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Wills | Legal Rights Share
Rights Share Dublin
Rights Share Dublin: If you have left a will your spouse or civil partner are entitled to a legal right share of your estate. This legal right share is half of your estate if you do not have children or one-third of your estate if you do have children.
Your spouse/civil partner does not have to go to court to get this share, as your executor must give this share where applicable. If you leave a gift to your spouse or civil partner in your will, they can choose to accept the gift instead of their legal right share or they can insist on their legal right share (and the specific gift as part of that legal right share, if it is of less value that the legal right share).
Your executor must inform your spouse or civil partner in writing of their right to choose between these two options and your spouse or civil partner must ask for their legal right share within 6 months of being notified, or within 12 months of the taking out of the Grant of Representation.
Your spouse or civil partner can renounce (give up) their rights to the legal right share. This can be part of an agreement before marriage or civil partnership or the spouse or civil partner can give up their rights to benefit their children or other named beneficiaries.
If there is evidence of undue influence or evidence that the spouse or civil partner did not understand what they were doing, the renunciation may be challenged. It is normally advised that a spouse or civil partner get independent legal advice if renouncing their legal right share.
The legal right share can be lost where the spouse or civil partner is convicted of the murder, manslaughter or attempted murder of the deceased person or convicted of an offence against the deceased person or a child that carries a sentence of more than 2 years.
Separation agreements usually include a renunciation of both spouses’ and civil partner’s legal right share.
If you are divorced or your civil partnership was dissolved, you do not have to provide a legal right share.
If your spouse or civil partner deserted you for more than 2 years, they are not entitled to a legal right share unless they deserted you because of your behaviour (for example, domestic abuse).
The information contained in this website is an overview and explanation of the general process. It is not to be taken as legal advice. Please consult Local Solicitor for legal advice. If you need to get involved in a process Local Solicitor is in your corner to help you through the process. You can contact Local Solicitor by telephoning 01 8438138.
What we can help you with
A Will is a document that sets out your intention regarding your estate when you die. It is especially important to make a Will if you have young children. This is so you can appoint guardians and trustees for those children.
Read More about Making a Will and Our Probate Solicitor in Dublin
Local Solicitor will draft the Probate documentation and arrange for the documentation to be sworn before a Commissioner of Oaths. When that is done Local Solicitor will file all documentation with the Probate Office together with Probate fee so that it will be possible to collect the Grant of Probate.
Where a person dies without having made a Will, they are said to have died intestate. To distribute the deceased’s estate, it may be necessary to extract a Grant of Letters of Administration. This is like a Grant of Probate.
If you have left a will your spouse or civil partner are entitled to a legal right share of your estate. This legal right share is half of your estate if you do not have children or one-third of your estate if you do have children.
Partners, who live with each other but are not married or in a civil partnership, have no automatic legal right to each other's estates, although under the redress scheme for cohabiting couples introduced by the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act a qualified cohabitant can apply for a share of the estate of a deceased cohabitant.
Children do not have any absolute right to inherit any of their parent's estate if the parent has made a will. Children born inside or outside marriage and adopted children all have the same rights and there are no age restrictions.
The surviving spouse or civil partner may ask to keep the family or shared home instead of their legal right share, although if the house is worth more than the legal right share, the spouse or civil partner may have to pay the difference into the deceased's estate. A court may decide that this sum does not have to be paid if it would cause undue hardship.
