What are the Intestacy Rules?

The intestacy rules are as follows:

• Your spouse/civil partner only inherits if they survive you by 28 days
• Where there are no children, parents, brothers or sisters of the whole blood or nieces or nephews of the whole blood then the spouse/civil partner inherits it all
• Where there are children, the spouse/civil partner inherits the personal chattels, a statutory legacy of £125,000 and a life interest in one half of what is left after that. The children inherit the other half. They also have a remainder interest in the half the spouse/civil partner inherited, meaning when that person dies, the children inherit this also
• Where there are no children, but there are parents, brothers or sisters of the whole blood or nieces or nephews of the whole blood, then the spouse/civil partner inherits the personal chattels, a statutory legacy of £200,000 and one half of what is left after that. The other half is inherited by the parents or, where none survive, to the brothers and sisters of the whole blood or their children
• Where there is no spouse/civil partner, the children inherit everything as long as they reach the age of 18. If a child dies before their parent, but leaves children of their own their children receive their inheritance
• Where there is no spouse/civil partner and no children then everything is inherited by the first class of people in the following list:

1. Parents
2. Brothers and sisters of the whole blood (or their children if they died first)
3. Brothers and sister of the half blood (or their children if they died first)
4. Grandparents
5. Uncles and aunts of the whole blood
6. Uncles and aunts of the half blood

What should you do next?

If you’re unable to find a Will and need some advice on your next steps, then contact us on 01935 823883 for a no-obligation chat and we can help you work out where you go from here.