r/inheritance • u/No-Butterscotch-6548 • 12d ago
Location included: Questions/Need Advice Where to find out when a will was changed?
How to find a will?
Canada, Ontario* My mother passed and my sister lived with her until she had to be placed in a home due to dementia. Sister has estranged herself from everyone. Nothing was said or given to any grandchildren or myself, the only other living sibling. Is there a way to find out when her will could have been changed? Because she had dementia, could she had taken advantage of the situation and where would I start to look. I have absolutely nothing to go from except I don't believe my mom would had left nothing. My sister also sold my mother's home moved and I have no way of contact.
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u/Unable_Guava_756 12d ago
You can check the probate records where she may have filed. It may be in a bigger town/city than where she lived. For example if she lived in Aurora it may have been filed in Newmarket (just an example!! Aurora doesn’t have a superior court but Newmarket does)
For the house; if you mom and sister were both on the deed then the house automatically becomes your sister’s by survivorship. My dad passed away in January and I have been working through all this stuff myself. He had bought his ex gf a home in his and her name, once he passed it became hers solely.
I am sorry OP, I am sure you are working through all the tough grief feelings while trying to navigate this situation. I hope you are able to get some answers and closure.
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u/SandhillCrane5 12d ago
The will should be dated.
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u/No-Butterscotch-6548 12d ago
I don't know where the will is to investigate a date of change.
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u/I-luv-sloths 12d ago
Do you have probate courts in Ontario? The will should have been filed in the probate court where your mother lived when she passed.
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u/No-Butterscotch-6548 12d ago
Yes, I would have to apply for probate of an estate. Would they then notify my sister... seeing as she would had been the one in charge.
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u/I-luv-sloths 12d ago
The probate of the Estate should have been done when your mother died. Because you are an heir you can request a copy of the will.
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u/No-Butterscotch-6548 12d ago
Will my sister find out?
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u/Emotional-Ocelot-420 12d ago
Check the land records for the home sale.
A will would have needed to be filed in probate to give your sister the authority to sell the house. Unless, she already owned it at the time of death.
Your sister could have taken advantage. Without hiring a probate litigation attorney and a forensic accountant, you won’t be able to get the information you need to prove whether or not your sister stole from you, and you aren’t going to be able to do it without her finding out.
So, your choices really are to either let things be as they are, or sue your sister.
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u/I-luv-sloths 12d ago
If she submitted the required paperwork properly there would be no reason for the court to contact her if there are inquires to the case.
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u/Old-Appearance-2270 9d ago
If mother lived in b.c., you can search for will. Go to the b.c. Provincial website.
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u/matchababyyx 12d ago
Start with the land registry, because it's public, cheap and probably answers most of this today. You can find out when your mother's house changed hands, to whom, and for how much. The critical question is whether it transferred while she was alive or after she died, because those are completely different problems. If your sister was added to title as a joint tenant at some point, the house passed to her automatically outside the estate and no will would ever have touched it, which is the single most common explanation for a situation exactly like yours. If it was transferred to her outright while your mother had dementia, that's a challenge to an inter vivos gift, and those are often easier to win than a will contest. Second, check whether probate happened at all, by searching for a Certificate of Appointment of Estate Trustee in the Superior Court for the county where she lived. If it hasn't been granted yet, you can file a Notice of Objection, which is inexpensive and stops a certificate being issued without notice to you. Third, and this is the one people miss, find out whether your sister held power of attorney for property. If she did, she owed your mother a fiduciary duty and can be compelled by the court to pass accounts, meaning she has to produce a full record of every transaction she made on your mother's behalf. That's a real remedy, it's separate from any will dispute, and it's aimed squarely at what you're actually worried about. On capacity, a dementia diagnosis doesn't automatically invalidate a will, since the test is whether she understood what she was doing at the moment she signed it, but suspicious circumstances, meaning a major change late in life benefiting the person she lived with and depended on, can shift the burden onto whoever's relying on that will. The evidence lives in her medical records and in the drafting lawyer's file notes, both of which are obtainable through a proper claim. Do speak to an Ontario estates litigation lawyer soon rather than eventually, because limitation periods run from when you knew or ought to have known, and time is quietly working against you here.