Mrs Jones died in January 2024 leaving two daughters, Jessica and Fiona.
Mrs Jones lived in a property owned jointly by her and her husband. Her husband passed away in December 2014 and the property passed to her by survivorship. Mrs Jones had a will which stated that her estate be divided equally between her two daughters on her death. Mrs Jones’ property was worth an estimated £1.1 million, and she had assets of around £500,000.00 (which included jewellery, paintings and a car).
Mrs Jones had a very close relationship with both of her daughters and had always discussed openly the contents of her will with them. Jessica and Fiona knew that they were the named executors of the will, and they even had a copy of her will and details of the solicitor who made the will. Jessica and Fiona did not live locally but they phoned her regularly and both visited their mother when they could. They always visited her at Christmas.
Mrs Jones was in very poor health prior to her death suffering from cancer and dementia. Her daughters had noticed a change in her behaviour and lapses in her memory. She would often get confused over which daughter she was speaking to, and she rarely left the house as she was nervous about going outside without someone with her.
Mrs Jones’ neighbour, Lisa, often helped Mrs Jones with errands, gardening, cleaning and often came to sit with her on an evening to keep her company. Lisa had been Mrs Jones’ neighbour for over 10 years and had only recently helped her in this way for 1 year before her death. She was a good friend to Mrs Jones having recently been widowed herself and enjoyed spending time with her.
Mrs Jones regularly mentioned Lisa to Jessica and Fiona and told them how much of a support she was. Jessica and Fiona were grateful to Lisa for keeping their mother company.
After Mrs Jones passed away, Jessica and Fiona discovered that their mother had made a different will in November 2023. In this will, Mrs Jones left her jewellery to Jessica and Fiona and the rest of her estate to Lisa.
Jessica and Fiona were shocked to discover this and immediately suspected foul play. Upon further investigation they find out that Lisa took Mrs Jones to a solicitor to make a new will. Mrs Jones was suffering from dementia, and she made the new will only 2 months prior to her death.
Jessica and Fiona strongly believed that their mother would not have been mentally capable of making a new will at the time given her medical condition. They believed that their mother did not fully understand what she was doing; that she did not appreciate the effects of the drastic changes she had made; or the fact that she was giving away the majority of her estate to her neighbour. Jessica and Fiona also did not believe that their mother would ever cut them out of her will in this way given their close relationship and
that their mother did not appreciate that by doing this, this could lead to claims against her estate following her death.
This is an instance where a previous beneficiary of an earlier will (in this case Jessica and Fiona) could look to challenge the validity of the new will on the basis that the deceased did not have testamentary capacity to make a will i.e. they did not have the mental ability to make a will.
