What happens when someone dies without a will

Dying without a will is called dying intestate, and around half of adults in the UK do. It does not mean the estate goes to the state; that happens only when there is no relative at all. It means the law decides who inherits and who deals with it, by a fixed list, and the family’s wishes and the person’s own do not enter into it. This guide is the list, for England and Wales, and the practical steps. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules, similar in shape and different in the figures.

First, make sure there is no will

Look through the person’s papers, ask their solicitor and their bank, and search the national will register, which solicitors and will-writers use. A will kept in a drawer is still a will. If one turns up later, everything below is undone, so look properly first.

Who inherits, in order

The rules give the estate to relatives in a fixed order, and the first on the list who exists takes it.

1. A spouse or civil partner, with children. The spouse takes the personal belongings, the first £322,000 of the estate, and half of whatever is left; the children share the other half equally. The figure is for deaths from July 2023 and is reviewed periodically.
2. A spouse or civil partner, without children. The spouse takes everything.
3. Children, with no spouse. The children share everything equally. A child of a child who has died takes that parent’s share.
4. Parents, if there is no spouse and no child.
5. Brothers and sisters, then their children.
6. Grandparents, then aunts and uncles, then their children.
7. The Crown, if none of the above exists.

A spouse means a legal spouse or civil partner, even one the person had separated from but not divorced. A partner who was not married inherits nothing, and neither do step-children, friends, carers or charities the person supported.

Who can deal with the estate

Without a will there is no executor. The closest relative on the list above applies to the probate registry for letters of administration, which give them the same authority an executor would have, and they become the administrator. The application is online or by post, needs the death certificate and a valuation of the estate, and has a fee for estates over a small threshold. The grant takes weeks to months. Until it arrives, the administrator can arrange the funeral, tell the organisations, and gather information, but cannot sell property or distribute money.

What the administrator does

Values everything the person owned and owed; pays inheritance tax if the estate is large enough to owe it; pays the funeral, then the debts, from the estate; and distributes what is left according to the list above, keeping accounts. It is the same work as an executor’s, and what to do when someone dies puts it among the other steps.

The two things that surprise families

The unmarried partner. A partner of thirty years who never married inherits nothing and cannot apply to administer the estate. They can bring a claim under the Inheritance Act for reasonable provision, which means a solicitor and a court, and a family that would rather avoid that can agree among themselves to make provision, which the law allows them to do by a deed of variation. It is the strongest reason there is for putting your affairs in order.

The funeral. Whoever arranges the funeral is entitled to be repaid from the estate before any debt or any inheritance, and some banks will pay the funeral director’s invoice directly from the person’s frozen account on sight of it and the death certificate, though none has to before letters of administration, so ask. The family does not need letters of administration to hold a funeral, and should not wait for them. How much does a funeral cost in the UK has the figures.

If the family disagrees

The rules do not bend for a family argument; they say who inherits and who may apply. A relative higher on the list can renounce, letting the next apply. Where two people are equally entitled, either may apply, and a dispute goes to the probate registry and then to a solicitor. Most families find that the fixed list, whatever they think of it, at least ends the argument about what the person would have wanted, because under it that question does not arise.