Contesting a will

In terms of who pays to defend a contested will, the party challenging the will incur the costs, at least initially. However, the losing party may be ordered to pay the winning party’s costs. There have been some High Court cases where the litigation costs have come out of the estate - in other words, the assets that you leave to your loved ones. But this is not guaranteed. So again, the cost of contesting a will depends very much on the merits of an inheritance claim.

There is no definitive answer in terms of how expensive it is to contest a will. This is because your eventual costs will depend on the nature of the claim, whether any costs can be borne by the estate, and whether the court finds in your favour. Moreover, the final bill will ultimately be determined by the court, so it’s by no means obvious how much you may pay to contest a will.

Theoretically, anyone can challenge a will. You could be a sibling, or someone who might not appear to benefit on first glance (who may be referred to as a 'residual beneficiary'). However, contesting a will is not something you should consider without good reason.

If you want to challenge a will for failing to make a 'reasonable financial provision', you’ll need to be a financial dependent of the deceased. You would need to prove that the will has not left enough funds to meet reasonable living costs. And normally, you must be one of the following: a child, spouse, civil partner, an ex-spouse or ex-civil partner who is yet to remarry, or a cohabiting partner.

However, if a court decides that a will is invalid, remember that the estate is distributed at the discretion of the court. This means there is no guarantee you will receive anything.

The court normally distributes the estate in line with the most recent valid version of the will. Therefore, it’s likely you will only receive something if you were named in that version. It’s also worth bearing in mind that if there are no surviving family, the estate will go to the Crown.

Yes, you can contest a will even if you’re a named executor. As an executor you would have been named in the will as someone who is responsible for dealing with the estate. However, by contesting the will, you wouldn’t be able to continue in your duties as an executor as you would be unable to carry out the deceased’s wishes.

There is no time limit on contesting a will, but it’s better to contest a will as early as possible in the process. Contesting a will after probate has been granted is technically possible, but can be costly and require additional legal advice. Probate is the process of confirming who has the legal authority to deal with the deceased's estates.

Contesting a will can take months – and sometimes years – depending on whether there are legal proceedings. You might be able to avoid a courtroom battle by accessing a mediation service.

Yes, if you ultimately succeed in proving that the will is invalid, then a will can be overturned after probate. But contesting a will at this stage is complicated, and you risk incurring expensive legal costs if the court finds in favour of the executors. Furthermore, the longer the process is delayed, the greater the chances that the deceased’s assets will already have been distributed.

You can technically contest a will after the estate has been distributed, but this may be very difficult to achieve. Again, you’re advised to challenge the will before the grant of probate has been issued. Legally, you could attempt to recover the assets from the beneficiaries, but this will be harder if the money has been spent. This is especially the case if the beneficiaries no longer have the funds to settle any court fees.

Some estimate that around half of contested wills are settled before courtroom proceedings. A small minority of cases reach a final trial, and while there aren’t many reliable statistics available, the success rate in terms of overturning a will is believed to be low.