What happens if you die without a Will?
Without a valid Will, the law decides who inherits. And the law doesn't know your family. The rules can end up a long way from what you would have wanted, especially if you're unmarried, have stepchildren, or want to look after someone outside the usual family tree.
Last reviewed August 2026
Who gets what under the rules
Everything passes down a strict order of priority. Here's the short version:
- Married or in a civil partnership, no children. Your husband or wife inherits everything.
- Married or in a civil partnership, with children. Your husband or wife gets the personal possessions, a fixed sum set by law, and half of what's left. The other half is shared between the children. The fixed sum is reviewed from time to time, so check the current figure on GOV.UK.
- No husband, wife or civil partner. Everything goes to the children in equal shares. If there are no children, it moves on to parents, then siblings, then wider family.
- No relatives at all. The estate goes to the Crown.
Unmarried partners get nothing
There's no such thing as a common-law husband or wife in the eyes of these rules. You can share a home for fifty years and your partner still won't automatically inherit anything. They might be able to make a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, but that means solicitors, delays and stress at the worst possible time. A Will spares them all of that.
Stepchildren don't count, unless you say so
The rules only recognise biological and legally adopted children. A stepchild you've raised since they were tiny gets nothing unless you name them in your Will.
The house might sit outside your Will
If a property is owned as beneficial joint tenants, it passes automatically to the other owner, no matter what your Will says. If you want your share to go to your children, the joint tenancy needs severing first, and your share dealt with in your Will, often through a property protection trust.
What it means in practice
- Nobody's named to sort things out, so the family has to be appointed as administrators under a fixed order of priority. It's usually slower than probate with a Will.
- Children's shares are held for them until they're 18, with no say from you over who manages the money or when it's released.
- No guardians are appointed for children under 18.
- No inheritance tax planning at all. The estate gets the default treatment, which can waste reliefs a Will could have used.
The good news
A Will lets you choose who should be looked after and who should deal with everything. It matters most if you own a home with someone, have children from different relationships, or you're not married to your partner. One calm conversation is usually all it takes to get started.