A DIY Will has resulted in a family being pulled further apart as one sibling has pocketed her late father’s £300,000 fortune.
Terri Tibbles was close to her father William Tibbles and expected to inherit all of his estate upon his passing in February 2018.
William attached a letter of wishes to his Will he compiled in March 2017, and in this letter he said Terri’s twin sister Kelly and daughters Susan and Cindy were a “disappointment” to him. He also detailed that he didn’t want to leave anything to his son Paul who was “already financially secure”.
However, a DIY will was seemingly handed to William’s solicitor three days after his death. The ‘Will’ was said to have been torn from a notebook and disinherited Terri entirely, with her siblings inheriting it all.
Paul Tibbles, claimed his dad validly signed and executed his final will on February 6 2018 – the day before he went into hospital for the last time and five days before he passed away. He insisted that his sisters Susan, Kelly and Cindy had all cared for their father in his final months, and this was the reason behind his father’s change of heart.
He said the second will was valid and cancelled out the earlier one, but missed a deadline for filing documents for the case and so was unable to call evidence at the trial.
Not convinced by the legality of the Will and why her father would change her mind 11 months later, Terri took her case to the High Court and Judge Matthew Marsh ruled the will was not valid meaning Terri did in fact inherit all £300,000.
Terri told the High Court:
“I don’t accept this document constituted a valid will.
“I don’t accept that this document was ever signed by my dad. It would have been totally uncharacteristic for him to prepare a DIY will considering his long history of previous dealings with solicitors.”
“The document could just as well have been written and signed by anybody.”
Giving judgment, Judge Marsh said of the February 2018 will:
“It’s handwritten and not in Mr Tibbles’ hand writing. It’s written on a sheet of paper which appears to have been torn from a notebook.”
“There’s no evidence placed before me about who wrote the will and whether it was written at Mr Tibbles’ dictation, who was present when that occurred and what his state of mind was at the time.
“There’s no real explanation for his change of mind and no evidence about him signing it.
“All the evidence and the background circumstances point heavily against the 2018 will being a valid document.”
