Scott Taylor considers the appropriate use of ‘standstill’ agreements in claims for financial provision
- Bhusate v Patel and Cowan v Foreman: the facts; reconciling the judgments; and the implications of the cases.
In Bhusate v Patel [2019] EWHC 470 (Ch) Mrs B, the claimant, was the widow of the deceased who died intestate on 28 April 1990. She was Mr Bhusate’s third wife. Together they had one child. Mr Bhusate had had five children with his first wife who were aged between 54 and 72 at the time of the hearing and relations between four of those children and the claimant were not good as they objected to her receiving anything from their father’s estate, which they regarded as belonging to their mother who had died some years previously.
The estate
The estate was limited, with the main asset being the house (valued at £850,000) and around £1,500 in bank accounts. The claimant and the second eldest of the deceased’s children (with whom the claimant enjoyed a reasonably supportive relationship) took out the grant of letters of administration on 12
