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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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I found the platform very helpful

I found the platform very helpful. I was especially impressed with the help desk capability – very timely and helpful.

Mike
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Easy to use. Great service and a saving of £2000!

I HIGHLY recommend the platform for anyone wanting to save solicitors fees and who wants to apply themselves. £325 gives you an easy to use platform that asks questions that are easy to understand. It is intuitive to use and red flags you if there is anything missing. Support is 1st class, sent an email question on a Sunday afternoon and had a reply 2 hours later! YCDP cuts out large parts of the probate forms that do not apply to your own application….My application was straightforward and the actual time i took on the YCDP platform was probably 30 mins. Quotes from solicitors were £2k to £3k JUST to fill out the forms, bear in mind that you have to provide the solicitors with all the details. Brilliant service – Easy to use.

Mike Adkins
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Made the process simpler than expected

Made the process simpler than expected, when needed clarity due to special circumstances, positive support was readily available. Now in min.16 weeks period waiting to see if Letters of Administration will be issued. Would highly recommend!

Mike
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Couldn’t fault these guys.

Couldn’t fault these guys. Easy to navigate through the site and they were on hand to speak to when needed. No need to use a solicitor which made a refreshing change. A difficult time was made so much easier. Don’t use anyone else, these are the people to use when having to deal with probate.

Richard Knight
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Step by step guide throughout the process, and friendly helpful advisors.

Mine wasn’t a straight forward case. Following a very friendly informative chat with Tom, I felt confident to try and complete the process for myself. I had to ring and ask for a call back a couple of times, which they did very promptly. Luckily for me, I spoke to Tom on both occasions. He talked me through my issues, and helped me to complete the form the same day. I will be posting my documents tomorrow, and will hopefully do an update once I have received my grant of probate. I couldn’t find fault with any of the service, and would thoroughly recommend it. Thank you Tom.

Maria Denniss
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What a brilliant service

What a brilliant service, a simple money saver. Thoroughly recommended to do Probate yourself. Very well supported by Probate experts on the end of the telephone. I phoned 4 times and nothing was to much trouble. Reasonably simple forms to download and fill in. You can at any point return to the start and edit anything. Even if you make a total hash of it you can start again as many times as you like. It collates all the information you enter into the forms and then when you print it out it is in a recognised format for the HMCTS people. If you are unsure just phone the help line and talk to an expert, if they bare busy they will call you back. I applied for Probate on 29th April, on 12 May I had conformation that Probate had been granted and I would receive my Grant Of Probate paperwork within 10 working days. You cant beat that, well worth the £499.

Website User
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Excellent service, guaranteed peace of mind

From my first call to YouCanDoProbate I felt confident in the help I would receive throughout the process of applying for grant of probate for my mum’s estate. The HMRC forms are not complicated but having access to support and having confirmation that no tax is due and that you have declared everything correctly, is very reassuring. It is worth the money for peace of mind and cost much less than hiring a solicitor

MISS RACHEL NAYLOR
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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
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This was a god send to me

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Sam Macleod
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Straightforward and easy to use

Straightforward and easy to use, I’d recommend this to anyone. I’ve had to apply for probate on an estate with various investments, property and outstanding tax. I entered all information over a couple of days, prompted by they software. I think it would be hard to go wrong. I had questions answered very quickly either by phone or email. There was a slight glitch which resulted in incorrect tax form generation. I sent a query in on a service ticket and got a phone call over a weekend that resolved everything. My IHT400 and Probate were accepted and granted straight away. Providing you have all information about the estate to hand, this makes it very easy. Well worth the money. Thanks.

David Glover
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I’m never one for leaving reviews

I’m never one for leaving reviews, but this service genuinely deserves the 5* review I’m giving it. I completed the probate application with my Mum shortly after my Dad’s passing. My Mum had been quoted thousands of £s to do this on her behalf, which I felt was unreasonable. After a quick Google I found this website and suggested it to my Mum. She was sceptical at first so I offered to help, and having completed the intuitive online process with her, she quickly told me she could have done it herself! It’s not a nice thing to deal with, particularly at such a difficult time, but I couldn’t recommend this highly enough. It genuinely works and we have just received our letters of administration.

Joe Wilkinson
Trustpilot five star rating
How to do Probate the easy way

My experience of using the YouCanDoProbate programme has been good and certainly it is a well put together one. Firstly it specified the information which would be required by the Probate Office so that I could save time when using the programme. It then went on with what is basically a copy of the Government sheets so that the information could be added. Adding the information required was not as easy as it would seem.This was not a fault of the programme, but rather the way the person who had designed the sheets for the Government had expressed their requirements. On several occasions I was a bit stuck and and sent a message to YCDP requesting assistance. I found that they could not have been more helpful and I would like to thank both Adam and Tom for their assistance. They both answered my queries and made it clear that they would spent as much time as was necessary in doing so, very much a PLUS point in this day and age where many companies cannot get away fast enough. They would contact me either by phone or email, whichever I preferred. Another thing that I particularly liked was that the programme would not allow me to tick the box as finished in error, until each section it was complete. By doing so it meant that the Probate office should not have to return it as incomplete. The current programme is designed to cater for a maximum nett figure of £325,000 before Inheritance tax is payable. There are circumstances where there is only one son or daughter who will inherit and the Government will allow up to a nett figure of £500,000 before Inheritance Tax is due, and I was informed that they are working on an amendment to the programme to allow for this. I can fully recommend this programme which is considerably cheaper than putting it in the hands of a Probate Specialist.

Brian Pullin
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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 an online platform providing legal forms and information. YouCanDoProbate is not a law firm and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA). Our online probate and inheritance tax service is an online platform providing probate and inheritance tax forms and information to allow you to complete inheritance tax returns and apply for probate yourself. Our telephone, email and livechat support provides guidance only, we do not provide bespoke advice, including estate planning or tax advice and it is not a substitute for a lawyer’s advice about complex estate planning or tax issues.
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