09. Who gets the estate if there is no will?

All debts (including mortgages and other loans) must be repaid first, whether the dead person has made a will or not. After that, the Administration of Estates Act 1925 sets out who gets what in every situation where there is no will. Some of the more common situations are as follows.

If there is a husband or wife, but no other relatives
The husband or wife gets everything (but an unmarried partner gets nothing).

If there is a husband or wife and children
The husband or wife gets:

• the 'personal chattels' (see 'Terms used in wills and probate matters');
• the first £125,000; and
• a life interest in half of what is left (for example, the income or interest if the money is invested). The capital (the original amount) passes to their children when the surviving husband or wife dies.

The children share between them:

• half what is left straight away, if they are 18 or over; and
• the other half when the surviving parent dies.

Stepchildren get nothing (unless they are named in a will). If one of the children has already died, leaving children of their own, their share will pass to those children  (that is, the grandchildren of the person whose will is being dealt with).

If there is a husband or wife and relatives (but no children)
The husband or wife gets:

• the 'personal chattels' (see 'Terms used in wills and probate matters');
• up to £200,000; and
• half what is left.

The parents of the dead person, or if they have died, the brothers and sisters or their descendants, share the other half of what is left.

If there are children, but no living husband or wife
The children share everything equally. If one of the children has already died, leaving children of their own, those children will share what their parent would have inherited if the parent had been alive.

If there is no husband or wife or children
Everything will pass to the next available group of relatives, in the same order as that for applying for letters of administration. This means:

1. The parents of the dead person.

2. Brothers or sisters of the dead person who have the same mother and father.

3. Half-brothers or half-sisters (who had either the same mother or the same father).

4. Grandparents.

5. Uncles and aunts 'of the whole blood' (this means brothers and sisters of the parents of the dead person, as long as they had the same mother and father themselves).

6. Uncles and aunts 'of the half blood' (this means brothers and sisters of the parents of the dead person who had only the same mother or father). 

7. The Crown (the state).

One common area of misunderstanding is over what happens when a person dies without a will, leaving children or brothers and sisters, but one of these children or brothers or sisters has already died, leaving children or grandchildren of their own. In this situation, those children or grandchildren will get the share that their parent would have got, had they been alive.