Are Post Office Wills Legal

[prendi]

we are thinking of making a will out and doing one of those from the post office.are they legal and do you need witnesses etc.were a bit worried as we have had a solicitor make 2 out and they were full of mistakes!!

[Canary42]

I believe that anything is legal provided it has two witnesses who are not beneficiaries who sign to the effect that they actually witnessed your signature. But getting the wording unambiguous if the will is complex is best left to a solicitor (obviously not the dimbo you used before).

[factor-fiction]

Yes, provided they are completed properly and signed and witnessed correctly. You can write them on a piece of paper or type them yourself if you prefer.
But unless the arrangements are very simple there are risks that something can be set out in a way that can be challenged

[prendi]

thanks for the info.

[Buenchico]

I used to write wills for a living. My suggestion is that you get hold of a copy of this book:
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation
(It's in most public libraries).

Study it carefully and draft your own will. If you're then totally confident that it says exactly what you want it to (and that it covers all eventualities, such as a beneficiary pre-deceasing you) simply go ahead and sign it in the presence of two witnesses. But if you're still unsure, take your draft to a (decent) solicitor and ask that he/she prepares a will based upon your draft.

Chris

[Barmaid]

Any homemade will is perfectly valid as long as it is in writing, made by the testator who intended to make a will and had capacity to do so and the will is signed by the testator (or his signature acknowledged by the testator) in the presence of two or more witnesses who then attest and sign the WIll in the presence of the testator but not each other. As Canary says, beneficiaries (or there spouses or civil partners) should not be witnesses.

My experience (and trust me I have long and painful experience of this) is that for all but the very simplest estates it is worth consulting a solicitor. I have earned a decent amount of money sorting out homemade wills where the use of relatively simple language has caused an awful mess.

[dzug2]

I am quite sure the Post Office don't sell wills

OK some Post Masters may sell them as a private venture side line much the same way they sell sweeties but they have no official connection

An yes they are legal if properly witnessed. They may well be designed to follow the rules so that shouldn't be a worry.

[tonywiltshire]

Whilst I totally agree with BM and others, if you have had two wills prepared both of which were faulty from a solicitor the question of negligence may arise and you should make a complaint, in the first instance to the firm involved.
The solicitor involved owes a duty of care to the beneficiaries; you may find Ross v Caunters 1980 & White v Jones 1995 of interest.

[Peter Pedant]

Oh God I dont believe this !
If you go to BAILII org where all the cases St TW and Barmaid talk about, live
and put in White v Jones in the appropriate box

you will get White v Jones 1995

but you will also get an 1848 case from Jamaica on whether you can devise slaves by will after the 1833 Abolition act.

I just thought I would tell people

[Nibble]

As I understand it, a slave could be emancipated in Ancient Greece by writing your will on the Polygonal wall.... Talk about showing it to the world, but at least they couldn't deny the fact of emancipation, as it was written in stone.

http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/2/eh251.jsp?obj_id=4926

The wall is built in polygonal Lesbian-style masonry, with irregular interlocking blocks with curved joints. In plan it is Pi-shaped, its main face ninety metres long. The upper four or five courses consisted of isodomic masonry, now missing; the wall was originally approximately two metres taller that it is today. Its dressed face was covered in the third and second centuries BC with more than eight hundred inscriptions related above all to the emancipation of slaves.

[makaylagardner6]

So you are talking about a standard will. Ofcourse they are legal and you need witness but by doing this you need also to consider taxation and family court issues.