The rule of intestacy applied for the person who dies without a will. The estate of that person is being divided according to the mentioned rule of intestacy if a will is not found. This rule is plays a decisive role upon the reception of estate by the inherent and also upon the selection of the administrator.
The way it functions
The rule of intestacy direct the classes of people are eligible to be entitled as the administrator and the beneficiary. If there are more than one person in the given class then the responsibilities and the shares are to be divided equally. This at times caused problems in the circumstance where the unknown or estranged relatives have to take equal responsibilities. The complication increases by many folds when a person is married and also have children. The problem associated with the same is explained bellow. If the partners are not married then they do not receive any share and reference to the old statutes of marriage are now not inclusive to civil partnership, along with intestacy law.
The rule being passed
The first important thing is to decide the list of asset that is inclusive within the deceased estate. The inclusive asset comprised of both ascertained ownership and physical checks. Each and everything that the person had is possession cannot be considered to be the part of the estate (However a different rule is being followed by HMRC while calculating the tax). The property ownership is way more complex then it seems. With jointly owned property there are different levels of problems and difficulties to be faced.
Entitlement
There are a set of rules of inheritance with the occurrence of death on or after 1st October 2014. An occurrence of death before the mentioned date follows a separate set of rules mentioned in the old statutes. The new rule states that if the deceased person has spouse or a civil partner with no children and not having any remoter issues than rule of inheritance guides the estate to be inherited by the spouse or the civil partner.
If the deceased have a surviving spouse orcivil partner with children/remoter issues than the intestacy rule guides the surviving spouse/civil partner to receive the initial £250,000 and the half of excess over the £250,000. The other half of the excess will be equally divided between the surviving children.
In the year 2014 there were certain changes implemented to the definition of personal chattels. If the personal chattels are of no personal use at the date of date than the personal chattels are considered to solely to be an investment and is being excluded to be an asset. The personal chattels are inherited by the surviving spouse or the civil partner along with the initial £250,000.
Intestacy rule guides the inheritance of estate to the parents, siblings, grandparents, uncles and aunts in the given order in the circumstance when the deceased person have no surviving spouse or children.