A FAMILY endured “months of turmoil” after a charity questioned how much it should have received from a will.

Relatives of Barry Thomas, 78, from Hove, are now urging people to check the wording of their wills to avoid going through the stress they had done.

Mr Thomas left the British Heart Foundation (BHF) part of his estate when he died in February 2014.

He had specified the charity would gain the remainder of what was left after friends and family received the amount free of inheritance tax.

But after he made his will the tax law changed, prompting BHF lawyers to probe whether they could claim more than the £77,000 they would have gained.

Clint Thomas, Barry’s nephew, said his family went for months not knowing whether they would get the amount of money his uncle had intended for them to inherit.

At the time Barry Thomas created his will, the law meant the tax-free allowance only referred to his own allowance.

The law later changed meaning that where a spouse had died previously but not used their allowance, that allowance could also be taken into consideration.

This meant the family and friends in Mr Thomas’s will could have received more of the estate.

BHF said it was not clear from the wording of the will whether the amount was to be calculated with reference to Mr Thomas’s single allowance of £325,000 or the combined total of his and his late wife’s allowance of £650,000.

Clint Thomas said: “We went for months not knowing what was going on with the will – whether we would get what Barry intended for us.

“The BHF were getting a tidy sum, but they wanted more and put us all through stress.

“Barry left a similar amount to another charity in Sussex, which they gladly accepted and they didn’t kick up a fuss.

“But we had to wait for our solicitors to deal with BHF before they finally backed down.

“My uncle would have reworded the will if he knew what could have happened.

“I now just want people to be aware of what is in their will and to make sure that if they do leave money to a charity, which is great, make sure it is a precise figure and not a percentage.”

Clint said he was inspired to tell The Argus about the row after reading a story about 92-year-old Olive Cooke, who killed herself after being hounded by charities for donations.

But Simon Gillespie, chief executive of the British Heart Foundation, said there had “never been a dispute” to his knowledge, but rather the charity made contact with Mr Thomas’s solicitors to “clarify his will”.

Mr Gillespie said: “At the British Heart Foundation, we’re completely reliant on the goodwill and generosity of our supporters to fund our life saving heart research.

“Every donation we receive, including legacy donations, helps fund research to fight coronary heart disease – the UK’s single biggest killer.

“We’re extremely grateful for the generous donation Mr Thomas left the British Heart Foundation in his will.

“The way Mr Thomas’s will was drafted wasn’t clear so we sought legal advice to make sure the will was being correctly implemented.

“We wrote to his solicitors, to let them know we were obtaining this advice, following which our solicitors wrote to her asking for some information about Mr Thomas’s instructions when the will was drafted.

“The response made the situation clear. Our solicitors confirmed that the reply had fully answered our query, and that we agreed with the way the will was being interpreted and the estate proceeded to finalise without further issue.

“To our knowledge, there has never been a dispute.”