Can Witnesses Be Family Members?

There is no blanket rule preventing relatives from witnessing a will. Section 9 of the Wills Act 1837 requires two witnesses present at the same time who watch the testator sign, or hear them acknowledge their signature, and then sign themselves. Nothing in that requirement excludes family members as a category.

This means a sibling, adult child, cousin, or other relative who is not receiving anything under your will can validly act as one of your witnesses, just as a friend, neighbour or colleague could.

The problem arises specifically where the family member witnessing the will is also named as a beneficiary, or is married to or in a civil partnership with someone named as a beneficiary. Section 15 of the Wills Act 1837 states that in this situation, the gift to that beneficiary fails and is treated as void, although this does not invalidate the will as a whole; the rest of the will still takes effect.

This is a common and costly mistake in home-made and family-witnessed wills. For example, if you leave your entire estate to your two adult children and ask one of them to witness the will, that child's inheritance under the will is lost, even though everything else about the document is perfectly valid.

When a gift fails under section 15, it does not automatically pass to someone else named in place of that beneficiary unless the will specifically provides for that. Instead, it usually falls into the residuary estate (if it was not itself the residue) or passes under the intestacy rules if there is no effective residuary gift to catch it, which can produce a result the testator never intended.

This is a significant and often overlooked consequence, and it is precisely why choosing the right witnesses matters just as much as getting the signing sequence correct.

If you want family members to witness your will, choose relatives who are not named as beneficiaries and are not married to or in a civil partnership with anyone who is. For example, a sibling who receives nothing under the will, or an adult grandchild not mentioned at all, can witness safely without any risk to their own position, because they have nothing to lose.

Bear in mind that family situations can be complicated: a relative might not be a direct beneficiary but could still benefit indirectly, for instance as a discretionary beneficiary of a trust set up by the will, and this deserves careful thought before choosing them as a witness.

Given how easy it is to overlook an indirect family connection, many people choose to avoid using family members as witnesses altogether, opting instead for neighbours, friends outside the will, or colleagues who have no possible interest in the estate. This removes any risk of section 15 applying by accident.

If you do use family members, double check carefully, ideally with reference to a full list of who is named in the will and their spouses or civil partners, that neither witness nor their spouse has any interest in the document before the signing takes place.