Meaning of jargon in will.

[mazi]

Another thought, if the new house is on the land registry site you could purchase the "title documents", not cheap but it will tell you who is registered as the owner, although is is likely that as it has passed by inheritance there may not be much on there, other than who bought it all those years ago.
It is also possible, as it has not been sold, that no details are available.

Mike

[thistlebay]

I hope everyone understands but I can't reply to all these messages as I am working at present but will answer all these queries and questions tomorrow and go into more depth once more.

Thank you to all those who have replied.  Hopefully I can fill in the gaps that are missing from the original post to make things a little clearer.

Til tomorrow.
Thanks

[ScouseBoy]

Thistlebay,

We could do with a timeline  of the dates of the marriages,  the date of the will that you have seen,  and the dates of death, please.

A new marriage will usually invalidate a will dated before the marriage.

[groom]

From the piece posted it does look as if it is the third wife who was named, so presumably it was made after his marriage to her.

[mazi]

To try and answer the thread title,
The legal jargon,  settlement of land act,  suggests the will was drawn up by someone with legal knowledge but basically enables the rest of the will to be carried out independently of any delays caused by problems with the property, but I think can only refer to the specific property mentioned, which he no longer owns.

I can see no way the youngest son can ever inherit the new property under any circumstances, he has the right to live there for his life under the terms of his stepmothers will.

If it were me I would let sleeping dogs lie.


Mike

[thistlebay]

Thanks to all who have replied on this topic.

I will try to answer as many questions as possible.

The deceased married in 1958 to his 3rd wife, she is also named as executor as well as Trustee of his will so I am sure she would have known about the will when it was drawn up in 1960.  The property they lived in at time of marriage was the property the deceased bought on his own so I presume was his name only on the deeds at the time of his marriage to his 3rd wife.  I'm not sure but will try to find out who was on the deeds of the property they lived in when he died, which I am now told they only bought in Jan 1970, one year prior to his death.  He died in 1971.  I am not sure he would have put into joint names though, he was a canny fella I believe 

I don't know whether this is relevant but his 1st marriage was in 1919, wife died in 1948, he married 2nd wife in 1950 and she died in 1956, this is the one whose son is still alive and living in the property since 1970. Then he married 3rd wife and she died in 1999. 

The will owner died in 1971.  He bought and sold several properties throughout his life and the last one as I said he bought in 1970.  I think this is possibly the reason his 3rd wife had to go to the solicitors and swear an oath or something of that nature to put the property in her name, I don't know how she did it all but I believe she was very good friends with the solicitor in the death county of her current address at that time but also saw a solicitor in another county in regard to making her own will then leaving the property to her 3 nieces who also live in or around that county.

The son of deceased recalled where this solicitor was to which he visited with his stepmother after his father died.  So I made a few phone calls (law society) and was given info which led me to the solicitor who had the will.  I made an apt to see this solicitor with the son of the deceased and it was him who provided me with the will and told me that as the property address was different on death to that of the will then the will became invalid on that point.  I have made notes that I intended to find out who the deeds belonged to at the time of death of the will owner but I can't find anything more on that matter in my notes, maybe I didn't find them.

The daughter of the deceased from his first marriage told her stepbrother many years back before her death that she remembered a different solicitors in another street of the city, but not the name of that solicitor but seems to recall her father made a will mid to late 60's which would I assume cancel out the one I have copy of made in 1960 and the one I can't find if it was made then.

So on the death of the 3rd wife, she has made out her will but with a different solicitor in different county.  After her death her 3 nieces and deceased brother and sister, they collected the stepson of said 3rd wife from his home and drove him to the solicitors in the other county, whereby he was seated and just had to listen to the will being read out of his stepmother.  He was asked to sign a document and was left a small amount of money but didn't read the document.  That was the end of it!  He was then driven back home.  The family then opened the garage door and took the deceased's car from the garage and took it with them.

The son gave me details of the solicitors he was taken to and so I rang them, they told me they had the deeds to the property held there, I asked for a copy of the will which was then sent to me.  I have just read her will again and it states not her nieces but her godchildren, but they were one and same, and it was her 2 nephews she appointed as her executors.

She states I give devise and bequeath my house at .... and the contents thereof to my stepson  ...  ...  for his life and thereafter to be sold and the proceeds to be divided equally between my godchildren  (3 names) but if any godchild dies etc etc (the norm).
I direct that none of the contents of my house be removed after my death.

So if she (the 3rd wife) stated that her deceased husband left no will and she went to the solicitors to have the house put into her name, then this was obviously fraud surely?  Her nephew apparently was a good friend of the solicitor where she was sworn on oath that she knew of no valid will.

Ok that's all I can think of at the moment, I'm still wracking my brains to try to find out about the deeds now but like one of you says, it may be too late now.

Thank you all
Catherine

[mazi]

My thoughts are that you need to search the probate registry for a grant of probate or letters of administration for his death in 1971, search a couple of years after as well.

There must be one unless before his death everything was put in joint names, a lot of people did this, as it makes life simple.
Mike

Added, don't read too much into the use of different solicitors,  it is common in order to avoid a conflict of interest as a solicitor can only act for one party in an agreemen, even if there are no contentious issues

[groom]

It does sound to me as if the will you've found may be invalid for several reasons and perhaps there was a later one leaving everything to her, maybe this was made after the son reached majority.  Even if she was good friends with a solicitor I doubt whether he would have risked his career colluding with her.

The fact that she has made a will allowing her stepson to live in the house until his death doesn't sound to me as if she is trying to do him out of anything and she has provided for him. Surely if that was the case, she would have just left the house to her nieces to do with as they wanted and he would have to move out.

[thistlebay]

Thanks for replies again.

I will try and find the probate and / or deeds of property.  The son didn't reach majority til after his father's death, but in his will it does state that 'I appoint my Trustee to be a Trustee for the purposes of the Settled Land Acts'.  I don't know what this means either. But it would seem that he passed to his wife the house etc to be held by her but that when his son reached majority then the property would then become his.   'I declare that the devise shall not vest absolutely in my said son until he attains the age of 21 years.'  Does this not mean that his son owns the property when he becomes of age?  I know there is a difference between devise and bequeath but in this instance, I'm really not sure what it all means.
In regards to her nieces, I think she carried out her late husband's wishes in that allowing her stepson to stay in the house for his life was justified that way.  Bar one, all his other children swore there was a valid will made and the other children never spoke to the stepmother again bar the one stepson from the 2nd marriage who lived with them at the property.  At the time they felt aggrieved by the stepmother saying that their father would definitely made a will but she insisted there wasn't one.  This very fact, and the fact I found a 1960 will he wrote tells me something was not right.  I just cannot believe she didn't know that she was executor and trustee of his will.

Regards
Catherine