Government Updates Witnessing Requirements for COVID-19

As you may be aware, the attestation (signing) of a newly drafted Will is required to bring it into legal force. This process must be witnessed by two individuals who are not named in the Will, and so presents a unique challenge in the era of social distancing where gatherings of people from different households are heavily discouraged.

It has been highlighted that this presents enormous difficulties for those who are shielding or undergoing self-isolation, particularly for at-risk groups of the population, and so the Government has introduced a more relaxed approach to the attestation process to enable the use of computer software in the process.

A recent amendment to the Wills Act 1837, applicable to all Wills created from the 1^st January 2020, allow for the signing of Wills through video conferencing in these exceptional circumstances. The process is delineated in the following:

• All parties (the individual making the Will, two independent witnesses and the Will Writer) present themselves on the same call and can all see each other.
• Permission should be obtained from all parties for the conference to be recorded and safely secured to ensure the ongoing validity of the Will.
• All parties should see the front page of the Will, verifying it is indeed the document being signed, and the individual making the Will should make a statement to that effect.
• The testator signs the Will in full view of the independent witnesses, who must then verbally confirm that they have watched the testator sign.
• Then, within a 24-hour period, the Will Writer should take the original copy of the Will for the witnesses to sign, again in full view of one another.
• Finally, once the Will has been signed by all parties, it enters into legal force.

If you have any questions about how this process can be made to work practically for you, feel free to get in touch via telephone at 0117 214 0228 or via e-mail at info@bristolwillwriting.co.uk.