When is a Will invalid?

It may be difficult to believe but the main law that relates to the validity of Wills is now over 180 years old. The chances are that if you were to challenge a Will claiming you believe that the Will is invalid you would be relying on an Act of Parliament known as “The Wills Act 1837”.

The Wills Act 1837 contains guidance on the circumstances on when a Will can be revoked (i.e. held to be invalid). These include the following circumstances:

- When a person who has a Will gets married or enters into a Civil Partnership the Will is usually found to be revoked (s18 and s18B, Wills Act 1837). This is the general rule and there are exceptions.

- When a person gets divorced or formally ends their Civil Partnership their Will is revoked (s18A and s18C, Wills Act 1837)

- If the Will is destroyed, then it is revoked (s20 Wills Act 1837).

- If there is a more recent Will, then the previous Will is revoked (s20 Wills Act 1837)

The above examples still apply to Wills in England and Wales and are regularly referred to in court.

By way of example if a grandmother wrote a Will in her 50s and, in her 70s, decided to divorce her husband and re-marry then the Will that she had written in her 50s would usually automatically be revoked. It is for this reason that people are often encouraged to write new Wills when their circumstances change and often people do not do this as they are put off by the financial cost. If there is no valid Will then the intestacy rules will apply and this can lead to family members benefitting from an estate rather than the people that a person actually wants to leave their estate to. This can be upsetting to family members left behind.