stepchildren disinherited? England

my dad's father (ie paternal grandfather) died before i was born. my grandmother re-married when i was 2yrs old to a lovely man (my step grandfather) whose first wife died during the birth of their first son.

when they married he sold his own house and gave the money to his only son to buy a home of his own and moved into my grandmothers house.

they were married for 20years when my grandmother passed away. my dad was told by a witness of the will they had made that it was her wishes that the house be sold and money split between my father, aunt and step-uncle when both had passed away. this was ten years ago.

my step grandfather has recently passed away. however, during the last few years my step uncle has taken over all his affairs including putting a padlock on one of the bedroom doors in my grandmothers house to keep all the paperwork and was supposedly claiming care allowances, state pensions and army pensions on his behalf.

my grandfather died like a tramp because he was not looked after properly and any person who tried to help was sent away by his son.

it turns out that the original will seems to have been replaced by a version that my step uncle had overseen whilst taking my grandfather to a solicitor and the original request of my grandmother to split three ways seems to be well forgotton.


is there anything we can do? we have not seen the new will and relations at present between my father and step uncle are strained. my dad is a quiet man and doesn't like confrontation but i can tell that it's the principal of the matter rather than the money which is getting to him.

please help

You can try to challenge the new will, arguing duress, incompetency and the like.

Have a solicitor review all of the details closely and he can advise you the odds of prevailing. It is not easy to challenge a duly executed will.

thanks for that