Half siblings knew I existed but never informed aunt - will should have been divided 4 ways

If you know the name and date of death of your aunt, you should be able to get from the Probate Office of the High Court a copy of any grant of probate that was taken out when she died and a copy of her will would be attached.

Get a copy of the will.

have your solicitor examine it.

Not at all. Would be quite common to leave a stated sum, e.g., to "my brother Happyhouse22, if he survives me, and to his children in equal shares if he does not survive me". You don't name his children because then you'll have to make a new will every time he has another child, or risk cutting out his youngest child, which presumably you don't want to do.

Why do you think you are entitled to inheritance from this aunt you never met? Even if the will says that it is to be divided between "all my brothers children in equal shares" or something to that effect you would now have to bring a case to court and a judge is going to examine the intentions of the deceased. In this case it was never her intention to leave you any money so you will have just wasted a lot of time and money and you will never again have a relationship with that side of the family

That argument is unlikely to hold much water. Whatever is written into the will would be difficult to defeat based on circumstances as briefly described.

They don't know that they were, they havnt seen the will.

Well your first obvious hurdle there is proving that she did not know there was another relative.

Regardless it will come down to, prima facie, the wording of the will. After that you might be into some equitable arguments as regards something having being promised explicitly to some of the other beneficiaries.If the aunt said for it to be split equally between all her nieces and nephews, then that is what she intended. Especially in a general "just split it equally between them all" fashion. If it said "equally between |John's three children" when he had 3+hidden one, then it might go somewhere

Op do you know how much your half siblings got? - Is it worth the hassle?

Also did your Aunt have other nieces and nephews - Did they get a share?

As others have mentioned the wording of the will is what is important here so you need to check this out before you do anything.

Also this needs to be said - your Dad is the problem here - Why didnt he let your Aunt know you existed - it wasnt the job of your half siblings to let your dads family know of your existence. You seem to have a chip on your shoulder re your half siblings when this anger should be towards your Dad for hiding you.

If it it could be proven that the Aunt did not know of her nephew's existence, I do not think it follows that she would not have wished him to benefit. Had she known, she might have been appalled at the thought of her brother's child being excluded from the family in this way, and if she left a bequest to her brother's children it's a big assumption to read in the words "except the one whose existence they all conspire to ignore".

Your father kept you hidden. He is the one that didn't tell his siblings about you. You need to stop blaming your half siblings for your father's inadequacy - they are not at fault. Fault lies with your father soley on this whether you like it or not. You need to take off the rose tinted glasses.

Now as regards your claim you need to determine the following:

- you need to see a copy of the will and read the wording to determine if it just says your father's children rather than named individuals

- who was the executors of your aunt's estate

- how long ago was the estate distributed

- is the amount worth chasing ( remember this could end up costing you money)

- your half siblings may have played an active role in taking care of your aunt and morally deserve the share of her estate. Of course legally this doesn't come into it but it is worth your consideration. Presumably you had no part at all in your aunt's life.

- don't do this just because of bitterness towards your half siblings. If all your dad's family fell out with him and most did not know about you well it does say alot. Remember there is always 2 sides to every story and you've presumably only heard your dad's side. You could end up hearing truths you are better off not hearing.

- I'm assuming your dad is dead - did your half siblings receive anything from his estate. If they didn't, could your actions encourage them to start their own proceedings against his estate.

Thread very carefully as this will be very emotive for all concerned. Please make sure it's worth it before you decide.

Best of luck whichever way you decide to proceed.

The intentions of the deceased can only be ascertained from the will itself. the court will not write a new will. If the will is clear as to which individuals are to benefit, that is the end of it. If the will specifies a class of individuals there might be an issue as to whether the o/p is a member of that class.

Extrinsic evidence can be used to over-ride what is in the will. A person could establish an equitable entitlement to something based off relying on a promise to their detriment for example.

there are a few cases based on estoppel, which are very extreme. There can be no suggestion of anything like that here.