Rules of Intestacy
2014

According to the rules of intestacy of 2014, the spouse and the children of the deceased were the main heirs. Imagining that both children and spouse are alive when the death occurs, the estate would be divided in the following way:

The spouse would take all personal belongings, plus up to £250,000 pounds — also, half of the remaining estate. The other half of the estate would go to the children, and it would be divided equally among them.

Now let’s see what happens when there is no spouse or if he or she and the children were already dead.

In case the spouse was already dead, all of the estate would go to the children. If there is no spouse or children, then the estate would go to the deceased’s parents.

On the other hand, if the spouse is alive, but there were no children, the spouse would take all of the estate. Notice that if the deceased’s children are dead, but there are other descendants likes grandchildren, then such descendants of the children would have the right to inherit as if they were children. In all other cases when there were no children, everything went to the spouse.

In some cases, there may not be a spouse, children, or parents living. Then, the right went to the deceased’s brothers or their descendants. The full blood brothers had priority above half-blood brothers.

Although unlikely, it may happen that the only surviving family of the deceased are ascendants like grandparents or uncles. In that case, the estate would go to them in that order.

Sometimes heirs have to be found. In that case, you can get help from an heir hunting service. Notice that in case there was no family to inherit, the estate would go to the Crown.

A way to avoid all of these issues is just by making a will. It is cheap, efficient, and removes problems related to the probate.