How can you revoke a will?
Revocation of a will is heavily constrained by the Wills Act 1837.
Section 20 of this act stipulates how a Will can be revoked and prescribes an exhaustive list of the methods for revoking a will. The Wills Act emphasises the preference for revocation to be made in writing yet it is recognised that parties may not always do this and prescribes revocation by some other means, including through the destruction of the will document.
This destruction includes “by the burning, tearing, or otherwise destroying the same by the testator, or by some person in his presence and by his direction, with the intention of revoking the same”.
The case of Carry Keats’ estate
This revocation by destruction is central to the recent case of Carry Keats’ Estate, reported in The Times recently, which prompted a need for clarity of this 200-year-old legislation. The case concerns her £800,000 estate and how this is to be distributed after the 92-year-old tore three-quarters of the way through her will on her deathbed.
If the will is still valid then her estate will be distributed between her five cousins. If tearing three quarters of the way through her will is a valid revocation, she will have died intestate and her estate will be entirely left to her sister. The crucial question is whether tearing three-quarters of the will is enough.
The arguments in favour of the validity of the will centre around:
- the action of destruction being incomplete, as the tear was only three-quarters of the way through the will
- the fact that Mrs Keats was heavily medicated and in pain at the time she tore the will and
- whether Mrs Keats had legal capacity to revoke the will.
However, the opposing position is that Mrs Keats supposedly knew what she was doing and was intending to cut the cousins out of the will, especially given the recent rift between her and them.
Much of the determination the case will rely on the judgment that is yet to be delivered, which should, at the same time, bring clarity as to the interpretation of this 200-year-old legislation.
Whilst there has been no judgment delivered yet, there are likely to be repercussions whichever way the Court decides the case.
Comment
Martin Laver, head of the Disputed Wills and Trusts Team comments “This case highlights two important points; firstly, it is imperative to maintain and update your will provisions in the event that your circumstances change. Secondly, if you do wish to revoke your will, but do not want to make a new one, it is sensible to record that fact in writing if at all possible.”
Whilst the facts of this case may not arise very often, issues of revocation are more common than you might imagine and can lead to disputes amongst the family as well as legal costs in resolving the issues.
How we can help
We are experts in dispute resolution and we can help you navigate disputes of this sort. We understand it can be difficult and stressful to try to understand complicated technicalities, especially when at the heart of disputes like these concerns a bereavement that, by its nature, can be an emotional and sensitive matter.
