Will or that someone is refusing to provide information about a Will. A Will search with The National Will Register can sometimes solve these issues by locating the Will in question and details of the solicitor’s firm that acted in its preparation. In can also be extremely useful to confirm that the deceased did indeed pass away intestate. We have had situations acting for cohabitees of a deceased person where we have been looking to advance claims pursuant to the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975, proprietary estoppel and constructive trust because the deceased was presumed to pass away intestate so our client was not a beneficiary. We have been able to do a Certainty Will Search and find out that there was, in fact, a Will benefitting our client. The intestacy beneficiaries had not done such a search because it was not in their best interests to uncover a Will. Finding the Will through a Certainty Will Search saved our client the uncertainty, let alone costs, of a dispute.