Dying without a will in the UK: who the rules leave out

What happens if you die without a will?

If you die without a valid will, the intestacy rules decide who inherits your estate and who is entitled to deal with it, and they apply the same fixed formula to everyone whatever you might have wanted. The rules work down a list of relatives, starting with a husband, wife or civil partner and children and moving outwards through parents, brothers and sisters, grandparents and aunts and uncles, with the Crown taking the estate if nobody on the list survives you. Our guide to the intestacy rules sets out that order in full, and GOV.UK's rules checker works through it question by question.

What the list leaves out matters as much as what it contains, because the rules recognise only marriage, civil partnership, blood relationships and legal adoption. Anyone outside those categories receives nothing automatically, however close they were to you, so the gaps are the strongest planning reason to make a will if your family does not fit the pattern the rules assume. The same rules apply if your only will was revoked by a later marriage or civil partnership and never replaced, since section 18 of the Wills Act 1837 cancels a will on marriage unless it was made with that marriage in mind.

How much does a husband, wife or civil partner inherit?

A surviving spouse or civil partner is the person the rules protect most, through what is called the statutory legacy. For deaths on or after 26 July 2023 it is £322,000, the figure set by the Administration of Estates Act 1925 (Fixed Net Sum) Order 2023, which is the figure GOV.UK's checker uses. If your estate is worth up to £322,000 your spouse or civil partner receives all of it, and if it is worth more they receive your personal possessions, the first £322,000 and half of the rest, with your children sharing the other half. Where you leave no children or other descendants, the checker says your spouse or civil partner receives the whole estate.

A spouse you have separated from but not divorced still counts, and Citizens Advice notes that a partner who is separated but still married to you inherits in the same way, whereas a divorced former spouse does not (the exception is a formal judicial separation order, which under section 18 of the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973 removes the spouse from the intestacy whilst it is in force). Your spouse also has to outlive you by 28 days, because section 46 of the 1925 Act treats a spouse or civil partner who dies within that period as if they had not survived you. Because the statutory legacy is a fixed sum, in a larger estate part of your money goes to your children rather than to your spouse.

Does an unmarried partner inherit if there is no will?

No. An unmarried partner has no automatic right to inherit under the intestacy rules in England and Wales, however long you have lived together, and GOV.UK's checker states that a partner who was not married to or in a civil partnership with the person who died has no automatic right to inherit. Citizens Advice adds that a surviving partner will not automatically inherit anything unless the couple owned property jointly, and that unmarried partners do not share the inheritance tax exemption that applies between spouses.

A surviving partner can ask the court for provision under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, but the limits make it a fallback rather than a plan. To claim as a cohabitant, they must have lived with you in the same household as if you were married or civil partners for the whole of the two years before your death, and even then the court can only award what is reasonable for their maintenance, which is a lower standard than a spouse's claim. Section 4 requires the claim to be made within six months of the grant of letters of administration unless the court allows a late one, and the result depends on the court weighing the factors in section 3, including the size of the estate, your partner's needs and age, the length of the relationship and their contribution to the family. That is a court claim needing specialist legal advice, with no guaranteed outcome, and our guide to contesting a will explains how these claims work after a death.

The Ministry of Justice ran a consultation called A fairer end to relationships from 5 June to 14 August 2026, which asked for views on modernising the law for cohabitants on intestacy, but a consultation changes nothing by itself, so as at November 2026 a will remains the way to leave an unmarried partner anything from your estate.

Do stepchildren inherit if there is no will?

Stepchildren do not inherit under the intestacy rules unless you legally adopted them. GOV.UK's checker counts legally adopted children and their descendants as your children but expressly excludes stepchildren, and Citizens Advice's guide to the rules of intestacy confirms that a stepchild adopted by a step-parent inherits whilst one who was not adopted cannot.

In a blended family this can produce a result few couples would choose. If you die first and your estate is worth less than the statutory legacy, everything passes to your spouse, and if your spouse later dies without a will, their estate passes to their own children and relatives, which means your children from an earlier relationship, who are their stepchildren, can end up with nothing from either estate. A stepchild whom you treated as a child of your family can apply under the 1975 Act, but that is again a court claim limited to maintenance rather than a share of the estate.

What about friends, carers and charities?

Friends, carers and charities receive nothing under the intestacy rules, because section 46 of the Administration of Estates Act 1925 only provides for a spouse or civil partner and relatives. A friend you lived with, or someone who cared for you, could only claim under the 1975 Act if you were maintaining them, which section 1 defines as making a substantial contribution to their reasonable needs other than under a commercial arrangement, so a carer you paid would not usually qualify on that basis. A gift to a charity can only come through a will, although Citizens Advice explains that the people who do inherit can agree to redirect part of the estate within two years of the death if they choose.

