Private Client
While some sceptics may say that they are all painful to endure, under the law, all of these actions generally lead to the revocation of your will. Generally, when you make a will, the first sentence in it will be that all of your previous wills are revoked (or cancelled).
However, there are several more interesting ways to revoke a will, including the three options described above. Arguably, the least dramatic, marriage, is also a rather common way to revoke a will. Under s 16(c) of the Wills Act 2007, getting married or entering into a civil union automatically revokes any existing wills (unless they have been made in contemplation of that particular marriage taking place). Therefore, if you are thinking of getting married or entering into a civil union or have not updated your will since such an event, we highly recommend updating your will.
Burning and shredding both revoke a will by way of destruction, depending on the situation. The first point to note is that even if you shred your will and then burn the remains, if it is just a copy, this will have no effect on the validity of your will. This is an important point because nowadays, most wills are held by law firms on behalf of the will maker.
For a destruction to be effective, the will must be destroyed with the intention of revocation. Therefore, a mere intent to destroy is insufficient (e.g. abandoning the will) to revoke a will. On the other hand, a will cannot be deemed revoked if it was destroyed in a fit of madness or by mistake, if there is no genuine intention to revoke. In the cases of Doe Perkes (1820) and Mair v Mair (1956), the will makers started but did not finish tearing up their wills. In Doe, the will maker was stopped by a beneficiary of the will and the Court found that the will had been revoked as it had not been fully destroyed. In Mair, the will was mutilated but stuck back together. There was no evidence that the will maker had been the one to rip the will up, and so this will also had not been revoked. A case from Victoria (Australia) that was published this week reaffirmed this line of cases.
Brookfields Lawyers have been in business since many of these cases about ripping wills up in the 19th century were decided. We have the expertise and experience to craft you a bespoke will that fits your circumstances, whether you revoked your last will by marriage, fire or by chucking it in the office shredder.
