If someone dies without a valid will in England and Wales, the intestacy rules set out who inherits, and a person entitled under those rules applies for letters of administration to deal with the estate. The result may not match what the person would have chosen.
Intestacy is a fixed statutory order. It does not consider unmarried partners, stepchildren who were never adopted, or friends and charities the person may have wanted to benefit. This guide explains who inherits, what letters of administration are, and who can apply for them. Figures are current as at June 2026 and are subject to change.
What does dying intestate mean?
Dying intestate means dying without a valid will, so the estate is shared out under the rules of intestacy rather than by personal choice. Those rules, set out in the Administration of Estates Act 1925, follow a strict order based on marriage, civil partnership and blood relationship. A partial intestacy can also arise where a will is valid but fails to deal with the whole estate.
Who inherits under the intestacy rules?
Under the intestacy rules for England and Wales, a surviving spouse or civil partner comes first, followed by children, then more distant blood relatives in a set order. If no relative in the list survives, the estate passes to the Crown as bona vacantia. Unmarried partners and stepchildren who were never legally adopted do not inherit at all.
| Order | Who inherits (if earlier categories do not survive) |
|---|---|
| 1 | Spouse or civil partner (see the split below where there are also children) |
| 2 | Children, or their descendants if a child has died before |
| 3 | Parents |
| 4 | Brothers and sisters (full siblings), then their children |
| 5 | Half-brothers and half-sisters, then their children |
| 6 | Grandparents |
| 7 | Aunts and uncles (full), then their children |
| 8 | Half-aunts and half-uncles, then their children |
| 9 | The Crown (bona vacantia), if no one above survives |
Order of entitlement per gov.uk, who can inherit if there is no will, England and Wales, as at June 2026, subject to change.
What a spouse or civil partner receives
A surviving spouse or civil partner does not automatically inherit everything. Where there are also children, the survivor takes the personal possessions, a statutory legacy (a fixed sum) and half of the remaining estate, and the children share the other half. Where there are no children, the spouse or civil partner takes the whole estate. Only a legal spouse or civil partner qualifies here.
The statutory legacy is reviewed periodically and can change, so the figure that applies is the one in force at the date of death. Marriage and civil partnership matter here in another way too: getting married generally revokes an earlier will, which can leave someone unintentionally intestate. Reviewing arrangements after a life event is one reason many people revisit an estate planning guide rather than assume an old will still holds.