NSW Deceased Estate and Wills - Lawyer Made a Typo

[Jay Burrows.]

Hi, a deceased estate is about to be finalised and should be split by five people, after reading some emails between the executor of the will and the solicitor, he says it will be divided by eight. When I checked with the executor, he said it was a typo from the solicitor's end.

Is this legal? Should there be something to worry about?

 

[Sophea]

Hi Jay, a little more information would be useful, to answer your request. What are you referring to when you say "is this legal?" Is what legal?

From what I can gather you are saying that the solicitor made a typo in the will, such that it says the estate will be divided between 8 beneficiaries instead of 5. Is this correct? If this is merely a typo, does the will name all 5 beneficiaries by name? And is the rest of the will consistent with the distribution to only 5 beneficiaries?

 

[Jay Burrows.]

Hi Jay, a little more information would be useful, to answer your request. What are you referring to when you say "is this legal?" Is what legal?

From what I can gather you are saying that the solicitor made a typo in the will, such that it says the estate will be divided between 8 beneficiaries instead of 5. Is this correct? If this is merely a typo, does the will name all 5 beneficiaries by name? And is the rest of the will consistent with the distribution to only 5 beneficiaries?

Hi Sophea,
The will says "assests to be divided equally to the children, and there are only 5 of them, however the will does not state them by name. Unless 3 others have popped up out of nowhere when the notice was published in the news paper..

 

[Sophea]

And sorry, where does the 8 come in? Was it a typo in an email from the solicitor?

 

[winston wolf]

I'm guessing the solicitors office has just put an 8 instead of a 5 in a notice to the beneficiaries.
Of course you could ask for this to be corrected but the solicitor will most likely charge the estate to correct their error.

 

[Jay Burrows.]

Yes the solicitor has written eight instead of five, which is a pretty big mistake.

So I am wondering since the will didn't state the names, is it possible to add 3 more people and pass it off as a typo from the solicitors end? Are emails legal documents?

Sorry, may be a stupid question but its all so confusing.

 

[Sophea]

No, the Will prevails. Emails between solicitors are not legally binding if they do not give effect to the wishes of the testator.