death of partner

can anyone give me advice my beloved partner died we thought after 24 years i was next of kin siblings arrived after years of not speaking i informed them he was ill but they didn''t even ring him to see how he was they are not nice people unlike my wonderful husband as i called him 12 hours after his death they were there demanding everything as he died intestate they have all these rights thank goodness the house was in my name as in their greed would see me on the street it is just a few grand that we had saved for our pension in 10 yrs time i now have to fight this as that is what he would have wanted there is no way he would have wanted them to have our money that we had both worked for my solicitor has said i may win it will cost me a lot but i have to do it even though i may lose it all to the solicitors i cannot find any information on any one else who has been in my situation to find out what their outcome at court was in the mean time i am getting abusive phone calls and in my terrible grief it is hell

Hazel, I am truly sorry for you, it must be terrible to lose a good husband, and you can do without this.
Unfortunately, my memory of the relevant law has somewhat faded, and it''s hard to advise because one crucial piece of information I would need to know is, who these relatives are and what their relationship to your husband was.
If the house is in your name alone, it does not form part of his estate, and therefore, the relatives cannot have a claim against it.
My recollection, which I can probably confirm easily enough with a bit of research, is that where a person dies without making a will, then the law must. in effect, decide the issue as to who inherits what. It does this by laying down an order of priority. As you would expect, the surviving spouse is first in the queue, but she does not necessarily get everything. She does up to a certain point, and after that, after her basic claims are satisfied, then there may be room for other relatives and again, as you would expect, children are next in the queue.
So really, to advise you, a solicitor will need to know two things :
(a) How much money there is in the estate ;
(b) Which relatives are eligible to inherit after the widow has had her legal entitlement.
It can happen that relatives of a deceased person are able to make a claim against the estate under the Inheritance Family Provision Acts on the grounds that the intestacy did not make provision for their reasonable needs. But the widow always has the advantage in this type of case, and her claims will normally - if not perhaps trump - then certainly have a greater priority than, say, the potential claims of an ex wife or of Great Aunt Bessie.
So then, as the surviving spouse, you are entitled to apply to be the administrator, but you really need to see a solicitor, and, if I may so suggest, if you have not made your will - or even if you have, but it was while your husband was still alive - then, you need to think of a new will when you feel up to it.
And there is the possibility that what these relatives are doing is actionable harrassment, but I think you''ll need a solicitor anyway and quick. These relatives'' behaviour is frankly, disgusting.
As I am leaving for the USA tomorrow I can''t help you more than this.

LMM

i had a job refinding this site and i thought no one would reply and i can''t thank you enough this is the most cruel story you will ever hear and it will be a story to everyone who reads it to get a will as we thought after all those years we were safe my partner did not have a previous wife or any children to add to my story i have already written i am fighting it with a solicitor they can only advise with uncertanty as most settle out of court but these 2 want everything from me including my memories i loved darren adored him and everything i say that happened is true i would never mar his memory wirh lies
i have to pay between 10-15 thousand to take this to court and if i lose i will have to pay their costs as well just to get 19 thousand i have to do this as he didn''t like them and it would have been his wishes the latest is they want car caravanthat i bought all my record collection that we collected i gave them all darrens jewellery except his watch that i gave to my son as he was a father to him darren with his cancer to deal with went off for 5 weeks in depression because of this they have said darren never loved me only came home as he had no where else to go we never slept togerther they have had me arrested as they said i took all money from cash points over the year this i will be able to prove as there are cameras on these machines my business they say half belonged to him i can prove that at the tax office is untrue i thank god my house is in my name as they would see me in the street and the cruelty goes on the brother is always in debt and had his parents house repossesed as he always has money problems he lives alone i don''t know why he has all these money issues i don''t really know him except he leads a seedy life i am told but the courts will look to his needs and that is so unfair
you may read all this and think i might have been a bad partner to him but i want to assure you all we were very very close i loved him and he loved me very much our lives revolved around one another i have to mourn my beloved after Isaid 24 but it was nearly 26 years together and over 2 years of a harrowing nightmare with cancer and he is gone now and every day is harder to cope
I WOULDN''T SEE ANYONE HAVE TO GO THROUGH ALL THIS SOME FAMILIES DON''T CARE YOU DON''T SEE THEM FOR YEARS AND THEY CRAWL OUT THE WOODWORK FOR PURE GREED SO GET A WILL HAZEL

Just sent you a PM Hazel.

By the way, their claims about cash are total nonsense. If the account was joint, you are equally entitled in the same way as the jointly owned property. If it wasn''t a joint account, you clearly had your partner''s permission to access the funds, so there can be no valid claim.

I am sorry to hear of your loss. The problem is that you were not married which does change things. You may have some claim as a dependent but unfortunately I don''t think the intestacy law covers cohabitees . I am afraid this is not a family law matter but one for a specialist in intestacy.
It is a salutory reminder of the importantance of having an up to date will.

Hadenoughnow

this does come under family law
i want to say why i didn''t marry i used to be married yerars ago and i had a violent husband the divorce was dreadful and i had to have police protection i stayed married for years because i made my vows before god and i felt i had made an oath for better or worse and as it was worse i had to endure until it became so bad my children begged me to and my life was more in danger
darren was the most placid gentleman and i said i want you to stay with me because you love me i wish now we had married not because of all this hell more a spiritual issue but i can''t turn the clock back some people are of the thought that people don''t get married as they are not commited to one another but it''s not true we worked side by side he helped me in my job some days and i always worked with him 4 evenings a week in his job we were inseperable and like milloins as now i am finding out cohabitation is no meaning in the law we just didn;t know thanks for replying