Will for Bulgarian Property!
Posted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:02 pmHi,
Just thought i would post this here, i have had my nephew who is a solicitor check this out for me and here is what he says.
Hi,
you've just sparked a massive conversation here now! lol! we ended up phoning one of higher contacts (House of Lords) as well as the law society. Bottom line, A will, made here in the uk can include any and all of your assets anywhere in the world, however importantly, the parts referring to properties in other countries must be in the format and in accordance with that countries laws (ie drawn up by a person qualified of their legal system for starters) otherwise that country may not hold the relevant disposition to be a valid one, the only way to enforce a provision of a will is to take it to court, but even the highest of UK courts do not have the power to force another country to comply with one of our laws nor one of our documents.
Therefore any disposition/dealing in an english will referring to a foreign property would most likely fail. The only way to ensure the property is dealt with as you wish it to be is to have your english will drawn up dealing with your english assets, it should state that it only deals with your english assets (but can make reference to the sollicitor/notary in another country who holds a will for a property in that country) you should then have a will drawn up in the relevant country (in your case Bulgaria) dealing with the assets within that country, this second will should refer to your primary will and who holds the will here, and should also state that it does not revoke any earlier wills (primarily your uk will) and deals only with the assets within that country.
Bottom line any lawyer in the uk who has informed their client that their will is valid is wrong (unless they are certified and qualified to practice Bulgarian law -extremely doubtful), and when the client passes away and the executors try to action the will and the bulgarian courst refuse to acknowledge the will because they dont comply with their legal provisions then they may have a massive negligence action on their hands because they are unable to deal that disposition as they originally advised they could.
To back this position up not only do we have one fo the foremost practitioners in probate law in the country here but as stated we have clarified this issue 'higher up'. if you knew what is required to have a will ratified to allow a person to deal with assets under a will and in accordance with its provisions you'd understand why we cant do this here. But the crux is we cannot use our laws to govern another country and force them to comply with our laws in their country.
Briefly the process is
person dies
will produced
executors declare they are to deal with assets under a statutory declaration (basically confirming they deal with them in accordance with english statutes or laws)
these Stat Dec are submitted to the probate registry (one fo the courts of the UK)
Probate registry issues a Grant of Probate, giving the executors the legal power to deal with the assets under the will
HOw can an english court give you a power to do something in another country? If this were the case then Saddam Hussein would have said to one of his Iraqi nationals to go to the uk and kill as many people as he could and it was ok and perfectly legal because he had passed a law in iraq saying he was allowed to do that. obvioulsy that cant happen. and nor should it ever be allowed. Hope this helps clarify the matter for you.
My advice, and any other prudent solicitor, be safe, get the two drawn up.
regards
Richard
Just thought i would post this here, i have had my nephew who is a solicitor check this out for me and here is what he says.
Hi,
you've just sparked a massive conversation here now! lol! we ended up phoning one of higher contacts (House of Lords) as well as the law society. Bottom line, A will, made here in the uk can include any and all of your assets anywhere in the world, however importantly, the parts referring to properties in other countries must be in the format and in accordance with that countries laws (ie drawn up by a person qualified of their legal system for starters) otherwise that country may not hold the relevant disposition to be a valid one, the only way to enforce a provision of a will is to take it to court, but even the highest of UK courts do not have the power to force another country to comply with one of our laws nor one of our documents.
Therefore any disposition/dealing in an english will referring to a foreign property would most likely fail. The only way to ensure the property is dealt with as you wish it to be is to have your english will drawn up dealing with your english assets, it should state that it only deals with your english assets (but can make reference to the sollicitor/notary in another country who holds a will for a property in that country) you should then have a will drawn up in the relevant country (in your case Bulgaria) dealing with the assets within that country, this second will should refer to your primary will and who holds the will here, and should also state that it does not revoke any earlier wills (primarily your uk will) and deals only with the assets within that country.
Bottom line any lawyer in the uk who has informed their client that their will is valid is wrong (unless they are certified and qualified to practice Bulgarian law -extremely doubtful), and when the client passes away and the executors try to action the will and the bulgarian courst refuse to acknowledge the will because they dont comply with their legal provisions then they may have a massive negligence action on their hands because they are unable to deal that disposition as they originally advised they could.
To back this position up not only do we have one fo the foremost practitioners in probate law in the country here but as stated we have clarified this issue 'higher up'. if you knew what is required to have a will ratified to allow a person to deal with assets under a will and in accordance with its provisions you'd understand why we cant do this here. But the crux is we cannot use our laws to govern another country and force them to comply with our laws in their country.
Briefly the process is
person dies
will produced
executors declare they are to deal with assets under a statutory declaration (basically confirming they deal with them in accordance with english statutes or laws)
these Stat Dec are submitted to the probate registry (one fo the courts of the UK)
Probate registry issues a Grant of Probate, giving the executors the legal power to deal with the assets under the will
HOw can an english court give you a power to do something in another country? If this were the case then Saddam Hussein would have said to one of his Iraqi nationals to go to the uk and kill as many people as he could and it was ok and perfectly legal because he had passed a law in iraq saying he was allowed to do that. obvioulsy that cant happen. and nor should it ever be allowed. Hope this helps clarify the matter for you.
My advice, and any other prudent solicitor, be safe, get the two drawn up.
regards
Richard
We are going to PFB 24th July for 4 weeks so seems like a good time to get this drawn up.