The New Horizon For Claims Under The Inheritance (Provision For Family And Dependants) Act 1975

The Inheritance and Trustees' Powers Act 2014 ("the ITPA 2014") received Royal Assent on 14 May 2014 and is expected to come into force on 1 October 2014. The ITPA 2014 will make several significant changes to the 1975 Act (as well as the Administration of Estates Act 1925 and the Trustee Act 1925). This legal update focuses upon the changes to the 1975 Act; the full changes are contained in the second schedule to the ITPA 2014.

Widening of the class of potential claimants

Those treated as a child of the deceased

Currently, under section 1(1)(d) of the 1975 Act there is provision for "any person (not being a child of the deceased) who, in the case of any marriage to which the deceased was at any time a party, was treated by the deceased as a child of the family in relation to that marriage" to bring a claim for provision under the 1975 Act.

In short, this allowed "step-children" to bring a claim against a deceased step-parent's estate should they not have received reasonable financial provision for their maintenance from the estate. A prerequisite therefore was that the deceased step-parent was married to the potential claimant's mother or father.

The ITPA 2014 changes this position and removes the requirement for there to have been a marriage between the deceased step-parent and the potential claimant's mother or father (recognising the increasing number of families with parental figures who may be cohabiting but not married). The ITPA 2014 also specifically extends the clause to include children treated as a child of a civil partnership.

The ITPA 2014 also clarifies that "family" includes a family of which the deceased was the only member (apart from the claimant) and so it is expected that going forward those who have enjoyed a relationship with the deceased akin to that of parent and child will be eligible to bring a claim (should they not have received sufficient provision from the estate).

Those maintained by the deceased

The position of those being maintained by the deceased has been amended so that the claimant no longer needs to show that the deceased contributed more to the relationship than the claimant did (opening claims for those who may have been mutually dependant on the deceased).

It also clearly spells out that those receiving maintenance for "full valuable consideration pursuant to an arrangement of a commercial nature" (such as carers and lodgers) will not be permitted to bring a claim under the 1975 Act.

Provision for...