Last week, we had to look at a relatively interesting question concerning a series of wills that had been made by someone who died recently.
Due to evidence on the death certificate, the validity of the most recently will has been called into question because of a lack of capacity (namely, long term dementia).
There are a number of things that may happen from here, however in very broad terms, if the most recent will is held to be invalid, then the will made immediately before the most recent will is the one likely to be submitted to probate.
If that immediately preceding will is also shown to be invalid because of a lack of capacity, then the court is required to keep going back through previously made wills until they find one that does not fail on the basis of the incapacity issues.
The above approach assumes of course that the previous wills can be accessed, and the court can ultimately satisfy itself that a valid will was made at a time when capacity was not in doubt.
If the court is unable to satisfy itself, the default position is that the intestacy rules apply.
** for the trainspotters, the title here is riffed from the Kate Bush song ‘Cloudbusting’