No Will & a Feud for 7 years

[light186282]

My Grandmother died 7 years ago without a will. She owned a large farm house. She had 4 children (1 boy 3 girls). Because the Farm was left to her son, it was well known in the family and understood that the "girls" would get the farm house. The boy (my uncle) now claims 25% of this house and has build up farm buildings around it to intentionally devalue it. He also lives next door on the farm
My uncle, has also used the farm & farm house as security in past against a bank loan.
My mother, who looked after my Gran in her last years, has been allowed to stay in the farm house for as long as she likes.
The feud has continued for 7 years and I want to try to sort it out.
Do my Grandmothers verbal wishes count for anything ?
Can we force my uncle to sell ?
How can we establish who has the deeds /
My uncle is not forthcoming with information and does not help.
Any advice ?

[dot.hawkes]

if she died without a will then I think there will have been letters of administration from the probate registry. This will have been handled by a solicitor and tax will probably have been paid form the estate, death duty etc. Who covered that and how was the money raised? without proof of ownership no loan could be raised.

[Barmaid]

I do not understand how the farm can have been left to the son (unless this was under your grandfather's will) if there was no will. Nor do I understand how he can have used the house as security - unless of course he was the administrator of the estate and the bank loan is for the payment of IHT - although if it was a working farm there should have been agricultural property relief (APR) and business property relief (BPR) which may reduce the IHT bill.

This sounds horribly complicated. I really think you need specialist advice. Broadly speaking though, your grandmother's verbal wishes count for nothing at law, although there is potential there for an estoppel argument that too needs specialist advice. Yes, you can in certain circumstances force him to sell - but won't that leave your mother without a home?

You can however do a search at the Land Registry to find out if the land is registered (in which case there will be no deeds). You can also do a search at the Probate Registry to find out if a Grant (this is the document that allows an administrator to act) and to whom it was granted.

You really need a solicitor who is either a member of the Probate Section of the Law Society, a member of STEP or a member of ACTAPS.