Intestacy: What Can Happen?
Posted on 1st April 2025 at 14:01
Intestacy Disputes
Instructing a Will is not just about weighing up what you own and deciding what is worth passing to others. Having a Will in place is an act of responsibility to those you leave behind as intestacy (dying without a Will) can cause a mountain of confusion and conflict between loved ones. Even the closest of families can find themselves feeling compromised by the laws of intestacy and having to act as nominated executors in ways that challenge what they feel is justified and rightful. Look at our Facebook and LinkedIn pages for our intestacy video to help understand the laws of intestacy in more detail.
Intestacy: Paying Children
As it is only the first £322,000 of a person’s estate that goes to their spouse or civil partner and the remainder of the estate is split 50/50 between the spouse/civil partner and a person’s children, the result can be that the parent/step-parent has to pay the children from their spouse’s estate. If cash can easily be made available in the estate to pay the children then the inheritance can be dealt with as a matter of course, but in some cases this can result in the sale of assets that otherwise would not have needed to be sold by the surviving spouse.
Intestacy: Unmarried Partners
With no automatic heritance rights for unmarried couples, this leaves those who may have lived life as a united and mutually dependent couple vulnerable to the laws of intestacy. Without the recognition of ‘common law partnerships’, if a person dies who isn't married or in a civil partnership, but does have children, the whole estate will go to them. If there are no children, then the estate could go to the parents, siblings or other relatives, by-passing the person they have spent their life in partnership with.
Intestacy: Unmarried and No Children
Those who are not married and do not have children but have build relationships and connections with people or organisations that matter to them, need to consider how the laws of intestacy would pass their estate down a very prescribed line as shown:
Their parents;
If parents are deceased, to their brothers and sisters (with full siblings coming before half-siblings);
If they have no siblings or surviving parents, to their grandparents;
If grandparents are also deceased, to uncles and aunts or their children.
Such defined laws of inheritance often do not align to the wishes of an individual, the complexities of people’s relationships and diversity of their lives.
Instructing a Will cuts through any potential confusion and difficulty that arises when the law has to take control. Contact HomeLife to avoid the laws of intestacy and instruct your Will.
Share this post: