Can Grandchildren make a claim under the Inheritance Act?

Grandchildren can make a claim for provision from the deceased estate under the Inheritance Act and this also applies to adult grandchildren. The recent case of Delaforte v Flood & anr [2021] WTLR is a case in which the claimant a grandchild of the deceased brought a successful claim for reasonable financial provision from the estate of her grandmother. The deceased suffered from vascular dementia and had broken her hip which had resulted in hospital admission. The position was that the deceased would not be able to return to her home to live without assistance. The claimant agreed in 2008 to act as the deceased full-time career and moved into her home.

It was accepted that the deceased was an extremely challenging person to care for and that the Claimant had provided loving personal care and companionship to the deceased. The claimant received carers allowance and received ￡100 pounds a month of additional top up funding from the deceased. Given that the care provided was on 24 hour 6 days a week basis the remuneration was nowhere near the market rate for such care. The Claimant gave up her employment as a Ballet Dancer and clearly could not have sort employment working as a full-time live-in career.

In 2016 the deceased died leaving an estate of approximately ￡430,000. The deceased’s 2006 will directed that her estate was t be divided between the deceased’s son and daughter making no provision for the Claimant save for an old vehicle with little value. The Claimant was in a poor position following her grandmother’s death given she had dedicated approximately 8 years of her life to caring for her grandmother for little to no remuneration.

The Claimant brought a claim for reasonable financial provision and her mother being one of the beneficiaries under the 2006 will supported her claim for reasonable provision from the estate. The other beneficiary the Claimant’s uncle who was in a far better financial position than the Claimant defended the claim on the basis that the Claimant had been remunerated for the care she provided and that she had a commercial arrangement with the deceased.

The Court found that immediately before the death of the deceased the Claimant was being maintained, either wholly or partly, by the deceased. Therefore,?under?Sections s(1)(1)(e)?of the 1975?Inheritance Act the Claimant was entitled to make an application for reasonable financial provision from the estate. The Court went on to find that reasonable financial provision had not be made for the claimant and said the following-

“The capital sum which should be awarded, not being a reward for meritorious conduct in providing devoted care, was simply reasonable financial provision for maintenance assessed as a lump sum of ￡110,000. Having regard to the size of the net estate and the differing financial resources of the defendants, the burden of the payment should be borne by them in the ratio of 60 – first defendant, 40 – second defendant”.

For more information about Inheritance Act claims click the link Inheritance Act Claims | Clodes Solicitors (clodes-solicitors.com)