intestacy rules

Geoff_UK

Hi,


My wife's mother's cousin died a couple of weeks ago. She survived her late husband by approx 12 months and they had no children. They were both in their eighties, hence no parents and there are no surviving siblings. They lived in the West Midlands.

We know that there is no will, and the only relatives are my wife's mother and her sister (cousins of the deceased) and a niece from the deceased husband's side of the family.

Things are still quite raw at present, but we need to set things in motion as there was a funeral insurance plan, but not enough to fully pay for the funeral.

My question relates to, I suppose, the family hierarchy in terms of who is responsible and who inherits?

Any advice would be gratefully received

Geoff

unforeseen

Nobody would be legally responsible. If they so wish then either your MIL or her sister or both can take responsibility for arranging funeral etc. and apply for LOA. As it stands, it looks as though your MIL and her sister will share equally

See https://www.gov.uk/inherits-someone-dies-without-will the deceased husband's niece will not figure as she was trumped by his wife surviving him.

As you say that the funeral plan doesn't cover the cost then I assume that there are no other assets of worth. This raises the question of whether it is actually worth getting involved in dealing with this or just walk away completely.

Geoff_UK

thank you for such a quick reply.

I forgot to include in the first post that there is a house to sell - I estimate the total value of the estate to be significantly below the £250K limit.

Forgive my ignorance, but by LOA are you referring to Letter of Administration? We've not really looked into that - I assume that will give legal authority for the surviving cousins to dispose of the estate ?

I tried the gov.uk link, but doesn't seem to take account of this set of variables ?

Regards

da_rule

Your wife's mother and her sister, as issue of the deceaseds aunt/uncle would inherit in equal shares. This is the most remote level permitted under intestacy rules before the estate passes to the crown.

In order for them to inherit the deceased must leave no surviving spouse, children, parents, siblings (or their children or children's children etc) or grand parents. Any surviving aunts/uncles would also be able to inherit.

If letters of administration are required to deal with the estate then a family member can apply.

da_rule

What £250k limit? The limit for inheritance tax is £325k, or more likely £650k in this case assuming the deceased husbands estate passed completely to his wife under a will or intestacy.

PasturesNew

Intestate you only look at the deceased - any family of her husband who pre-deceased her get NOTHING.

Deceased: Any children would get anything.
After that - were either of them married before and have kids?
Then did the deceased have siblings? Those siblings get an equal share - if those siblings have died then do they have children as their share would then pass to their children.

So it only comes to the BLOOD and half-blood of the deceased - nothing to the husband's family at all.

Although they believe that only the two cousins of the deceased are due to inherit - have you double-checked other potential cousins that they knew nothing of? They need to create a full family tree ... looking for people who fell off the chart.

Geoff_UK

forgive me - someone mentioned £250K as being some sort of limit for inheritance tax?

Yorkshireman99

Geoff_UK wrote: »

thank you for such a quick reply.

I forgot to include in the first post that there is a house to sell - I estimate the total value of the estate to be significantly below the £250K limit.

Forgive my ignorance, but by LOA are you referring to Letter of Administration? We've not really looked into that - I assume that will give legal authority for the surviving cousins to dispose of the estate ?

I tried the gov.uk link, but doesn't seem to take account of this set of variables ?

Regards

LOA will be needed in order to sell the house. The shortfall on the funeral costs plus any other debts will come out of the proceeds unless there are other assets such as bank accounts or the house contents. The nearest relative as defined under the intestacy rules can apply.

Savvy_Sue

Geoff_UK wrote: »

forgive me - someone mentioned £250K as being some sort of limit for inheritance tax?

It's not a limit for inheritance tax. It's a limit for how much a partner (marriage or civil) can inherit under the laws of intestacy. Take a look here.

getmore4less

Probably worth checking how the predeceased hubby estate was handled.

who has been dealing with securing the property.

If the hubbys side then could get sensitive