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Wills and intestacy

What are the Rules of Intestacy?

The Rules of Intestacy are the legal rules that determine who inherits when someone dies without a valid Will in England and Wales. They apply automatically and follow a defined priority order based on family relationships.

The priority order

Surviving spouse or civil partner

Where the deceased leaves a surviving spouse or civil partner and no children, the entire estate passes to the surviving spouse. Where there are also children, the surviving spouse receives all personal possessions, the first £322,000 of the rest of the estate (£270,000 if the death was before 26 July 2023), and half of anything above that amount. The children share the other half.

Children

Where there is no surviving spouse or civil partner, the estate passes equally between the children. If a child has already died, their share passes to their own children equally.

Other relatives

If there are no children, the estate passes to parents, then siblings, then half-siblings, then grandparents, then aunts and uncles, then half-aunts and half-uncles. If no qualifying relative is found, the estate passes to the Crown.

Who does not inherit under intestacy?

  • Unmarried or cohabiting partners, regardless of how long the relationship lasted
  • Stepchildren who were not legally adopted
  • Friends, carers, or others the deceased may have wished to benefit
  • Charities the deceased may have supported

YouCanDoProbate’s Intestacy Walkthrough guides you through the family circumstances step by step to establish who is entitled to inherit without requiring you to know the rules.

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Trustpilot five star rating
Probate forms

When completing the forms, any query I had as soon as I emailed them they got back to me straight away. Also it would not let you finish the section until you had filled out all that was needed. Helpful that you could save and go back in when you had the answer you needed.

anna smullen
Trustpilot five star rating
Helpful staff and good online service

It was really useful to start the forms and go back to them over a period of days without having to start again. Once completed and printed off, we sent off and our Grant of Probate was received 4 weeks later. I had to contact staff at the Help Centre on a couple of occasions and they were more than helpful. Definitely would recommend using this service if the application is not complicated.

Customer - Bristol
Trustpilot five star rating
Save £2000 pr more by using You Can Do Probate

YouCanDoProbate saved me over £2000 (maybe £2500). Their fee of £399 bought me access to an online process that took me step by step through what would otherwise have been a very daunting task – as I suspect it would be for most people. The objective is to obtain a Grant of Probate and however many copies you require. The fee also includes advisors on the end of a telephone should clarification or advice be required – and when one was not immediately available they called me back very quickly. I called them 3 or 4 times and each time the advisor was patient, thorough, very knowledgeable and extremely helpful – each time stressing that if I had further questions I should not hesitate to call them again. The online process (which comes with a comprehensive online guide for each section needed to be completed) called for a lot of information to be entered; mostly regarding the banks, building societies, funeral expenses and much more but if it is not immediately to hand, the process allows you to step out as may times as you like and all the information already entered is retained. It can seem daunting at first but the more I stuck at it, the easier it seemed to get. The end result of the online process is a PA1P Probate Application form which is 90% auto-filled based on the information I entered as I stepped through the online process. Depending on circumstances, other forms may also need to be generated. Once I printed out the form and checked it over, it was simply a case of sending it to HM Courts and Tribunal Service along with a death certificate and the original will (in my case) along with a cheque for £300 plus a £1.50 fee for each Grant of Probate copy required. I believe that had I gone through a solictor to apply for a Grant of Probate, I was probably going to have to pay around £3,000 so YouCanDoProbate saved me a lot of money. I could not recommend them highly enough.

Ian Boulton
Trustpilot five star rating
I signed up with trepidation having…

I signed up with trepidation having never had to do this before!! However I managed all the form filling with ease and much to my surprise did not have to telephone for help once. I am 70 years of age and would not describe myself as a computer expert in anyway and am a bit of a dinosaur! I would not hesitate to use this service again and will certainly recommend it if asked. For the record I received official notification and paperwork from HMC and Justices that probate had been granted within 21 days of posting the forms. Perhaps I was lucky but this service was idiot proof and saved me the cost of a solicitor.

ken roberts
Trustpilot five star rating
Everything clearly explained.

Explained everything clearly. Guided one to do everything in order. You can save what you have inputted, and come back when you have further information. You can’t proceed until you have given all the correct information. Expensive but foolproof.

Patrick Lynn
Trustpilot five star rating
Amazing, simple to use and worth every penny

I can’t rate YouCanDoProbate more highly. The estate I was dealing with was quite complicated and using a solicitor would have cost thousands. The team talked me through every step and made it easy and simple to complete probate. Any questions I had were answered straight away and I found it all incredibly straightforward and simple to use. This is worth every penny.

Rachel Charalambakis
Trustpilot five star rating
Very easy to use

Very easy to use; user friendly, good people to deal with, very helpful, great software, well designed

M J Roberts Associates Ltd
Trustpilot five star rating
YCDP gave me the control I desired

After the death of my beloved Father, I didn’t want the costly, frustrating, time consuming process of dealing with solicitors regarding what I thought was a legal process. It is in fact an administrative task which everyone is capable of doing. I decided to go ahead with YCDP and if it was sucessful for me I would share my experience so that everyone could make YCDP their first consideration before speaking to solicitors. The Support team/Tom are 10 out of 10 as they helped me with all my questions right from the start and along the journey. I have never experienced service support of this high standard EVER across any section.

K S WILLIS
Trustpilot five star rating
Very helpful app

Very helpful app that is easy and intuitive to use. The one question I needed to ask was answered promptly and helpfully.

Neil R
Trustpilot five star rating
Makes doing probate yourself possible

Makes doing probate yourself possible, saving a lot of money on legal fees and considerably speeding up the process!

Dave
Trustpilot five star rating
Easier to complete than I initially…

Easier to complete than I initially thought.

Lynn Wasnidge
Trustpilot five star rating
Why would you not use this excellent service

Very straightforward process which explained everything required to fill out the form. This coupled with excellent back up with regard to speaking to somebody if clarification was required & explained in simple terms. Very recommended and good value for money.

Mr Trevor Niblett
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Additional costs: The probate registry fee of £526 (for all estates over £5,000) and any additional official copies at £2 each. (Payable directly to HM Courts and Tribunals Service by cheque or postal order, enclosed with your application forms).
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© YouCanDoProbate • YouCanDoProbate is a trading name of Kabing Ltd.
YouCanDoProbate is not a law firm, is not authorised to conduct reserved legal activities, and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Our digital service is a self-help online platform for you to input data, navigate forms, and manage your own inheritance tax returns and probate applications as a lay applicant. It provides administrative utility tools, forms, and general information. Our telephone, email, support ticket, and live chat support provide administrative and technical guidance only. We do not provide legal, estate planning, or tax advice, and our service is not a substitute for a regulated professional’s advice regarding complex estate or tax matters.
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