Spelling mistook on a will

[Gyp]

Hello again, another will related question (luckily one that doesn't
affect me this time but I'm still interested)

A friend's husband died a few months ago after a period of illness. He
was sensible enough to have a solicitor draw up a will and have it
signed and witnessed before he died.

It has since come to light that his middle name was misspelt on the will
and no-one noticed. Ooops!

All his assets are held with his correctly spelt name.

Is this likely to cause problems or be easily rectified? It's currently
in the hands of a solicitor to obtain probate; I'm worried for the widow
that this might be expensive...


--
Gyp

[Peter Crosland]

It should not be a major problem for the solicitor. The crucial thing is
to identify the person who made the will.


--
Peter Crosland

Reply address is valid

[Roland Perry]

In message <nt8jga$nqh$1...@dont-email.me>, at 17:46:07 on Fri, 7 Oct 2016,
Gyp <a@b.c> remarked:

>A friend's husband died a few months ago after a period of illness. He
>was sensible enough to have a solicitor draw up a will and have it
>signed and witnessed before he died.
>
>It has since come to light that his middle name was misspelt on the
>will and no-one noticed. Ooops!

He should have had it drawn up by a qualified professional. Oh wait...

--
Roland Perry

[spuorg...@gowanhill.com]

On Friday, 7 October 2016 19:21:20 UTC+1, Gyp wrote:
> It has since come to light that his middle name was misspelt on the will
> and no-one noticed. Ooops!
> All his assets are held with his correctly spelt name.
> Is this likely to cause problems or be easily rectified?

It shouldn't be a problem; spelling errors do not usually make documents invalid.

It should be clear who the testator (or the beneficiary) was/is as usually on Wills people are identified by name, relationship to the testator, address at that time, etc., resolving any ambiguity.

Owain

[Robin]

On 07/10/2016 17:46, Gyp wrote:

If there's no real doubt that the will is for the person named on the
death certificate I expect the probate service won't even ask about it.
What matters more is that they get the name right on the grant of probate.


--
Robin
reply-to address is (intended to be) valid

[Chris R]

I would expect the Probate registry to notice this and to include something
in the executors' oath to the effect that the person making the will is the
same person as the deceased, if that isn't already covered.
--
Chris R

[GB]

The point being that otherwise the executors are going to have problems
dealing with the estate? The banks and other financial institutions only
get to see a copy of the death certificate and teh grant of probate.
They have no need to see the will.

At the very worst in this case, the will would have to be rectified, and
most probably the solicitor who drew it up would have to bear the expense.

[Robin]

The ones I've to hand does include swearing/affirming the name, d.o.b.
and address of the deceased. They also remind me the oath should if
necessary include any alias of deceased and the reason for its use. So
I suppose one approach would be to include something on the lines of
"otherwise [mistyped name] for the purpose of the last will and
testament as a result of a typing error not spotted until after the
death" :)

[Gyp]

Thanks all for the advice - it seems like it won't be a problem after all.

I was worried that it might end up being a huge hassle and expense for
the family left behind, but it sounds like it probably won't. Phew.

Thanks again!
--
Gyp

[Tracey Gauntlett]

Bigger errors than that have been resolved sensibly:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2544090/Man-wins-legal-
fight-70-000-inheritance-Supreme-Court-said-clerical-error-losing-
challenges-twice.html

(the testators both named him but mistakenly signed each other's wills).