Readers' forum : Extended stay

My clients are the executors of the estate of their widowed mother who died in April 2008. She had four children three of whom were married. Her will made provision for an unmarried daughter – who had lived with her for many years – to remain in the family home as long as she wanted if she remained unmarried.

There is a further clause in the will empowering the executors to sell the house at the daughter’s request and purchase an alternative property on identical terms. Any excess proceeds were to be used to improve the new property and any excess was to be held until the daughter died married or relinquished her right of occupation. Only then could the excess be transferred into the residue and distributed.

The daughter remains unmarried and lived in the house for two years. In April 2010 she went on an extended...