Who Can Contest a Will: Eligible People by State

Can You Contest a Will?

Yes, you can contest a will if you meet the standing requirements for the particular challenge under the applicable law. Being disappointed with an inheritance does not establish standing or show that a claim will succeed.

A family provision claim asks for provision from the estate. The claimant must fit a category in the relevant state or territory Act.

A validity challenge asks whether the document is the deceased’s valid will. A person who would benefit under an earlier will or on intestacy can have the necessary interest. Intestacy is the distribution law that applies when there is no effective will. The NSW Supreme Court’s contested-proceedings guidance distinguishes these interests.

Being left out of a will does not disqualify an eligible person from a provision claim. Being named in it does not make every beneficiary eligible. A beneficiary can also have standing to dispute validity where an earlier will would improve their position.

You cannot bring an ordinary inheritance contest before the will-maker dies. During their lifetime, family members can help them obtain independent estate-planning advice and preserve evidence of support. If the person lacks capacity, a court-authorised statutory will can be considered under the applicable legislation. Concerns about present financial abuse call for protective action while the person is alive. NSW’s statutory-will jurisdiction is one example of that separate process.

Once standing is established, the grounds for challenging a will and the family provision assessment answer different questions.

Who Can Contest a Will in NSW

NSW permits spouses, children and several conditional categories to claim under section 57 of the Succession Act 2006. The Act allows the following people to apply:

• A spouse at death.
• A person living in a de facto relationship with the deceased at death.
• A child of the deceased.
• A former spouse.
• A person wholly or partly dependent on the deceased at some time who is a grandchild or was a member of the deceased’s household.
• A person living with the deceased in a close personal relationship at death.

For the dependency category, a grandchild need not also have shared the household. Other claimants in that category must establish household membership. The dependency and household periods need not coincide. A stepchild normally relies on this conditional route unless legally a child of the deceased.

Former spouses, dependent grandchildren or household members and close-personal-relationship claimants face an extra requirement. Section 59(1)(b) requires “factors which warrant the making of the application”. Relationship history can explain why the deceased had responsibilities towards that claimant. Justice Lindsay’s explanation reproduces section 57 and explains section 59.

Who Can Contest a Will in Victoria

Victoria’s section 90 includes a spouse or domestic partner, children and stepchildren, including adults. It also includes a person treated as a natural child who believed the deceased was their parent for a substantial period.

A qualifying former spouse or domestic partner is also listed. Registered caring partners and grandchildren have their own categories. If a child dies within one year of the deceased, their spouse or domestic partner falls within another category. A household member at death can qualify. So can a past member likely to rejoin the household in the near future.

Children under 18, full-time students aged 18 to 25 and children with a statutory disability have distinct categories. Other adult children and stepchildren remain eligible without proving dependency as a category requirement.

Registered caring partners, grandchildren, qualifying partners of deceased children and household members must also establish whole or partial dependency under section 91(2)(b). Household membership alone is insufficient. These distinctions appear in the Administration and Probate Act 1958, sections 90 and 91.

The rules introduced by the 2014 reforms apply according to the deceased’s time of death. An older estate requires the earlier rules. The official commencement record identifies the boundary.

Who Can Contest a Will in Queensland

Queensland limits family provision applicants to a spouse, child or dependant under the Succession Act 1981. Children include adopted children and qualifying stepchildren.

A dependant must have received whole or substantial maintenance or support from the deceased at death, without full payment in return. They must also be a parent of the deceased, the parent of the deceased’s surviving child under 18 or a person under 18. Sections 40 and 41 set out those categories.

An adult grandchild does not qualify merely because their grandparent supported them. Nor does an adult sibling or unrelated adult household member qualify through financial dependency alone. NSW and Victoria have routes for some of these people that Queensland lacks.

Section 40A ends stepchild status on divorce, formal termination of the parent’s civil partnership with the deceased or the end of their de facto relationship. Stepchild status continues when the parent dies during that relationship, even if the deceased later remarries.

Who Can Contest a Will in WA, SA and the Territories

The other jurisdictions have their own relationship lists and conditions. These are family provision categories, separate from standing to challenge validity.

