LEGAL CORNER By Owen Hill, Consultant Solicitor
Granny was always right (and would never be done) The next day I opened the envelope and my heart sank.
My granny always loved a good deal. she used to scour the small ads in the free papers in the hope of finding hidden
treasures described as “book case £10”. she would have loved eBay – God bless her..
Not long after I qualified as a solicitor, she called me in an excited state and told me that she had just booked her dream holiday cruise of a lifetime in Florida. she described it over the phone as a package including accommodation in a number of different hotels and a three-day cruise on a ship all crammed into a 28 day period starting at the beginning of the following month. Her excitement reached a climax when she told me that she had got the deal for £299 inclusive. I said “WOW” but was thinking “OMG” when I worked out
a way of looking into this for her to see if it was too good to be true. I said that at that price I would see if I could get time off work and go with her. she whooped for joy and agreed to pop the papers in an envelope so that I could see if I could get a parallel booking.
There was a wad of 28 vouchers which were expressed to enable the bearer to take a hotel room (with no board) if there was a vacancy on the day and a ticket for a boat trip which left late in the evening for a cruise that did not stop anywhere during the next 24 hours but returned to port in the early hours of the next day. There was no flight ticket. Thankfully she had paid over the phone using her credit
card in response to an ad in the sunday supplements by the tour operator based in Florida. I did not bother contacting them but went straight to VIsA who did not dispute that this appeared to be a scam and immediately agreed to credit her card to the value debited a few days earlier. When I gently broke the news to Granny I skipped the explanation about the workings of the Consumer Credit Act and tried hard to avoid the inference that she had been had. she responded in typical style and asked me to complain to VIsA that the credit on her card was no use she wanted the cash back!•
Without a Will, there might be trouble on the way By Marinella Hollies, Associate Solicitor
Writing a will is something millions of people forget, overlook or ignore, but dying without a will – known as dying intestate – means your assets will be
divided according to the rules of intestacy. sixty per cent of those who died last year did so without
leaving a Will. A Will is first and foremost about directing money and property (your estate) after death and about providing for others when you are not around any more to do so. A Will carries a lot of power and choice and it is im- portant because, if you do die without a Will, the general law, not you, decides how your estate is shared out: 1. If you are unmarried or not in a civil partnership you can- not leave your estate to your partner unless you make a Will. The law does not recognise, at the present time, the idea of a ‘common law spouse’. under the current law, this may mean unmarried partners get nothing. 2. If you are married or in a civil partnership, your surviving spouse or civil partner will not necessarily get everything. The legal rules which apply may not produce a fair result. 3. If you are a parent then your children may be left alone without legal guardians of your choice. The rules governing the distribution of estates where
there is no Will are generally set out in the Administration of estates Act 1925. These rules have remained largely unchanged for decades, although the law is currently being reviewed with a consultation closing on 3rd
May 2013.
The rules of intestacy are complicated and vary depending on circumstances. In england and Wales, if the total assets in the estate are
worth less than £250,000 and you are married or in a civil partnership, all the money passes to your spouse or civil partner. If your estate is worth more than £250,000 and you have
children, only the first £250,000 will go to your spouse or civil partner. They then retain a life interest in half of the remaining
money. This means that your spouse or civil partner cannot spend the capital during their lifetime and can only draw an income from the money with no control over how the assets are managed. The other half passes to your children. That can create problems. If the estate is worth over £450,000 and you die without
children, currently, your spouse or civil partner will receive a legacy of £450,000 however much your estate may be worth but must share the remaining estate with your parents (if liv- ing) or full brothers or sisters (or their descendants). It is important to understand that your estate will include all
property that you own in your sole name. In certain circum- stances it can include a proportion of property that you own jointly with someone else, even if that person is your spouse or civil partner. You may be surprised to know that if no relatives survive
you, your money goes to the Government. The current law is unsatisfactory and although the proposed
reforms go some way to producing a fairer outcome, that outcome may still cause financial problems for your family. Having an up-to-date Will in place is important if you want to be absolutely sure that you have made the best possible financial provision for your family. •
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