What happens if you die without a will in England and Wales

When someone dies without a valid will they are said to have died intestate. Their estate is then shared out under the intestacy rules, a fixed set of rules in England and Wales that decide who inherits and in what order. The rules are rigid, and they often produce a result the person would never have chosen.

The order of inheritance

The rules work through a list of relatives. In outline:

1. A spouse or civil partner, with no children. The spouse or civil partner inherits everything.
2. A spouse or civil partner, with children. The spouse or civil partner receives the personal possessions, a fixed sum known as the statutory legacy, and half of whatever is left. The children share the other half.
3. Children, but no spouse or civil partner. The children inherit everything in equal shares. If a child has already died, their own children take their share.
4. No spouse and no children. The estate passes to parents, then to brothers and sisters, then to half brothers and sisters, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and so on down the family tree.
5. No surviving relatives at all. The estate passes to the Crown.

The statutory legacy figure is set by the government and is revised from time to time, so check the current amount on the official government website.

Who gets nothing

The rules only recognise blood relatives and legally married or civil partnered spouses. That means the following people receive nothing under intestacy, no matter how close they were:

• an unmarried partner, even after decades together
• step-children who were never legally adopted
• close friends
• carers
• charities

This is the single biggest reason to make a will. If you want any of these people to inherit, a will is the only way.

Separated but not divorced

Separation makes no difference to the intestacy rules. Until a divorce is final, a spouse remains a spouse and inherits accordingly. Many people are shocked to learn that an estranged husband or wife could take most of the estate. A will fixes this, though a spouse may still be able to make a claim.

Who deals with the estate

Where there is a will, the executors deal with the estate. Where there is none, the closest relative under the intestacy rules can apply to the Probate Registry for letters of administration and become the administrator. If several people have an equal claim, they will need to agree who applies.

Children under eighteen

If children inherit under intestacy, their share is held in trust until they are eighteen. There is no scope to delay it to a later age, as a will could. Nor does intestacy name a guardian; that is left to the courts.

Jointly owned property

Property owned as joint tenants passes automatically to the surviving owner, outside the intestacy rules. Property owned as tenants in common does not, and the deceased's share is dealt with under the rules. The same applies to joint bank accounts, which usually pass to the survivor.

What you can do about it

The answer is simple: make a will. It need not be complicated. A single conversation about who you want to benefit, who should act as executor and who should look after any children is enough to make a start. We visit people at home across Norfolk and Suffolk, and we hand deliver the finished will for signing so it is properly witnessed.