Daughters lose inheritance 'they paid to secure'

Two daughters had an implied contract with their parents. They paid their father £100-a-month each for twenty years so that when he died, he would leave them the house where they live in, a three-bedroom house in Aldridge, West Midlands. The daughters were upset when they found out that after their father remarried, he cut them out of his will.

Averil MacDonald (51 years old) and Deborah Bannigan (48 years old) expected the £231,000 estate to be theirs after they made a deal with their parents Joseph and Clare Frost in 1986. The daughters would pay them so that they could pay the living costs, bills and maintenance on the house so that they didn’t have to move into a home. It was to fund their retirement.

When Mrs Frost died, Mr Frost remarried and in 2006 he passed away. Not until then, the two thought that they would inherit the estate but in fact, their dad left the entire estate to his second wife Marion. They weren’t aware of another will.

Averil and Deborah went to the High Court so that the judge Geraldine Andrews would recognize the implied contract, but she ruled against them. The monthly payments were made “only in return for an advance on their inheritance” she said.

Judge Geraldine Andrews should have recognized the implied contract. Averil and Deborah paid £100-a-month each for twenty years and they were not aware of the intention of their father. They only paid him in exchange for the house. Okay, their father made another will and a will must be obeyed but he also had a contract with his daughters. It's not easy to say whether the contract stands above the will or the will above the contract but I think that the two daughters are right and that they must inherit the three-bedroom house in Aldridge where they paid for.

Daphné V.E.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/6267178/Daughters-lose-inheritance-they-paid-to-secure.html