In 1984, when Annie Walker supposedly wrote Betty into her will, the Rovers Return was still owned by Newton and Ridley, the local brewery. Furthermore, in 1983, Annie signed the Rovers over to her son, Billy Walker, Billy Walker then sold the tenancy to pay off his debts, and the brewery appointed Bet Lynch as the manager of the Rovers. Annie Walker died before 1995, in that year, the Duckworth's purchased the Rovers from Newton & Ridley.
This would have meant that if Betty indeed had owned the Rovers in 1995 would have stood by and watched Bet struggling to try and find the money to buy the Rovers. Betty would not have done this, the two were good friends and Betty would not have stood by and watched her suffer.
I see no possible way that Annie Walker still owned the tenancy to the Rovers and she never owned the whole pub. Unless there is a side to the storyline that has not yet been revealed, I will be disappointed by the lack of research in that was put into this storyline, rewriting the street's history is just one of those rules that cannot be broken.
Though, I am no legal expert myself, if there are any people with expertise reading, it'd be great to hear if this sort of thing might be possible in the real world.
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