If nobody on the list survives you, your estate passes to the Crown as bona vacantia. Section 46 allows the Crown to provide for dependants, whether related to you or not, and for others you might reasonably have been expected to provide for, but that is a discretion rather than a right, so it is no substitute for naming people in a will.

What happens to children under 18?

Children under 18 cannot receive their inheritance outright, so their share is held on what the 1925 Act calls the statutory trusts until they reach 18 or marry or form a civil partnership before then. Under section 47 the share then belongs to them absolutely, which means a child receives the whole of it at 18 whatever its size.

The bigger gap for parents is guardianship, because the intestacy rules deal only with money and property. Under section 5 of the Children Act 1989, a parent with parental responsibility can appoint a guardian for their children, either in a will or in a separate document that is in writing, dated and signed, and the appointment generally takes effect once no parent with parental responsibility survives. If no parent with parental responsibility survives and you have named nobody, someone has to apply and the court decides who becomes the child's guardian without knowing who you would have picked.

Who deals with your estate if there is no will?

Without a will there is no executor, so someone has to apply for letters of administration, and the right to apply follows the same family order as the inheritance rules. Rule 22 of the Non-Contentious Probate Rules 1987 puts a surviving spouse or civil partner first, followed by children and then the wider family, and it makes no mention of an unmarried partner, so a partner who shared your home has no right to apply. Our guide to letters of administration explains the process and the order of priority. Naming executors in a will lets you choose people you trust, including someone outside the family, rather than leaving the job to whoever ranks highest.

What passes outside the intestacy rules?

Some assets do not pass under the intestacy rules at all, which can soften the gaps for a partner. Citizens Advice explains that if you own your home with someone as beneficial joint tenants your share passes automatically to the surviving owner, whereas a share held as tenants in common passes under your will or, without one, under the intestacy rules, and that the balance of a joint bank account also passes to the surviving account holder. Our guide to joint tenants and tenants in common explains how to find out which applies to your home.

Pension death benefits generally depend on the pension scheme's rules rather than on a will, and Citizens Advice notes that for unmarried couples this means checking the scheme's rules and filling in an expression of wish form to tell the scheme who you would like to benefit. Everything held in your sole name, which for most people includes savings, investments and personal possessions, still passes under the intestacy rules.

How is it different in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

Scotland has its own intestacy rules, built around prior rights and legal rights. GOV.UK's checker shows that a surviving spouse or civil partner with children takes the house up to £473,000, furniture and household goods up to £29,000 and up to £50,000 in cash, which HMRC's Inheritance Tax Manual records as the prior rights limits since 1 February 2012, and the checker then gives the spouse a third of what is left and the children the remainder. mygov.scot explains that legal rights give a spouse, civil partner and children a fixed share of moveable property such as money and belongings, though not land or buildings, and that a cohabiting partner does not automatically inherit. A cohabitant can apply to the court under section 29 of the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 within six months of the death, a period that section 78 of the Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Act 2024 extends to 12 months when it comes into force on 14 December 2026, although neither the Act nor the commencement regulations say how the change applies to a death before that date, so anyone already inside the six months should take advice without waiting.

In Northern Ireland, nidirect's guidance on what to do if there is no will says that for deaths since 1 January 2008 a spouse or civil partner takes everything in an estate of £250,000 or less, and that an unmarried partner does not inherit automatically and has six months from the grant to bring a claim under the Northern Ireland equivalent of the 1975 Act.

What to do next

1. Run your own circumstances through GOV.UK's rules checker to see who would inherit if you died today without a will.

2. Write down anyone you would want to provide for who is missing from that result, such as a partner, stepchildren, a friend, a carer or a charity.

3. If you have children under 18, think about who you would want as their guardian and whether that person would be willing to act.

4. Find out how your home and any joint accounts are owned, and whether your pension expression of wish forms are up to date.

5. If you decide to make a will, our guides to getting a will for free and what a will costs set out the routes, and GOV.UK suggests getting advice if, for example, you share property with an unmarried partner or several family members may make a claim.

Whoever ends up dealing with your estate, whether an executor you chose or an administrator the rules choose for you, will have to find and tell every bank, utility, insurer and subscription you held, which is far easier when you have left a clear record of your accounts. If that work does fall to your family, Legacy Trail's free notification service can contact those private-sector companies for them.