What is the order of inheritance without a will?

When someone dies without a valid will, UK law decides who inherits - known as intestacy rules. They work like a queue: the estate goes to the first class of relative in the list, and only moves down if no one in that group survives.

First: spouse or civil partner

A surviving husband, wife or civil partner is first in the queue - provided they outlive the deceased by 28 days. What they receive depends on whether there are children.

No children: the spouse inherits everything.

With children: the spouse receives the personal possessions, the first £322,000 of the estate, and half of whatever remains above that. The children share the other half equally.

An example. Mark dies without a will, leaving a wife and two children and an estate worth £500,000. His wife receives £322,000 plus half the remaining £178,000, so £411,000 in total. The children receive £44,500 each.

If a couple separated years ago but never divorced, the spouse still inherits. Only divorce or dissolution removes them from the queue.

If there's no spouse

If there is no surviving spouse or civil partner, the estate passes to the first of these classes with a living member:

1. Children, in equal shares. If a child died before the parent, that child's share passes to their own children.
2. Parents
3. Brothers and sisters (or their children, if a sibling has died)
4. Half-brothers and half-sisters (or their children)
5. Grandparents
6. Aunts and uncles (or their children — the deceased's cousins)
7. Half-aunts and half-uncles (or their children)
8. The Crown. If no qualifying relative exists, the estate passes to the government as bona vacantia — "ownerless goods". Around £20m a year goes this way.

Each class takes everything before the next is considered. If the deceased left one surviving parent and six siblings, the parent would inherit the entire estate. If there is more than one relation in each class, the estate is shared equally.

Children inherit at 18; until then their share is held in trust. "Children" includes adopted children and children born outside marriage, and it makes no difference whether they're from the current relationship or an earlier one.

Who gets nothing

The rules only recognise marriage, civil partnership and blood (or adoption). The following groups inherit nothing, however close the relationship:

• Unmarried partners. There is no such thing as common-law marriage in England and Wales. A partner of thirty years has no automatic right to inherit.
• Stepchildren, unless legally adopted.
• In-laws, friends and carers.

A partner who lived with the deceased for at least two years, or anyone financially dependent on them, can apply to the court for provision under the Inheritance Act 1975, but this comes with uncertainty.

A worked example of the queue in action

Joan dies unmarried with no children. Her parents died years ago. She had one brother, who died before her leaving two sons. Her estate passes to class 3 (siblings) and because her brother predeceased her, his share flows down to his children. Joan's two nephews inherit half each, and her cousins and more distant relatives get nothing.

Scotland and Northern Ireland

Scotland uses a different system entirely. A surviving spouse or civil partner has "prior rights": the home up to £473,000 in value, furnishings up to £29,000, and a cash sum of £50,000 if there are children or £89,000 if not. After that, spouse and children have fixed "legal rights" in the moveable estate, and the remainder follows its own order of succession. Since 2024, a spouse ranks ahead of parents and siblings for that remainder.

Northern Ireland broadly mirrors England and Wales, but the spouse's fixed sum is £250,000 rather than £322,000, and where there are two or more children the spouse takes a third of the excess rather than half.

The practical point

If the person who died was your spouse and the estate is modest, the rules will usually give you everything, and you apply for letters of administration to deal with it. If the family situation is more complicated (i.e. second marriages, stepchildren, an unmarried partner, or estranged relatives) the rules may produce an unintended result, which is a key reason to make a will.