What Happens If I Die Without a Will in the UK?

The intestacy rules take over

When someone dies without a valid will in England and Wales, their estate is distributed according to the rules of intestacy — a fixed statutory formula that has nothing to do with what they might have wanted. The results can be surprising, sometimes badly so.

Unmarried partners get nothing

This is the most important thing to understand. An unmarried partner — however long you have been together, whether you have children together, whether you share a home — inherits nothing under the intestacy rules. There is no such thing as a common-law spouse in English law. Only legally married spouses and civil partners are recognised.

If you are not married and you die without a will, your entire estate passes to your blood relatives according to a strict order of priority. Your partner may have to leave the home you shared together.

How the intestacy rules work

If you leave a spouse or civil partner and no children: your spouse inherits everything.

If you leave a spouse and children: your spouse receives all personal property, a statutory legacy of £322,000 (the current figure, updated periodically), and half of anything above that. Your children share the other half equally when they turn 18.

If you leave children but no spouse: your children share the estate equally when they turn 18. If a child has died before you, their children (your grandchildren) take their parent's share.

If you leave no spouse or children: the estate passes to parents, then to siblings (or their children if siblings have died), then to half-siblings, then to grandparents, then to aunts and uncles, then to half-aunts and half-uncles. If none of these relatives exist, the estate passes to the Crown.

Friends, step-children who were not legally adopted, and unmarried partners receive nothing regardless of your relationship with them.

What intestacy does not cover

Your funeral wishes. There is no mechanism for them without a will. Your family will make the decisions.

Guardianship of your children. Without a will naming a guardian, a court decides. It will almost certainly choose a sensible person, but it will not necessarily be who you would have chosen.

Specific gifts to specific people. Every item of sentimental value goes into the general estate and is distributed according to the formula, not according to who you wanted to have it.

Who administers the estate

Without a will there is no executor. One of your relatives has to apply to court for a grant of letters of administration, which gives them similar authority. The order of priority for who can apply broadly follows the inheritance order. This takes longer and involves more court paperwork than probate with a will.

The fix

A will takes around twenty minutes to complete with PureWill and costs £79. It is the most direct way to make sure the people you want to benefit actually do.