Wills in Colchester and throughout the UK are usually considered to be the best way to dispose of people’s individual estates despite the recognition of death bed gifts. This is because deathbed gifts have long been a complicated issue for English law to resolve prior to the recent, well-publicised court case of King v. Dubery and others that served to provide for the concept’s clarification.
Mr. King lived with and cared for his aunt until she passed away. At this time, King then claimed she had decided to leave him her house by way of a deathbed gift four to six months before her death and had actually given him the title deeds to the property.
The problem was that this was not provided for in the terms of King’s aunt’s will and so this led to several animal charities that were to benefit from the deceased’s estate’s residue challenging King’s claim leading to the case being heard in the summer of 2014 at the High Court.
Generally, English law provides that, with regard to deathbed gifts made outside of your wills in Colchester in places throughout Essex, the giver needs to know their death is imminent because any gift that is made may can only take effect in the event of their death. However, there was no evidence in this instance that showed King’s aunt was even considered seriously ill. This is because she had provided no indication of any expectation she was going to die imminently including consulting with a doctor or even being scheduled to undergo a risky surgical procedure or undertake a trip that was any way dangerous.
Nevertheless, evidence was provided to the court did that King’s aunt had tried unsuccessfully to change her will on several different occasions to leave the house to him. Therefore, this was considered enough by the judge presiding at the High Court to show King’s aunt was aware of her impending death and that it had become an increasing preoccupation to justify it being a deathbed gift.
However, this decision was successfully appealed by the aforementioned charities involved to the Court of Appeal because it was recognised that a giver needs to believe their death was impending for one reason or another and that her attempts to change her will were not necessarily made to provide the passing of her house to him by way of a deathbed gift.
On this basis, whilst there are certain circumstances when a deathbed gift is valid without havsomewhere like Colchester without having to worry about having valid Will in place, it is usually better to be clear about what you want in the terms of your will because this is less likely to be disputed in practice when it is drafted effectively.
Contact Andrew Douglas Wills and Legal Services today via www.andrewdouglaswills.co.uk to see how we could help you to get your affairs to protect both yours and your loved ones best interests by writing Wills in Colchester as well as throughout the rest of Essex.
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