What Happens to Your House If You Die Without a Will?

Our general guide to dying without a will covers the rules of intestacy overall. Property deserves its own explanation, because it's where the rules most commonly surprise people — particularly unmarried couples who assume living together for years creates automatic rights that, legally, it does not.

Married or civil partners: usually protected, but not always the whole house

If you are married or in a civil partner and die without a will, your spouse or civil partner is prioritised under the intestacy rules, but exactly what they receive depends on whether you have children and the overall value of the estate. If the estate is small enough, or there are no children, the surviving spouse or civil partner may inherit everything, including the home. If there are children and the estate is larger, the spouse typically receives a fixed statutory amount plus a share of the rest, with the remainder passing to the children — which can, in some circumstances, mean a jointly-owned or solely-owned home needs to be sold or refinanced to release a child's share.

Unmarried partners are not automatically entitled to anything

This is the point that catches the most people out: unmarried partners, however long they have lived together, have no automatic right to inherit under the intestacy rules — not the house, not anything else. If you are cohabiting and not married or in a civil partnership, your partner will inherit nothing from your estate unless you have a valid will leaving them something, or they can bring a specific court claim (see below).

How the property is owned matters enormously

If a property is owned as joint tenants, it passes automatically to the surviving joint owner outside of the will or intestacy rules entirely — this is common for married couples and can also apply to unmarried couples who bought a property together on those terms. If the property is owned as tenants in common, each person's share is treated as part of their separate estate and passes according to their will, or the intestacy rules if there is no will — meaning an unmarried partner's share does not automatically pass to the survivor, and could pass to the deceased's children, parents, or siblings instead, under the intestacy order.

If you are unsure how your property is owned, this is worth checking directly with HM Land Registry or your solicitor, since it fundamentally changes what happens on death.

Can a surviving unmarried partner claim anything?

An unmarried partner who has been financially dependent on, or living with, the deceased may be able to bring a claim under the Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975, asking the court to award reasonable financial provision from the estate. This is a legal claim requiring evidence and, usually, a solicitor — it is not automatic, and it is a considerably harder and more stressful route than simply being named in a will.

The straightforward fix

If you own property with an unmarried partner, or want them to inherit your home specifically, writing a valid will is the only reliable way to guarantee that outcome rather than relying on how the property happens to be legally owned or hoping a court claim would succeed.

This is general information about the law in England and Wales, not personalised legal advice. Rules, thresholds and processes change, and Scotland and Northern Ireland have different rules in places — for anything that depends on your own circumstances, it is worth speaking to a solicitor (ideally one accredited by STEP or Solicitors for the Elderly) or checking GOV.UK and Citizens Advice for current detail.