INTESTACY

When a person dies without having made a will, this is known as 'intestacy' and the deceased person called 'the intestate'.

The law , called the intestacy rules, decide what should happen to your estate. These rules were made to ensure fairness, however, they are not designed to suit everyone's wishes and can result in problems for the family. For example, where a house is the deceased's only asset is there is a surviving spouse and children a ludicrous situation could arise where the spouse may have to sell the house in order to give the children their entitlement .The reason for this is that there are limits on what a spouse is entitled to under the law and this lower than the value of the average house.

People who live together but are not married have no legal entitlement whatsoever.

Couples who are separated but have not yet divorced should note that their spouses will still have rights under the intestacy rules which is not desired.

Under intestacy distant relatives may be entitled to a share of the estate and finding them may take involve expense and delay which can result in others who are waiting for a settlement to suffer hardship in the meantime.