A very useful piece of legislation is the Inheritance Act (or the Inheritance[Provision for Family and Dependents] Act 1975 to give it its full title).The Act was passed in order to help the partners, spouses, children, and other surviving dependents who have been left with not enough money to manage on the death of a person they were dependent upon. In cases where a will (or intestacy) does not make ' reasonable financial provision ', an application can be made under the Act to the court and a judge will consider a range of factors which have to be taken into account and decide what would be reasonable for the applicant's maintenance.
There can however be a problem. An application for reasonable financial provision under the Act must be brought within six months from the date on which a Grant to the estate is first taken out. This is S4 of the Act. The court can however extend this period and grant leave to bring a claim after the six-month time limit. This article considers when such permission is likely to be given.
The judges in a number of decided cases have laid down guidelines on what must be considered. In doing so however it has been said that the power to extend the time limit will only be exercised sparingly. One reason for this is that the beneficiaries named in a will should not be left in limbo for an extended length of time