Daughter Makes Successful Inheritance Act Claim Despite Cutting Herself Off From The Family For At Least 10 Years!

Under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependents) Act 1975 (Act), individuals are able to make a claim against a deceased’s estate even when they have not been provided for in the Deceased’s Will or under the rules of intestacy. The basis for a claim is prescribed by the Act as being that the Deceased failed to make reasonable financial provision for the Applicants.

Claims are most often brought under the Act for two reasons:

• One being that the Deceased died intestate and therefore the Applicant does not inherit when they otherwise would have expected to; and
• Secondly, when a Deceased person does not include a family member or other dependent in their Will, however, that individual believes they have a right to inherit from the Deceased.

Re H (Deceased) SH v NH and another

Case background

The case in point here revolves around a Claimant making a claim against the Deceased’s estate when the Will did not specifically include her. The deceased’s daughter made a claim against her late father’s estate, which was valued at around £550,000. On the facts of this case, it is clear as to why the Deceased did not choose to include his daughter in his Will.

His daughter had left home to study at the age of 30. During her studies, her father would send the daughter regular payments and also set up a joint account which the daughter could access to help fund her. After completing her studies, his daughter continued to live independently.

His daughter and her partner then had their first child in 2011, which her late father did not approve of. As a result, the Deceased had taken his daughter’s name off the joint account he had set up during her studies. Throughout having her first child, the daughter suffered pre-natal and post-natal depression, which meant she was unable to work and became reliant on state benefits.

On the Deceased’s death, it became clear that he had not left anything for his daughter in his Will. The Claimant therefore made a claim in accordance with the Act against her father’s estate, on the basis he had not made reasonable financial provision for her.

During the claim, a medical report confirmed that the daughter had been estranged from her family since 2000. This was however contested by the daughter who claimed it was from 2010, leading up to the birth of her first child. Regardless of the correct approach, it was at least 10 years since the daughter became estranged from her family.

The daughter’s initial claim for inheritance was near to the total value of the estate and was likely to exceed that when taking into account her solicitor’s costs. This meant if the daughter’s claim was 100% successful and she was awarded what she had requested, the entirety of the estate would have been hers. The daughter’s claim included costs for many things including the costs for a house, car, psychological therapy and her solicitor’s costs; all of which were considered by the daughter to be reasonable.

Decision

The first task for any Judge when dealing with such a claim is to firstly decide whether the Will did in fact make a reasonable financial provision for a claimant given all of the circumstances, and secondly, what would be a reasonable financial provision in the absence of one having been made.

When considering what a reasonable financial provision would be, if the claimant is deemed to be entitled to one, the Judge will consider the factors as set out in s.3 of the Act. In this case, the Judge payed particular consideration to the below facts:

• The Applicant’s mental illness and need for on-going support;
• The Applicant having two dependent children;
• The Applicant being dependent on state funding and in receipt of little to no funding from her partner;
• The fact that the Applicant had received little funding from the Deceased over the past 20 years; and
• The priority of the estate was to provide for the Deceased’s wife for the remainder of her life, who was now in a care home.

The Judge, in this instance, awarded the Claimant £138,918. The Judge commented that such claim was only in respect of current needs and was not towards the Applicant purchasing a home and/or to provide an income fund for life, which she would have not otherwise had.

This case demonstrated a Claimant’s ability to claim around 25% of her deceased father’s estate, despite being estranged from him for at least 10 years. Further, showing the Court’s approach in ensuring dependants and immediate family are provided with reasonable financial provisions upon the death of an individual.