This is for a court to decide. They will need to be satisfied that the contents of the codicil are your mothers true uninfluenced wishes. Without a witness to attest to this it is unlikely to be accepted. You cannot be forced to into accepting anything.

You will have the opportunity to oppose this codicil in court. You now have time to be able to come up with a valid objection. You need a darn sight more than a belief that your brother influenced her. See a solicitor and start thinking of evidence you can present.



citizen-joe2018-07-02 01:41:48

Thank you for the advice,

So by me signing off on the affidavit for probate, this does not constitute an agreement that the codicil is valid?

Kind Regards

Depends on the wording of what you signed, better see a solicitor if you think you have been tricked into signing something you didn't agree with.

So to sum it up, I wait for the affidavit to turn up (from brothers lawyer) then if the wording is tricky I get a lawyer to check it before signing.

Thank you very much, you've been very helpful.

Dear Harryx,

The Codicil, if undated and not witnessed, does not comply with Wills and Succession Act and is therefore an 'informal' testamentary document.

In order for the [informal] Codicil to be admitted to probate, usually the applicant(s) must seek the consent of those persons who would be effected, save for the existence of the codicil. The consent must be in the form of a conforming sworn or affirmed document for your State.

If the persons effected by the codicil do to not consent to the codicil being admitted to probate, then the usual default position is that the codicil has no effect on the estate.

If the person who benefits from the codicil chooses, they must demonstrate that the deceased intended it to be effective and that they had capacity to make that decision [given situations of undue influence etc). This gets very expensive and takes years to resolve. The burden is on them to prove that the informal codicil should be admitted to probate and accepted by the Supreme Court.

Do not sign any document that the codicil is valid. Seek legal advice so that you fully understand the implications of signing any document of this kind. If you have already signed something, retract it in writing to the solicitor who requested it on the grounds that you did not understand what you were signing.

Good luck.
AussieLegalAussieLegal2018-07-02 11:47:45

Wow, thank you so much Aussie Legal, that clears my concerns - no I haven't signed anything - I have not yet seen the document my brothers lawyer wants me to sign.

Also in regards to reserving leave for another executor, my bother seems to believe he can send me on leave, so as to get the nuisance out of the way- can he do this?

Thanks again for your advice
Kind Regards