Specialist Lawyers Say A Gift Being Strange Is Not Enough To Prove It Is Invalid

Specialist lawyers say the case of a kind builder who has won a legal battle to keep a £500k inheritance from an elderly man he helped out with off jobs for free highlights how English law allows for complete discretion in we split our assets.

Danny Sharp had known Ronald Butcher – who died in March 2013 for six years after fixing his blocked gutter for free. After the initial meeting Mr Sharp called in every six weeks or so to chat to Mr Butcher about sport and the weather.

After Mr Butcher died, Mr Sharp found he was the sole beneficiary of his will which had been made in January 2013 and had been left the estate worth £472,295.

Three beneficiaries of an earlier will from 2011 challenged the later will at the High Court describing the friendship between Mr Sharp and Mr Butcher as "ludicrous and absurd".

But the judge disagreed and sided with Mr Sharp who admitted that the friendship was casual rather than a close friendship.

The previous beneficiaries had not visited Mr Butcher any more regularly than Mr Sharp and that all of his wills had been prepared and executed without the assistance of a solicitor and there was nothing to suggest he did not have capacity to make his own decisions.

Read more about Irwin Mitchell's expertise in Will Disputes.