Has this advice come from a legal professional who deals with inheritance/beneficiary law? Did your father leave his estate to be distributed in equal shares to his children? If so, how can that be changed if one or both brothers do not agree with you, through the courts? Could be costly.

 

Contesting a Will could leave all of you high and dry -its very expensive and would certaily wipe out the inheritance left on a moderate property

 

In that case, you probably need to be prepared that your brothers may not be happy to receive such a letter and be sure in your mind that this course of action is really what you want in terms of risking remaining on any sort of reasonable terms with either/both of them if they don't take it very well, particularly as I understand it..this will be the first they would have heard of your intention to contest the will.

 

Unless there is a considerable sum of money at stake and I mean more than a few hundred thousand I would leave this action well alone. The Will as I understand was made when your parent had capacity and therefore it stands. Also within the Will provision has been made for all of you, how you will argue this I fail to understand as there was no foresight that dementia would ensue and that one of you would take on that care responsibility. The two issues are very seperate, I don't see how you can move forward with this just because you made the effort to care. Don't get me wrong I see your point, but I think you have got yourself confused with two very seperate matters. Think very carefully before you do this.

 

Without wishing to appear unkind, I really can't see that the fact of your teaching, or being the one who did all the caring, or even that tortoises are involved have any real bearing on the way in which your father's estate should be distributed. That is already set out in his Will. I have some sympathy with your idea that you have a 'case' for a bigger share but that is from a moral rather than legal point of view. You will have to adjust your aspirations to suit your means and start prioritising what you really need - firstly somewhere to live that you like, where you will be comfortable and is affordable, secondly a solution that would allow you to carry on teaching and so on - bearing in mind that you may not be able to meet them all without some compromise. If you continue to erect barriers and don't get on with finding somewhere suitable then you really will face the prospect of confrontation and permanent bad feeling.

 

I personally think the only person who would benefit from this is the solicitor.

I suggest you should sound out 3 different solicitors and ask them chances of success and costs.

Unless your brothers agree to this amicably, in which case why use a solicitor, you would appear to be heading for disharmony and cost. I doubt a court would accept that you are entitled to more than a third of the house.

Your brother's instant response might be to commence eviction proceedings, and then you would end up with no where to live until the house was sold.

As @Palerider says this this sort of action is only affordable with a considerable sum at stake, I would suggest over £1million.

You have more to lose than gain going down this route.

I think @northumbrian_k has summed up my understanding of the legal position

 

My advice would be to not go down this extremely precarious route. You stand to lose an awful lot if you do, possibly emotionally & with almost certainty financially - big bucks!! Sometimes in this life, you just have to move forward and compromise even if you don’t feel it’s fair - nothing is for many people - hopefully you will give it all some thought & I hope, make plans for a new start. Make your life easier, not harder.

 

Have read this post without commenting so far, having been in a position where legal advice was sought the ultimate cost to us was around £80k over a seven year period so would think very carefully about what you are doing regarding employing a solicitor to fight your corner.

 

Good points from everyone @MaNaAk be very careful..perhaps the solicitor was telling you what you wanted to hear but it seems to me unlikely that your father's will made when he had full mental capacity is unfair. However emotionally unfair you now feel it is to have equal shares...your sole caring years, your current situation or self employment have no bearing on the validity of the contents of the will and ypur father's wishes. I would like to think that the advice was given from the basis of legal fact and precedent than anything else but....

 

Hi MaNaAk,

I'm just popping in to say that I completely agree with the advice you've been given so far. Having dealt with contentious probate twice in my life I know from personal experience how expensive it can get, very quickly, once you involve solicitors. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against it and in both cases the very expensive legal advice we paid for gave us the results we wanted, but the very first thing you need to do is make sure the law is clearly on your side. If yes, then a legal 'kick up the bum' can be a very effective tool for dealing with people who think they can take the proverbial. But in your case I really fail to see how the law might help you with your problem.

If the will leaves you all equal shares then the only thing you try, if you feel you deserve or need more, is to appeal to their better natures, and that's best done informally. If you have your solicitor write to them first it'll a) cost you and b) almost certainly make them feel less than generous.

I do think that you've a moral case and don't see anything wrong in you reminding your brothers of all the caring you did and how it affected your earning potential and life choices, but if they choose to ignore that then there's little you can do.

The most realistic thing to ask for at this point is time to sort yourself out with somewhere to live and teach. Come up with a strategy and a timeline and see if they'll agree to it. You might also want to consider a temporary solution (renting somewhere not great but good enough for now) just to move things on. Otherwise you might end up with them imposing their deadline and that would take control away from you completely.

I wish you all the very best.

 

And just some more friendly advice.....at some point you will need to make plans to move out because if you don’t comply within a reasonable time period, your siblings may apply for a Court Order to have you evicted with legal costs. I would be as proactive as possible to move things forward