Glossary · UK
What is Intestacy Rules?
The fixed legal rules that decide who inherits a deceased person's estate, and in what shares, when they die without a valid will in England, Wales or Northern Ireland.
Full Definition
The intestacy rules are a fixed statutory order of priority, set out in the Administration of Estates Act 1925 as amended, that determines who inherits a deceased person's estate, and in what proportions, when they die without a valid will (dying 'intestate') or leave a will that does not deal with the whole of their estate (a 'partial intestacy'). The rules follow a strict hierarchy rather than reflecting what the deceased might actually have wanted: a surviving spouse or civil partner (but, importantly, not an unmarried partner, however long the relationship, who has no automatic entitlement under intestacy at all) receives all personal possessions, a statutory legacy of a fixed amount, and either the whole remaining estate (if there are no children) or half of anything above the statutory legacy shared with any surviving children, who take the other half between them once they reach 18. If there is no surviving spouse or civil partner, the estate passes down a defined list of relatives in order -- children, then parents, then siblings, then more distant relatives -- with the Crown only inheriting as an absolute last resort if no qualifying relative can be found (known as the estate passing as 'bona vacantia'). Because intestacy can produce results very different from what many people would choose -- particularly leaving unmarried partners and stepchildren with no automatic inheritance rights at all -- it is one of the most commonly cited reasons for making a valid will, and a surviving unmarried partner or dependant left out under the rules may, in limited circumstances, be able to bring a claim for reasonable financial provision from the estate under separate legislation.