Rectification of a Will

If the court determines that the Will doesn’t fulfil the testator’s wishes due to a clerical error or a misunderstanding by the person who drafted it, we can help rectify the situation.

However, rectification is not an automatic remedy, it is a discretionary remedy.  The court will require strong evidence of the testator’s intentions before the remedy will be granted, and the person claiming rectification has the evidential burden of proving the testator’s true intentions.

So what is a clerical error and what amounts to a misunderstanding of the testator’s instructions?

Clerical errors are;

• Simple mistakes that led to incorrect clauses being added or omitted from a Will.
• They can happen in both professionally drafted and homemade Wills.

With misunderstood instructions:

• You need to show what the testator intended and prove that the final Will doesn’t reflect those intentions.
• Example: If the testator meant to leave a property to Person A but it mistakenly went to Person B, rectification can correct this.

It is important to act quickly because an application for the remedy of rectification should usually be made no later than the end of the period of 6 months from the date on which a grant of representation is first taken out.

We provide advice for both opposed and unopposed rectification applications, as well as potential negligence claims by beneficiaries who may not receive what was intended due to a failure to understand the testator’s wishes.

Contact one of our team today to see how we can help.