Jurisdiction and authority	People within the provision categories	Extra eligibility facts
Western Australia: Family Provision Act 1972, section 7	Current spouse or de facto partner, children, qualifying former partners, grandchildren, stepchildren and parents.	Former partners must receive or be entitled to maintenance at death. Grandchildren need maintenance immediately before death or a deceased parent who was the deceased’s child. Stepchildren need maintenance or entitlement to it, or the deceased must have inherited qualifying property above the prescribed amount from their parent’s estate. Parentage must meet the Act’s recognition requirement.
South Australia: Succession Act 2023, section 115	Spouse or domestic partner, children and conditional categories for former partners, stepchildren, grandchildren, parents and siblings.	Former partners face the prescribed property-agreement exclusion. Stepchildren need vulnerability due to disability, dependency, care or a qualifying contribution to the estate. Minor stepchildren also have a maintenance route. Grandchildren need a predeceased parent or maintenance or entitlement immediately before death. Parents and siblings need the care or maintenance connection specified in section 115.
Tasmania: Testator’s Family Maintenance Act 1912, sections 2 and 3A	Spouse, including a qualifying significant-relationship partner, children including adopted children and stepchildren, qualifying former partners and some parents.	Former partners must receive or be entitled to maintenance at death. Parents qualify if there is no surviving spouse or child. Grandchildren and siblings have no separate category.
ACT: Family Provision Act 1969, section 7	Qualifying partners, people in a qualifying domestic relationship for at least two continuous years, children, stepchildren, grandchildren and parents.	Stepchildren need maintenance immediately before death. Grandchildren need a predeceased parent, or maintenance by the deceased without parental maintenance immediately before death. Parents need maintenance or the absence of a surviving partner or child. The partner definition also covers qualifying former relationships.
Northern Territory: Family Provision Act 1970, section 7	Spouse or de facto partner, former partners, children, stepchildren, grandchildren and parents.	Former partners and stepchildren need maintenance immediately before death. Grandchildren need a predeceased parent or absence of parental maintenance immediately before death. Parents need maintenance or the absence of a surviving spouse, de facto partner or child.

The legislation provides the exact conditions: WA, SA, Tasmania, ACT and NT.

South Australia’s Succession Act replaces the earlier Inheritance (Family Provision) Act. Proceedings retained under transitional rules require their own assessment. In SA, a parent or sibling’s qualifying care can be assessed immediately before entry into residential care when the deceased dies there. Otherwise, the relevant care is immediately before death. A parent also has a route through receiving maintenance in the circumstances specified by section 115(6).

For cross-border estates, identify the deceased’s domicile and the location of land before selecting a relationship list. Domicile is their legal permanent home and can differ from their last address. The general rule applies the law of domicile to movable property (such as bank balances) and the law of the location to land. Statutory reach also requires attention where property spans jurisdictions.

In O’Donnell v O’Donnell [2022] NSWSC 1742, the court’s domicile finding determined which family provision law applied to movable property. The NSW Chief Justice’s discussion of cross-border succession explains why a residence address alone cannot settle that question.

Children, Stepchildren and Estranged Children

Yes, adult children can claim in NSW, Victoria and Queensland. Adoption makes a person a child of their adoptive parent for these purposes. Being omitted from that parent’s will does not remove eligibility.

Relationship	NSW	Victoria	Queensland
Adult child	Eligible as a child.	Eligible as a child.	Eligible as a child.
Adopted child	Eligible as the adoptive parent’s child.	Included in the child categories.	Expressly included in the child definition.
Stepchild	Stepchild status alone is insufficient. A dependency and household route can apply.	Included in the stepchild categories.	Included if the statutory stepchild relationship remains.
Estranged child	Estrangement alone does not end child status.	Estrangement alone does not end child status.	Estrangement alone does not end child status.

Estrangement concerns the strength of a child’s claim, including the relationship history and conduct. It does not turn a recognised child into a stranger for eligibility. Record who ended contact and why, without treating either account as settled fact.

For comparison, an excluded biological or adopted child fits the child category. An excluded stepchild in NSW must establish a qualifying relationship beyond the stepchild label.

Can Grandchildren Contest a Will?

Yes, grandchildren can contest a will in some states, but family provision rights often depend on financial support. NSW allows a grandchild who was wholly or partly dependent at any time. Victoria lists grandchildren but requires dependency before a provision order. Queensland’s dependant route requires the grandchild to be under 18 and substantially supported at death.

