The Inheritance (Provisions for Family and Dependants) Act 1975 (Inheritance Act) allows certain categories of individuals to bring a claim for reasonable financial provision from a deceased’s estate. Such a claim is on the basis that an individual falls into a class of persons whom it would be expected the deceased’s estate would provide for and the distribution of the deceased estate on death, whether by way of a Will or the rules of intestacy, does not so provide.
What will be deemed to be a reasonable financial provision is dependent on the class of person bringing a claim.
The class of people able to bring a claim are:
- The spouse or civil partner of the deceased;
- A former spouse or former civil partner of the deceased, but not one who has formed a subsequent marriage or civil partnership;
- A child of the deceased;
- Any person (not being a child of the deceased) who in relation to any marriage or civil partnership to which the deceased was at any time a party, or otherwise in relation to any family in which the deceased at any time stood in the role of a parent, was treated by the deceased as a child of the family;
- Any person who immediately before the death of the deceased was being maintained, either wholly or partly, by the deceased; or
- A person who, during the whole of the period of two years ending immediately before the date when the deceased died, was living in the same household as the deceased and as if that person and the deceased were a married couple or civil partners.
Any person applying as a spouse or civil partner can seek a reasonable financial provision in circumstances which is not dependent on the applicant’s needs. All other classes of qualifying applicants are only able to seek financial provisions suitable for their reasonable maintenance. What is reasonable is at the Court’s discretion and section 3 of the Inheritance Act sets out the factors the Court will consider when determining reasonableness.
As set out above, the listed class of people able to apply does not specifically include an in-law to a deceased, such as a daughter-in-law. Subsection D does, however, refer to a person who was treated by the deceased as a child of the family which could be construed to include a daughter-in-law or son-in-law but this is dependent on the nature of the specific relationship.
Estate of Neil Douglas Archibald & Anor v Stewart & Ors [2023] EWHC 2515
Case background
The recent case of the Estate of Neil Douglas Archibald (deceased) and another v Stewart and others demonstrates how the Court will consider whether an in-law has been treated as a child of the family by the deceased. In this case, the Court considered the Claimant’s ability to bring an inheritance claim as the daughter-in-law of the deceased. It was noted one of the factors the Court is obliged to consider under section 3 was whether the deceased maintained the applicant and therefore whether the deceased assumed some responsibility for the Claimant’s maintenance.
The Court further considered whether the deceased treated the Claimant as a daughter, not just a daughter-in-law. One of the factors in support was that the Claimant had a child before marrying the deceased’s son and the deceased had left a legacy to that son, suggesting the deceased treated that child as a grandchild.
The Judge concluded that the Claimant’s relationship with the deceased was one of the usual “display of affection, kindness and hospitality” between a parent and daughter-in-law and insufficient to show that the Claimant had been treated as a child of the Deceased. Accordingly, the Claimant did not meet the requirements to fall within a class of persons able to bring a claim under the Inheritance Act and was unable to pursue a claim.
Comment
This case demonstrates the interpretation of a person being treated as a child of a deceased in accordance with the Inheritance Act and confirms the relationship needs to go beyond the usual relationship between a deceased and in-law.
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