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Keeping your will up to date is a very good idea, but making changes that are likely to disappoint members of your family who might expect to inherit can be a recipe for dispute after you are gone. That was certainly so in a High Court case concerning a woman who, following an estrangement, all but disinherited her only child. By her first will, made in 2000, the woman left all but £15,000 of her estate to her son. However, by subsequent wills, executed in 2006 and 2010, she left...

Court orders are sometimes obtained by improper means, but when the truth emerges – as it almost always does – those responsible are bound to pay a crushing price. That was certainly so in the case of a businessman who obtained a divorce on the strength of his wife's forged signature. The former couple built up considerable wealth during a marriage that lasted more than 30 years and yielded four children. Following their separation, the husband obtained a final decree of divorce on grounds that the marriage had irretrievably broken...

Many people very sensibly confer lasting powers of attorney (LPAs) on others so that their affairs can be properly managed in the event that they lose the ability to do so themselves. However, as a High Court ruling underlined, it often makes good sense to appoint a professional, rather than a loved one, as your attorney. The case concerned a woman who, by her will, bequeathed her home equally to her four children. About two years prior to her death, aged 93, an LPA was registered in favour of her...

Absentee or non-resident tenants who do not leave their landlords with a forwarding address place themselves in acute legal danger. In one case, a tenant who failed to take that sensible step suffered forfeiture of her 140-year lease due to her non-payment of a service charge demand. The tenant did not leave her landlord a correspondence address when she moved abroad. There was evidence that the flat's letterbox overflowed with unopened mail in her absence. A service charge demand for more than £11,000 was posted to the empty flat. Under...