Two nephews are locked in a ₤ 400,000 will contest the fortune of a 'houseproud' widow, who disinherited one side of her family after they suggested she enter into a care home.

Doreen Stock, 86, passed away childless in 2021 and left her whole estate to her nephew, Simon Stock, and his partner Catherine, who lived only a few minutes from her south London home.

But her Michigan-based great-nephew, 39-year-old Ben Chiswick, has now launched a quote to inherit the lot himself - despite not visiting or even talking with her over the phone since his relocate to the US eight years earlier.

Propulsion engineer Mr Chiswick had actually been due to inherit her fortune under a previous will written nearly 40 years earlier in 1986 when he was an infant, but was considerably disinherited by his great-aunt a year before her death.

The row erupted after his parents recommended Ms Stock hang out in a care home while they delighted in a three-week holiday.

Fighting to restore the previous will, Mr Chiswick claims Ms Stock, who he says was a 'fixture in his childhood,' was too stricken by dementia to appropriately understand what she was doing when she altered her testament.

However, Simon and his wife are battling the case, declaring Mr Chiswick - who has lived in the US because 2017 - had no 'significant relationship' with Ms Stock beyond his early years while Mr Stock had actually been 'the nearby thing to a son she had'.

Sitting at Central London County Court, Judge Jane Evans-Gordon heard that 'independent' and periodically 'persistent' Ms Stock had a deep emotional accessory to her home in Charminster Road, Mottingham, having shared it with her spouse Samuel up until his death in 2001.

Ben Chiswick, 39, pictured right with father Brent, is challenging Doreen Stock's will in the courts after she disinherited him a year before her death

Doreen Stock, 86, passed away childless in 2021 and left her entire estate to her nephew, Simon Stock (imagined), and his partner Catherine

Without any children of her own, Ms Stock's first will, made in 1986, left her estate to Mr Chiswick, kid of her niece Patricia Chiswick and other half Brent.

The estate primarily contains the Mottingham home, which is valued online at about ₤ 400,000.

The court heard Ms Stock had had a good relationship with the Chiswicks, who helped her with her shopping and visited her routinely.

She even made a long lasting power of lawyer in their favour, however before she passed away revoked the document and changed her will, leaving whatever to a nephew on her hubby's side.

Challenging the will, Mr Chiswick declares that his great-aunt's dementia in her last years suggests there is major doubt whether she had the needed capability to make the modifications.

And he said the reality there was no conversation with his side of the family about the brand-new will recommended 'something not right' about her modification of mind.

'Doreen and I had an actually happy relationship and she comprehended that leaving her estate to me would make a huge difference to my life,' he stated in his proof.

For Simon and Catherine, barrister James McKean informed the court that Ms Stock had actually also been close to Simon, who was 'the closest thing to a child she had,' adding to his school fees as a kid.

And although she previously had a close relationship with Mr Chiswick's moms and dads, that was messed up when they suggested she enter into a care home in 2019.

Patricia had actually then scheduled a 'capacity assessment' for her aunt, which the lawyer said resulted in Ms Stock fearing her self-reliance was being threatened and ultimately changing her will.

The estate mainly includes the Mottingham home, which is valued online at about ₤ 400,000

Can we present our child 3 of the bedrooms in our house to lower estate tax costs?

The court heard there had been 'building resentment' with the method her power of lawyer was being administered, which 'finally boiled over in the summer season of 2019 when the Chiswicks made an ill-judged - though possibly well-intentioned - recommendation to Doreen that she invest a duration in residential care.

'Doreen was, by all accounts, jealously independent. It is little wonder that she found the proposal to be alarming and offending.

'No doubt Doreen was stressed over the possibility of going into a home, then was asked to undergo the capability assessment, and put two and 2 together.'

Within weeks of the assessment, which resulted in a report specifying she 'did not have capacity,' she had started steps to withdraw the power of lawyer and make a brand-new will in Simon and Catherine's favour, he told the judge.

Quizzing Patricia Chiswick in the witness box, he added: 'Doreen loved her home and it had been her and Samuel's home before his death. There was a deep emotional connection to that residential or commercial property.

'Saying to Doreen that she should leave that residential or commercial property and spend some time in a care home stank to her, wasn't it?

'From Doreen's viewpoint, this need to have looked a genuine hazard to her independence.'

But Patricia rejected disturbing the pensioner, firmly insisting that the strategy was only ever for a short break in a care home while she and her husband went on vacation.

'It was simply an idea due to the fact that we do not typically go away for three weeks at a time, and I think she had been rather unwell and her health was weakening in general,' she said.

'I was worried about leaving her and I believed it would be quite nice if she might go somewhere where she could be looked after while we were away.

'It was absolutely stressed out that it was for three weeks. There was no suggestion she was going to stay there forever.'

The Chiswicks did not visit Ms Stock once again between the capacity evaluation in 2019 and her death in May 2021.

For Patricia's kid Mr Chiswick, who is the complaintant in the case, lawyer Simon Lane stated that, at the time she made the new will, she was 'susceptible and was acting out of character.'

The 2019 assessment carried out after the tip of a care home move had actually resulted in a specialist's finding that she 'lacked capacity,' he said.

But Mr McKean stated the assessment wanted, with Ms Stock answering with 'irritable hostility' when she was quizzed about things that made no sense to her, such as a fire which never really occurred.

Other evaluations around the same time had resulted in findings that she did have capacity, although she was experiencing 'moderate' dementia,' he said.

'Doreen might have had some memory problems, however capacity and memory are various beasts,' he said.

'The court will struggle to discover any evidence of impaired cognition or reasoning. On the contrary, Doreen's behaviour, worths and thinking were constant and plausible at all times.'

He said there was factor for her to decide to alter her will, the last being made more than 30 years previously, which already Mr Chiswick - living and working on the other side of the Atlantic - would have been 'far from her mind as a recipient.'

He had actually not seen her once again and even spoken on the phone after moving to the US, while the majority of the proof of their relationship originated from when he was a kid.

On the other hand, Mr Stock and his other half had had the ability to visit her routinely, living not far from her in Eltham, south London, he said.

'The court can be shocked neither by the making of the contested will, nor by Doreen's choice of beneficiaries,' he added.

The judge is expected to provide her ruling on the case at a later date.