What happens if someone dies without a will?

Intestacy is not a fallback that approximates what most people would want. It is a rigid statutory order that predates most modern family structures. The two groups it treats worst are unmarried partners, who take nothing at all, and stepchildren, who are not included unless legally adopted.

Step by step

1. Search properly for a will before concluding there is none.Check the home, the bank, any solicitor used for a house purchase, and the National Will Register. A found will after distribution is a serious problem, so the search should be recorded.
2. Understand the position of a spouse or civil partner in England and Wales.They take the personal chattels, a statutory legacy fixed by regulations, and half of anything remaining. The other half goes to the children, or their descendants, in equal shares. Where there are no children, the spouse takes the whole estate.
3. Note that separation is not divorce.A separated but not divorced spouse still inherits under the intestacy rules. This surprises people more than almost anything else here.
4. Understand the position of an unmarried partner.Nothing, under the intestacy rules, regardless of the length of the relationship or shared children. The route available is a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, which is a court process with a six-month time limit from the grant. Jointly owned property held as joint tenants passes by survivorship regardless.
5. Follow the order where there is no spouse.Children and their descendants first, then parents, then brothers and sisters of the whole blood and their descendants, then half-blood siblings, then grandparents, then aunts and uncles and their descendants. Where nobody in the order survives, the estate passes to the Crown as bona vacantia.
6. Note who is not included.Stepchildren who were never legally adopted, unmarried partners, friends, carers and charities. Adopted children are treated as children of the adoptive family and not the birth family.
7. Identify who can administer the estate.There is no executor, so someone applies for letters of administration. The statutory order of priority broadly mirrors the order of entitlement, so the person who inherits most usually applies.
8. Consider a deed of variation where everyone agrees.Beneficiaries can redirect their entitlement within two years of the death, and it can be treated as if the deceased had made the gift. It is the standard route for correcting an intestacy outcome the family considers wrong, and it needs legal drafting.
9. Use it as the prompt to write your own.The overwhelming majority of people who discover how intestacy works do so while administering someone else's estate. It is the moment to deal with your own.

Questions people ask