Someone has warned off my caveat – how do I enter an appearance?

If you have entered a caveat and are served with a warning, you must act quickly. You have 14 days (including the day you were served) to enter an appearance.  If you do nothing, your caveat will be removed and the application for a Grant can proceed.

The effect of entering an appearance is that no Grant can be issued by the Probate Registry to anybody except you without an order from the court.  Your caveat remains in force until the issues are resolved either by the consent of the parties or following a court hearing.

To enter an appearance you must complete Form 5 and either attend the Leeds District Probate Registry or send it to them by post (at your own risk).  In this form, you must set out your grounds for maintaining the caveat.  No fee is payable and a copy of the form can be found at your local Probate Registry or through the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/court-and-tribunal-forms

A copy of the appearance must then immediately be served on the person who served you with the warning. This can be by post or in person.

If you plan to maintain a caveat, it is important that you have reasonable grounds for challenging the validity of the will.  If your argument is simply that the will is unfair, or that you want to buy time to investigate a claim under the Inheritance Act, then these are not good grounds for having a caveat and it is likely to be removed following a Court application by the executor or personal representative.  You are likely to then be ordered to pay the costs of those proceedings.

The appearance will make the caveat permanent, so it can then only be removed by a Court order.  Ultimately contentious probate proceedings will have to be started by one party or the other in order to determine whether the will is valid.

We would recommend that you seek legal advice before taking any action. If you require assistance, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our Contentious Probate team.

* Disclaimer: The information on the Anthony Gold website is for general information only and reflects the position at the date of publication. It does not constitute legal advice and should not be treated as such. It is provided without any representations or warranties, express or implied.*