People think they are doing the right thing by writing their will, but they forget this detail which can completely void it.
Some people choose to write their own will for several reasons. There are those who want to avoid the costs of a notary, to save money. Others feel that they do not need legal advice to express their wishes and prefer to do so in private. At first glance, writing a will seems simple. It’s a bit like a letter in which a person expresses their final wishes to decide who will inherit their property. But in reality, writing a will is much more complex than you might think.
A will is above all a legal document. It has legal value and must respect certain rules to be valid. What notaries call the “rules of form”. Most people already know that a will must be handwritten to be valid. “If you write it on the computer and print it, it’s as if you had done nothing, your will is worthless, even if you sign it by hand afterwards. You must that it be written by hand from start to finish and it is the person to whom the will belongs who writes it, and not a loved one. explains to us Me Olivier Pontnau, associate notary at Act&Notaires in Paris.
On the other hand, what we often ignore is that the choice of words is very important when drafting a will. “Between what you think, what you are going to write in your own words and how this will be understood by the legal system, there is a gap. Adopting strong language is not enough. There is specific language to use to write a will, and when you read it, it’s almost a foreign language We use words that people never use in everyday life.“, underlines the expert.
For example, anyone would write: “I want my apartment to go to so-and-so” Or “I would like my money to be distributed to such and such an association.” Except that for justice, this type of sentence is worthless. For what ? “Because for a judge, “I wish” is only a wish, it is not a legacy, a transfer of property. If you want to leave something to someone, you should write “I bequeath” instead. reveals Me Pontnau.
Furthermore, you should avoid as much as possible making erasures and overloading your sentences, because the authorities may think that this was added by someone else, and therefore that it is of a false will. It is also essential that the document is dated and signed, otherwise again, it may be non-receivable.
