Inheritance law and autistic grandchild

If there is enough money involved that the bank will require a grant of probate to release it then I would apply for that via a local probate lawyer/ solicitor rather than doing it yourselves. But some banks don’t if there is less than 50k so be wary of who has access to the death certificate if there is a risk of it being withdrawn and spent before the situation is resolved. You can discuss all the issues with the lawyer first, maybe at  the firm that wrote and held the will? The probate office can be extremely particular about the will and they also have a massive backlog at the moment. They put my application on hold for 6 weeks (after it took 10 weeks to get to the top of the pile) because my uncle hadn’t written mine and my brother’s middle names on the will. I’m sure I don’t know all the details from your post but it may come down to whether the will was written before or after the step parent married into the family. Or whether the money was left to your sister or the child themself. Money left to children comes with all sorts of conditions, often that it can’t be accessed until they’re 18. I think the other thing to look at as someone else has mentioned is why your sister is struggling so much for money, is she claiming all the benefits she’s entitled to etc This could take weeks or months to resolve, a large chunk of my late uncle’s money wasn’t paid to me until 7-8 months after he died and all was straight forward

If there is enough money involved that the bank will require a grant of probate to release it then I would apply for that via a local probate lawyer/ solicitor rather than doing it yourselves. But some banks don’t if there is less than 50k so be wary of who has access to the death certificate if there is a risk of it being withdrawn and spent before the situation is resolved. You can discuss all the issues with the lawyer first, maybe at  the firm that wrote and held the will? The probate office can be extremely particular about the will and they also have a massive backlog at the moment. They put my application on hold for 6 weeks (after it took 10 weeks to get to the top of the pile) because my uncle hadn’t written mine and my brother’s middle names on the will. I’m sure I don’t know all the details from your post but it may come down to whether the will was written before or after the step parent married into the family or if the money is in a joint account with them. Or whether the money was left to your sister or the child themself. Money left to children comes with all sorts of conditions, often that it can’t be accessed until they’re 18. I think the other thing to look at as someone else has mentioned is why your sister is struggling so much for money, is she claiming all the benefits she’s entitled to etc This could take weeks or months to resolve, a large chunk of my late uncle’s money wasn’t paid to me until 7-8 months after he died and all was straight forward

TLDR: ask the solicitor who wrote the will for advice if you haven’t already and make sure all possible benefits are being claimed in the meantime 

Thanks to you and all others who made comments. The poverty is caused by being unable to work, two children, husband unable to earn more than a tiny amount so household is benefits dependent. The part of the estate would enable repairs and then in the long term a specially designed room. Houehold budget relied on now deceased grandparent for some monthly bills and one off things. However the difference between what the court case would provide based on poverty or else being a carer of a disabled child is stark. Hence we are seeking someone who knows this specific area. Lots of solicitors are happy to research this for us - at a fiver figure cost before they can talk about it. Hence we need someone who has knowledge already.

Good idea ! Will have a look

Ah I see now and they do like to charge for absolutely everything. I imagine many contested probate specialists probably also haven’t dealt with such a specific situation. Have you looked at the Martin Lewis forum at all? They have a section about wills and probate there may be some helpful threads there if no one here has had that situation happen to them

Ah I see now and they do like to charge for absolutely everything. I imagine many contested probate specialists probably also haven’t dealt with such a specific situation. Have you looked at the Martin Lewis forum at all? They have a section about wills and probate there may be some helpful threads there if no one here has had that situation happen to them

Good idea ! Will have a look