25 Nov 2024

Intestacy Rules: What are They?

Do you know what could happen if you die without the legal reassurance of a valid Will?

When it comes to future planning, and ensuring your estate goes to the people you wish it to, having a Will is important.

Without it, your assets could be left to the legal obligations of Intestacy Rules with their destination totally dependent on them. One of our Wills, Probate, and Trust experts, Simoon Brown, discusses what this could mean for a person’s estate after they’ve died.

What are Intestacy Rules?

If you die without having made a Will, the Intestacy Rules will come into play.

Regardless of your family situation, by law, your assets must be split/passed through these rules, which apply to estates in England and Wales only. This also applies to Wills that have been made but are not valid, treating the deceased as though they had no Will.

Explaining the Rules*

In the first instance, everything you own is passed to your spouse or civil partner. However, if you have children, they will also be entitled to some monies.

This is only if your estate is valued over £322,000; the children will receive 50% of the remaining amount over this value.

If you do not have a spouse or civil partner at the time of your death, your estate will be passed in the following order to your;

Children (including illegitimate and adopted children, not stepchildren)
Parents
Siblings (first instance to full siblings only, then to half-siblings)
Grandparents
Aunties and Uncles (first instance to full aunts and uncles only, then to half aunts and uncles)

If you cannot trace any of the above persons to inherit your estate, everything will pass to the crown, for example, the government, as your property and possessions then become ownerless.

If, for example, you had children but at your time of death your children were no longer around to inherit your estate, then their children (if any) will inherit their share on their parents’ behalf, before your own parents have a chance to inherit.

This is the same principle with any relative who is entitled to your estate but was not living at the time of your death - if there is more than one entitled, this will be shared equally.

*These specific rules apply to deaths which occurred on or after 26th July 2023

Potential Problems

It is important you make a Will, especially to avoid your estate reaching someone you would not have wished to receive it.

We see this a lot in our field of work, where, for example, the father dies without a Will and without a spouse but the child he had no relationship with for many years ends up inheriting their whole estate. This can cause many issues within the wider family as those relatives who were close with the father, such as their siblings, do not get anything and there isn’t much they can do about this.

This is still the case if the deceased wasn't married or in a civil partnership but was living with their long-term partner; this partner will not be entitled to receive anything.

Cohabiting partners and long-term partners are not protected under the rules of Intestacy but for any joint assets, such as bank accounts or property held in joint names, they may pass to the surviving joint owner automatically and not under the Intestacy rules.

We have also seen cases where it was possible to trace relatives of the deceased but sometimes there are many of them to contact, which may mean it can take a significant amount of time to deal with the estate, sometimes even up to eight years.

An estate like this could have been dealt with within two years if the deceased had just made a Will.