Deceased husband questions

seamus1980

I am using a family members account
I am enquiring with regard to my husband who died a year ago, myself and him were only married 1 year after we sepeated,due to him binge drinking, i got legal seperation from him three years later, on the day of seperation i signed a document to waiver my rights to his estate, at that time I wasnt in the right frame of mind to know what i was signing. Apparently there was no will made at the time of his death. I am enquiring to find out am i entitled to anything?
On signing the waiver rights does this mean i get nothing or can i renege on this? I am told that his brother has a probate lodged in the courts does this mean he made a will or is it just that is his family member?Any help or advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Ken.

Have a read of this. http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/birth_family_relationships/separation_and_divorce/succession.html

Succession relates to the inheritance of a person's property on their death. In Ireland, it is governed by the Succession Act 1965. The Act gives the surviving spouse/civil partner an automatic right to a share in the estate of their deceased spouse/civil partner. The share to which the spouse/civil partner is entitled is often called “a legal right share”.

The surviving spouse/civil partner is legally entitled to the appropriate share regardless of the actual terms of the will. The fact that the parties may have lived apart for many years does not of itself affect their entitlements under the Act.

Succession rights can be renounced voluntarily by either or both spouses/civil partners in a separation agreement. In granting a decree of judicial separation, a court can extinguish a spouse's succession rights if it is satisfied that adequate provision exists for the spouse whose rights are being extinguished.

Once a decree of divorce/dissolution is granted, the parties are no longer married or in a civil partnership, and succession rights are automatically extinguished.

A divorced spouse or a civil partner whose civil partnership has been dissolved can make an application to court seeking a share of the estate of their former spouse/civil partner, provided that the application is made within six months of the date of the Grant of Probate or Administration and the divorced spouse/civil partner has not remarried or entered into a new civil partnership

Peregrinus

You need a lawyer. I cannot emphasis this enough.

The information that ken highlights in his reply relates to people who have been divorced. Nothing in your post suggests that you and your husband ever divorced.

You got a legal separation. As ken says, when granting a legal separation a court can order the extinguishment of the spouse's succession rights against one another's estates. It is possible that the document you signed was a consent to such an order.

Alternatively, it's possible that the court order said nothing about succession rights, but the document you signed was a deed in which each of you renounced your succession rights against the estate of the other.

Either way, your position would not be strong now. Courts don't lightly set aside court orders, or deeds, on the grounds that "at that time I wasnt in the right frame of mind to know what i was signing". You would need some pretty strong arguments to get the agreement/order set aside now. Presumably if there was a court-ordered separation you had legal representation and advice at the time? If so this, again, would make it more difficult to get the deal set aside now.

Take your copy of whatever documents you have and go and see a lawyer. Do not go to the lawyer who acted for you at the time; you need independent advice since your position now implies criticism of the lawyer who acted for you at the time.

Pat Mustard

seamus1980 wrote: »

On signing the waiver rights does this mean i get nothing or can i renege on this?

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