Families are being torn apart as more than one in four Gen Y Australians today admit they are banking on inheritance cash to be able to afford to buy homes in expensive markets.

This has led to children asking their parents to “Give us the money!” as an early inheritance, sometimes creating tensions that end up seeing them cut out of wills completely, or their share slashed. After parents’ death, they’re also increasingly challenging siblings and other family members for a bigger slice of the pie.

A survey of 1000 Australians, commissioned by Slater and Gordon Lawyers, reveals that 26 per cent of Gen Ys said they had to, or would need to, rely on an inheritance windfall to purchase the home they wanted. This compared to just 8 per cent of Baby Boomers who said they had needed, or might need in the future, an inheritance to buy property, and 16 per cent of Gen X-ers.

“There’s no question that Australia’s housing market is tough at the moment, especially in capital cities, with a significant proportion of the next generation priced out,” says Slater and Gordon associate Lara Nurpuri.

“What we’re increasingly seeing in some situations is children counting on an inheritance from their family to give them the deposit they need to break into the market. However, we’re also seeing some people who count their chickens before they’ve hatched and don’t get as much as they were expecting, while some even ask for an early inheritance.”

This trend of young people circling their parents expectantly is the most pronounced in NSW, presumably because of the high price of property, with Slater and Gordon seeing more cases where family members are going to court against each other to fight for bigger shares of wills.

“We have seen many instances where this [reliance on inheritance] created tensions that have led to estrangements where inheritances are reduced or children are cut out of wills completely,” says Ms Nurpuri.

“There’s a lot of infighting, and heartbreak happening. It’s almost as if some are waiting for something to happen to their parents so they can get money which, in turn, puts a lot of pressure on parents with relationships becoming very fragile. It’s very sad.”

First Home Buyers of Australia founder Daniel Cohen says inheritances are now becoming a firm factor in first-time buyers’ calculations, although a major difficulty is that, while some will be bequeathed six, even seven-figure sums, others may receive nothing.

“First home buyers are looking at both pre-inheritance and after-death inheritance, and that’s a trend that might well grow, especially for raising deposits,” Mr Cohen says. “But the problem is, you can’t count on that money.

“Baby Boomers have long life expectancies these days and while some want to pass on their wealth, others don’t want to. They say they’ve worked for that money, it’s theirs and they want a good retirement.”

At legal firm Gerard Malouf & Partners, which specialises in contesting wills, lawyer Garbis Kolokossian says he’s also seeing more activity in the field. “We’re definitely seeing more people inquiring about making a claim on wills,” he says.

“They need to be eligible to do so, and also have to be able to establish need. Finding permanent accommodation is one of the main focuses in many of the family provision claims. We’re seeing more families becoming involved, which can be complex if it involves multiple spouses or children from different parents.”

Some Millennials are counting on receiving an inheritance as a Plan B or C, but for others these days it is a Plan A, believes mortgage broker Justin Doobov, of Intelligent Finance.

“These people don’t actively want their grandparents or parents to die, but they do think about, at some time in the future, getting a lump sum, so they extend themselves a bit more or take out interest-only loans,” he says. “It’s definitely being factored in.

“But we encourage people to save the money they’ll need as the only person you can really rely on is yourself. People live longer and families contest wills, so you never really know.”

The proportion of overall people – of all generations – counting on an inheritance was highest in NSW, probably because of property prices, at 23 per cent, while in Victoria it was 13 per cent, Queensland 11 per cent, WA 15 per cent and South Australia 14 per cent.

Slater and Gordon’s Ms Nurpuri says every state and territory has laws that stop parents “ruling from the grave”, which allow children to make claims on their deceased estate. But the laws often differ with, for instance, NSW allowing courts to call back pre-death inheritance assets to allow them to be challenged.