Consider this hypothetical enquiry. A 24-year-old received rent payments from her grandmother throughout three years of university. In NSW, those payments can establish partial dependency even if the support ended before death. In Victoria, examine the dependency evidence under section 91. In Queensland, those facts do not put an adult grandchild within the under-18 dependant category.

Identify the payer and recipient, then match each transfer to the expense it funded. Rent records, school-fee invoices and living-cost payments can explain the support. A birthday gift alone does not show reliance for living costs. Statements showing repeated rent payments are stronger evidence when the recipient’s budget explains that reliance.

FinTrace saves solicitors hours of statement review when dependency evidence spans a large PDF bundle. Its searchable ledger brings payments together and its findings report gives direct access to the source filename and page. You can follow the support across accounts without repeatedly searching the statements.

Can a Sibling Contest a Will?

Yes, a sibling can sometimes contest a sibling’s will, but brother, sister or half-sibling status alone is usually insufficient for family provision. In NSW, establish dependency with household membership or a qualifying close personal relationship at death. Victoria can admit a sibling through its dependent household-member category. Queensland has no general adult-sibling category.

South Australia expressly includes siblings who meet section 115(7)’s care or maintenance requirements. The table explains the relevant timing. A niece, nephew or in-law also needs an applicable category beyond the family label. NSW’s dependent household route and Victoria’s household route can apply to some of them.

Victoria has a specific category for the spouse or domestic partner of a child who dies within one year of the deceased. Dependency is also required. Being a daughter-in-law alone does not satisfy it.

When siblings dispute their parent’s will, their eligibility comes from being that parent’s children. A claim against a brother’s or sister’s estate requires its own assessment. A sibling outside a provision category can still have a validity interest under an earlier will or intestacy.

Partners, Former Spouses, Carers and Non-Family Members

A spouse or qualifying de facto partner can claim, including a legally married spouse who is separated but not divorced. The relationship at death must meet the applicable statutory definition. NSW does not impose Queensland’s two-year requirement on every de facto family provision claimant.

Queensland requires a genuine domestic relationship continuing for at least two years up to death for its de facto-spouse category. A qualifying former spouse must receive, or be entitled to receive, maintenance at death and have no intervening remarriage or civil partnership. Former civil partners have comparable statutory conditions. The Queensland Law Handbook explains the spouse and dependant distinctions.

NSW includes former spouses but requires factors warranting their application. A former de facto partner needs another qualifying route if the de facto relationship had ended. Victoria’s former-partner category concerns family-law proceedings that death prevents the person taking or finalising.

Carers and unrelated people qualify through the relationship they can prove. In NSW, the close-personal-relationship category requires cohabitation with domestic support and personal care. Care supplied for payment or on behalf of an organisation does not create that relationship. A separate dependent-household route can still require assessment. The statutory definition and exclusions are reproduced in this Supreme Court explanation.

Victoria lists registered caring partners and qualifying household members, with the dependency requirement. Paid care alone does not establish those categories. For each enquiry, record the living arrangement and the direction of support. Caring for the deceased and being financially dependent on them are different facts.

Can an Executor or Beneficiary Contest a Will?

Yes, an executor or beneficiary can make a family provision claim if they independently fit an eligible category. The executor’s appointment creates duties to the estate. It does not create personal entitlement to provision.

Before advancing the claim, resolve who will represent the estate and obtain advice about the executor’s conflict. Renunciation before taking probate can be an option. An executor already acting may require court directions or replacement. A co-executor can sometimes pursue a claim while the other executor represents the estate.

O’Brien v McCormick [2005] NSWSC 619 rejected an automatic rule requiring every claiming co-executor to give up probate. The court explained that the claimant could be omitted as a defendant. It ultimately removed that executrix because her conduct obstructed administration, including the defence of her own claim. That distinction prevents a solicitor treating eligibility and suitability to administer as the same question.

An eligible beneficiary can claim despite receiving a gift. Compare their recognised relationship with the state’s category before treating the size of that gift as decisive. Then address the state’s time limit and the process for contesting a will. Keep the eligibility assessment separate from those later decisions.